We will be attending a wedding in Atlanta GA and staying at the Emory Inn on Clifton Ave. in Decatur. Wedding reception is In the Old Courthouse in Decatur.
We were wondering if we need to rent a car or is access to the Atlanta sights easy from our hotel location. Public transport seems pretty good but have not really been able to determine proximity to our location.
Thanks in advance....

Clifton Road, perhaps?

Can't advise you about bus transport that may be available, though you are not close to a MARTA (metro) line [though the reception sits over a MARTA station]. I'd rent a car. Atlanta is for drivers and the sites you might wish to visit are scattered.

Hope you enjoy your visit.

The Emory Inn is on Clifton Rd., adjacent to the Emory campus. The courthouse is in downtown Decatur a few miles away. You'd have to take a bus to get there (maybe more than one), because there is no MARTA station near the Emory campus. I would rent a car.

I lived just outside Atlanta for almost 30 years (I just moved to Boise 1 1/2 yrs ago) I am VERY FAMILIAR with MARTA and the bus system ... So I am confident when I tell you to rent a car.

Atlanta is very spread out and while MARTA keeps raising its prices, they keep reducing their routes. Atlanta is a great big metropolitan city and some buses only come once an hour (often late!) I have talked to many a bewildered tourist while I lived there (the people coming from Europe especially hated the transportation system) - Geesh, even the locals were bewildered!

Save yourself a headache! Rent a car.

Thanks,
don't like the answers but love that I got them.
We are friends of the family and want to enjoy a first visit to the city as well as the wedding.....car it is!
You really have to love this Website.

I actually found public transportation both reasonably timely and easy to use the time I visited Atlanta not long ago.

It looks like you actually can get to the Old Decatur Courthouse by public transportation if you want to. The easiest would probably be to take the #6 bus south from Emory University to the Inman Park/Reynoldstown MARTA light rail station, then the light rail East-West line going east to the Decatur stop.

It might not hurt to check MARTA's website for schedules on the day you want to travel.

That's a weird combo. I'm attending a wedding later this year with wedding and reception both at the Emory Conference Center. Yay!

Yes, a car is the best idea. MARTA is having funding problems and is cutting routes. A car will be much nicer for getting to the reception than a bus.

WHILE you are at the Decatur square (courthouse) considering hopping on the MARTA train if you want to do some sightseeing after the reception. The train system is easy to figure out. The bus option = less so.

Enjoy!

I can't think of a hotter city to wait for a bus. (Hot meaning steaming temp not meaning hip, or trendy.) Unless it is a nice spring day I would get a car. That being said I hate driving in Atlanta. Emory is surrounded by a nice residental neighborhood, but is not known to be a tourist destinition in itself.

While Emory University is not a tourist destination, it does have a nice small museum on campus, the Michael C. Carlos Museum. It has a worthy collection of old Central American, South American, Egyptian, Greek, African, and Asian sculpture and artifacts. Enjoyed this very much on my visit.