North Georgia mountains--do you know the area?
 

Next month we will be renting a cabin for 3 nights on the Tococca River in the national forest between Blairsville, Blue Ridge & Dahlonega. We have one more night open and are thinking about the Lake Rabun Hotel by Lake Rabun. Are these 2 locales so close together that it would be dumb to do this? It is difficult to really tell from the map how far apart these places are, how slow the driving would be, and if the locales are significantly different. If you know the area, I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.

The Lake Rabun Hotel is an experience and would be a nice way to end the trip. The drive between the two isn't that far, but there's lot to do along the way and/or in the general area of both.

A short drive will get you from the Toccoa area to the Lake Rabun Hotel. If you want to explore a bit, go toward Blue Ridge, take highway 76 east past Lake Chatuge, then on toward Clayton and Lakes Burton and Rabun, and just drive around the area. To answer your question directly, the two locations are pretty close. In my opinion, all of the north Georgia mountains are somewhat the same, but the scenery is nice and the lakes are very pretty. A nice town to visit, with a bit of a European hilltop ambience, is Clarkesville. Most of that area of north Georgia is national forest, so you won't find any big cities. But it's one of my favorite parts of the country.

So, am I understanding correctly that these two place are only an hour or so apart and are primarily the same type of mountainous environments? We are primarily looking at this as an outdoors and nature oriented trip, but would be happy to explore some interesting small towns that aren't just schlocky tourist traps. One of our thoughts about Lake Rabun was that if the weather permits we could rent a canoe or boat in the area and explore the lake. Can you suggest a place, other than Lake Raburn, that might be nice to spend one night somewhere between out cabin rental and the Atlanta airport? We are also game for one of the other adjacent states if it is not too far away. We'd have a good day and a half to explore since our flight out isn't until the evening. Thanks.

Your understanding is correct. But if you like just exploring and hiking, you might go up the Chatooga River north of Lake Burton. It's the place where the movie "Deliverance" was filmed.

Or you could wander farther west over around Ellijay and Chatsworth, up to the top of Fort Mountain where there is a really neat B&B with great breakfasts, and spend your night there. The B&B is the Overlook Inn, and I can vouch for it. The management is great (family owned) and the breakfasts are to die for. I think their website is simply overlookinn.com.

From that location in northwest Georgia, you can still get back to Atlanta with no problem. As for schlocky tourist towns, you won't find many in that area. They are mostly just down-home southern hill folks, but certainly tourists drive through and stay there, just as you will do. It never seems overwhelmed by tourists, in my opinion. Good luck.

You can also try Helen, Georgia. This is a small town with an Alpine look. Anna Ruby Falls is just north of Helen (2-3 miles) and is a lovely place to visit. There are lots of cute shops and they have Octoberfest going on all month.

I would avoid Helen - a tacky tourist trap. Also very crowded in October.

Thanks again for the advice, and I will check out the places I'm unfamiliar with. I've read about Helen and it doesn't sound like what I'm looking for. Plus, I've visited Bavaria a couple times so I've seen the real thing.