Hotlanta: Why Resurgent Atlanta Makes A Great Weekend Escape

Transcription

1 Hotlanta: Why Resurgent Atlanta Makes A Great Weekend Escape Welcome back to Great Urban Weekend Escapes. This time we are headed South. Its unofficial nickname is Hotlanta, referring to both the climate and growing stature as a leisure destination, and that has never been truer than it is right now. Last year Atlanta saw over $1.5 billion in major tourism infrastructure improvements, including two notable brand new museums and those were just icing on an already sweet cake. The food scene is exploding, the city is rediscovering its joy of outdoor recreation, and it couldn t be any easier to get to with the busiest airport in the country (first in number of passengers, second in flights). For these reasons, today s Atlanta makes for a perfect Great Urban Weekend Escape. For new readers, I ll very briefly recap the logic behind this recurring feature. All previous Great Urban Weekend Escapes are now consolidated in one spot for your convenience, along with an explanation of the concept in much greater detail. If you want to learn more about the criteria, or find other great city trips, click here. Want to see Whale Sharks? The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta is the only place in the Western Hemisphere that has them in the world s biggest tank. 2014, Gene Phillips/ AtlantaPhotos.com The concept is simple: As someone who travels a great deal and is always short on time, I ve become a big fan of more manageable cities, those perfect for weekend or long weekend escapes. My rules for what makes a city a great weekend choice include at least one standout attraction, something people will travel to see, like the Alamo. It must also have unique or diverse cuisine. Natural attractions, great lodging, notable cultural offerings and/or museums, and interesting shopping are all big pluses. I ve said this before: If you live in Atlanta, please take your selection as a compliment. I m not suggesting your hometown is only worth a couple of days I happily live in a town of less than 5,000 souls with two restaurants and no major attractions. I m saying your city is user friendly enough to be enjoyed in a weekend hopefully the first of many weekend visits.

2 The recently opened Center for Civil and Human Rights is an important museum and great addition to Atlanta s Downtown. Photo: Center for Civil and Human Rights The two new major attractions are museums, and they couldn t be more different expect that they are just a short walk apart, in the middle of Downtown, on a virtual campus that is already home to the world s largest aquarium and largest soda museum the World of Coca Cola. I can t call the latter a must see though it may appeal to those who love soda, and it concludes with a tasting room featuring more than 100 different carbonated beverages from around the world, many of which you may never taste (or want to taste) again. On the other hand, the former is a best inclass, stunning family friendly attraction, divided into four main themed walk through sections, plus a large live dolphin show and elaborate 4D film. With over 10 million gallons of water exhibits and a Guinness World Record for displaying the most aquatic life of any institution, there are lots of big draws here, but the biggest are the whale sharks, the only ones outside of Asia in captivity. There are different ways to measure aquariums, and by most standards this is the world s largest, and there is no dispute about the whale shark tank, by far the biggest single aquarium display on earth at 6.3 million gallons as large as the next three contenders combined. For aquarium fans it doesn t get any better. Joining these clustered Downtown attractions, which also include CNN headquarters and its popular studio tour, are the newcomers, both of which just opened in the past year. The Center for Civil and Human Rights is a state of the art facility on land donated by the Coca Cola company. It spans two floors and is both heavily interactive and extremely moving. For instance, one standout exhibit highlights the non violence training protesters went through before the restaurant sit ins across the South, where they were subjected to taunts, threats, screaming in their ears and actual violence. Visitors sit on stools at a simulated counter, put on surround sound headphones, and place their hands on the counter. An eerily sophisticated system recreates bystanders threatening violence in such a way that they seem to be breathing down your neck, giving just a small and disturbing glimpse of what protesters endured. The Center immediately joins the ranks of the standout civil rights museums in Memphis and Birmingham, but the big difference here is the dual focus on Human Rights. This global pursuit adds figures like Gandhi to the heroic roster alongside Martin Luther King, and worldwide issues like human trafficking and genocide to those of domestic racial persecution. The museum is not to be missed.

3 In this vein, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site is another top Atlanta attraction. It consists of three parts: a small but compelling museum in the visitors center; King s house; and the I Have a Dream World Rose Peace Garden, one of six such peace gardens worldwide. While the Historic Site is not Downtown, it is linked to the Center for Civil and Human Rights by Atlanta s new Streetcar, which opened on New Year s Eve and is free through the end of the year. The College Football Hall of Fame is another new Downtown addition within the past year. 2014, Gene Phillips/ AtlantaPhotos.com A bit more lighthearted is the new and heavily interactive College Football Hall of Fame and Chick Fil A Fan Experience. The Hall of Fame relocated from South Bend, IN to Atlanta in search of a bigger, better facility and they got just that. Upon entering, visitors get a pass hung around their neck with an RFID chip. They visit a welcome console and select their favorite team every college at any level that fields a football team is represented, not just the biggies. After this, most displays in the museum recognize the pass and welcome visitors with a selection of highlights custom tailored to their fandom. There are various interactive games, displays, even the chance to sit in an ESPN booth and film your own pregame segment, seated alongside footage of actual anchors from an actual game of your choice. Anything like this video that you create can easily be ed from terminals to your own account. I don t even follow college football and I was extremely impressed with the hands on, fun loving museum, which also includes a very impressive movie on the ultra high definition screen in the GameDay Theater. There s a physical element too, including the chance to kick actual field goals or run patterns and catch passes. Lots of cities have great museums, but Atlanta s are especially user friendly as every one of the above mentioned attractions (besides the King Historic Site) is within easy walking distance of each other and most downtown hotels. They are all also on the Atlanta CityPass. CityPass is a company that offers discounted combined attraction passes for major cities across the U.S. and Canada, and I ve used them before, but nowhere is it as much of a must. It not only combines the marquee attractions at a savings, but in some cases, like the aquarium, offers much faster preferred admission. It also includes the city s zoo and natural history museum (CityPass gave me one for free).

4 A bike tour of the city is a great way to see the myriad parks and paths that are an integral part of Atlanta, like Piedmont Park in Midtown. 2014, James Duckworth/ AtlantaPhotos.com Right now these major attractions are dominating the Atlanta visitor scene, but there is a lot more going on. One notable change is the Atlanta Beltline, a huge project that is slowly but surely turning into a fully connected 33 mile trail corridor linking some 45 different neighborhoods and including greenspace, parks and public art. It s a long term project being done in stages and not slated for completion until 2030, but the first four trail sections and half a dozen new or renovated parks are already completed and being heavily used. I was shocked for a dense, warm weather city how many people were out walking, biking and running the trails, which also pass lots of great new restaurants and shops. Property values along the way have already shot up, and the Beltline is nothing less than transformative. The 2 ¼ mile East Side Trail was the first to open and has been wildly popular. I got the chance to see the trails and learn a lot about Atlanta s historic neighborhoods on a group spin through the city with Bicycle Tours of Atlanta. In general I have become a big fan of walking and cycling tours as way to explore unfamiliar cities, from New Orleans to Buenos Aires, and while a pretty vast metropolis, Atlanta proved surprisingly perfect for this well run 3 hour tour. It was also a good way to burn off some of the city s delicious food. Foodies are living it up in Atlanta right now, between a wealth of long time Southern classics and lots of buzzy, chef driven trendier concepts. Locals are probably spoiled with the wealth of Southern and soul food but for visitors it is a must, and the queen is Mary Mac s Tea Room, so important that in 2011 the Georgia House of Representatives officially declared the restaurant to be Atlanta s Dining Room. For more than seven decades Mary Mac s has served up traditional Southern fare like fried chicken, collard greens, sweet potato soufflé, Brunswick stew, ribs, pork chops, oysters and catfish. Paschal s is another old time Southern cooking classic, while newcomer Southern Art & Bourbon Bar in the InterContinetal Hotel in Buckhead has made quite a splash. It offers a gourmet modern take on classics, with a huge bourbon library and tasting menu of artisanal Country style hams.

5 Mary Mac s Tea Room has been serving up quintessentially classic Southern fare to Atlantans for more than 7 decades. It lasts because it s great! There is a lot going on with new chefs, but what really stand out are two major new market concepts, both variants on the very successful formula of places like New York s Chelsea Market and San Francisco s Ferry Terminal Marketplace, with multiple food stalls, many by already hot Atlanta chefs. One is Ponce City Market, a massive residential, retail and food space being renovated from a former Sears Roebuck warehouse and train terminal, preserving a lot of the charming architecture and fixtures. I did a hardhat tour and it is very impressive. When it opens later this summer it will feature more casual offerings from James Beard Award winning chefs like Anne Quatrano, Linton Hopkins and Sean Brock. But already open and bustling is the Krog Street Market, which debuted in November in a former 125 year old stove factory in the historic Inman Park neighborhood. It has a mix of stands and full service sit down eateries featuring everything from a fresh Southern take on house made charcuterie to a TexMex spot by star chef Ford Fry. There is also plenty to drink, with a central bar featuring many local craft beers something Atlanta may not be nationally known for, but has a ton of. With a population over 5 million in the greater metropolitan area, I could go on for pages about all the things to see, do, buy and eat in Atlanta. But for the weekend getaway, the key is that it is easy to get to, has a user friendly core of top attractions, and plenty to eat and drink. Lodging is a bit trickier for the luxury crowd, since the best hotels and there are great ones are out in shopping centric Buckhead, a suburb of sorts, while the tourism action is Downtown. In Buckhead, living is easy, and top picks are the Ritz Carlton, InterContinental, St, Regis and Mandarin Oriental one of just six in the country. The Four Seasons is in Midtown, between Buckhead and Downtown, closer to the latter, along with a Loews. Downtown has more mid market brands, business and large convention oriented hotels, and the luxe highlight is another Ritz Carlton, followed by the Westin Peachtree Plaza, Omni at CNN headquarters, and the Hyatt Regency, long a downtown centerpiece. The Hyatt doesn t look old, but was considered an engineering and architectural marvel when it opened, with a 22 story lobby atrium. It recently got a massive $65 million facelift, and has a club floor, but the highlight was the 2014 reopening of Polaris. This iconic rotating rooftop restaurant and bar thrived as a hot spot in the Seventies Jim Morrison came here to drink but had been shuttered for a decade. Its reopening is symbolic of all the new improvements Hotlanta offers.

6