Atlanta staying

I will go from Hungary, Central Europe to Atlanta next Friday (10 March) for a conference. I will stay in the downtown Hotel Hilton. I have about 1-2 free days to discover Atlanta attractions. What are the must see points in the city? I don%26#39;t plan to rent a car. Instead I plan to use local public transport MARTA. Is it a good idea, or these trains and buses aren%26#39;t enough safe?

Atlanta staying

Since you only have a day or so to explore the city, you will be fine without a car. Taking MARTA is safe most of the time. You might want to avoid it in the very late hours, say after midnight.

Since you are staying downtown, a trip to the new Georgia Aquarium is a must. You can arrange tickets online (www.georgiaaquarium.org, I think) or the concierge at the Hilton might be able to arrange it for you. It%26#39;s located near the Five Points MARTA station next to Centennial Olympic Park.

Two other nearby points of interest are CNN (TV network), which offers a good tour. World of Coke at Underground Atlanta (also near Five Points) is another fun place to visit.

If you enjoy art, our High Museum of ARt just had a major expansion. You can take MARTA north to the Arts Center station and you%26#39;re right there.

If you have specific interests, I can suggest a little more but those I%26#39;ve mentioned will fill the time well. Especially the Aquarium. If you go there during the week, the crowds are not as bad.

Atlanta staying

Thank you a lot for your kind reply!

More exactly I will have the following free periods: Friday (10) afternoon after 3 pm., Saturday till 1 pm. and Wednesday till 2 pm.

A visit to Roswell Historic area is impossible within these timing conditions? And the Stone Mountain Park? How I could reach these attractions by public transport? And which place do you propose for a good breakfast and a typical Southern dinner? And which is a typical cost of a breakfast or a dinner in a not too upscale site?

The downtown Hilton hotel is a good place to stay there?

The MLK Center is worth a visit? And the Grant Park with cyclorama?

No problem!

The closest MARTA station to the Hilton is Peachtree Center.

I think your best bet for visiting the Aquarium is to go early on Wednesday morning. It has only been open a short time, so in order to enjoy it fully, you%26#39;ll want to go when the crowds are not so bad (weekend).

You%26#39;re right about Roswell. With the time frame you have, that would be just about impossible. Same goes for Stone Mountain. They are simply too far away without a car.

You could possibly visit the MLK Jr. Historic Site and Center (they%26#39;re right across the road from each other, historic site run by park service is better of the two) on Saturday morning. You would have to take a bus to get there, however, from a MARTA station. I%26#39;ll look up the options for you.

The Cyclorama/Atlanta Zoo are only accessible by bus. Not sure which one would get you there.

The Hilton downtown is fine. I would, however, advise you to not go out by yourself late at night. If you%26#39;re with others or a group, you%26#39;d be okay. But during the day, you%26#39;ll be fine.

Depending on where you eat, price ranges can vary. An evening meal can run from $15 to $50 depending on where you go. Lunch is not as expensive. Azio is an Italian restaurant in that area that%26#39;s pretty good, prices are reasonable. Ray%26#39;s in the City has good seafood. Dailey%26#39;s is in that area but I haven%26#39;t been there in years. Mick%26#39;s is American cuisine, not that great.

I cannot think of any really good Southern cooking place downtown at this moment. (Pittypat%26#39;s Porch is not worth your time or money.) My first thought is for you to go to Mary Mac%26#39;s Tearoom in Midtown. It%26#39;s a bit of a walk from the Midtown MARTA station but you%26#39;d definitely enjoy the food and the experience. It%26#39;s about $10-15 in price.

Friday afternoon might be a nice time to go to Piedmont Park and enjoy the mild weather we%26#39;ve been having. You can take MARTA to the Midtown station and walk over. Just a block from Piedmont Park on the corner of 10th and Piedmont is the Flying Biscuit Cafe. Definitely a good place to go.

The Flying Biscuit is an excellent suggestion for a great breakfast or lunch. Here is the link to the Flying Biscuit%26#39;s website to give you an idea as to cuisine and price:

http://www.flyingbiscuit.com/

Also, I agree that you should try to see Piedmont Park while you%26#39;re in Atlanta. If you are going to the High Museum (which I generally like but the current exhibit is about quilts, which I do not find terribly interesting) you can reach Piedmont Park from the same MARTA station. Just walk east on 14th Street and you will come to the gates. I would recommend following the path to the right, and circling around the entire park, which is beautiful.

At the corner of 10th Street and Piedmont, where the Flying Bisciut is located, there are several other good restaurants. Nickiemoto%26#39;s has excellent sushi, and Zocalo is great for eclectic southwestern/Mexican cuisine. I will advise that this is a fairly gay area so if that makes you uncomfortable it%26#39;s something to keep in mind.

Also, if you%26#39;re looking for somewhere to eat downtown, I would recommend Mama Ninfa%26#39;s for good Mexican or Cafe Fleur de Lis in the Healy Building for French cuisine.

If you%26#39;re interested in shopping, although it doesn%26#39;t seem you%26#39;ll have much time, you may take MARTA to the Lenox station in Buckhead. At that stop are two fantastic malls - Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza. Both of these malls have some excellent restaurants, and nice cafes to sit outside and have some drinks and watch people.

If your nights are free, you probably will not want to hang around downtown, as it gets pretty empty at night and there is not much to do. I would recommend taking MARTA in to midtown.

Kadio1, I wanted to clarify my earlier post about the Georgia Aquarium. You will want to go on a weekday, NOT the weekend. I think my post may have been unclear about that.

JAtlanta%26#39;s tips are great, by the way. I totally agree.

Thank you both JAtlanta and Peachyswan!

You mentioned, Peachyswan, to avoid being alon on the streets around Atlanta Hilton late night. That means after midnight or so?

I wanted to visit Roswell or Stone Mountain Park to find antebellum (before Civil War) mansions, houses. Are there some of those kind of buildings nearer to the downtown?

I know nothing about this service, but I was thinking about whether Atlanta has tour buses like in a lot of European and larger American cities, so I checked Google and found this site. It may be a good way to get an overview of Atlanta. Again, I%26#39;ve never heard anything about the company so I cannot vouch for its service.

http://www.webguide.com/tours.html

I can%26#39;t honestly think of any antebellum homes you could visit within MARTA distance. Sorry!

I would avoid walking around downtown alone after 11 p.m., earlier if you can. If you end up coming back from a restaurant really late, call a cab to take you back to the Hilton.

By the way, there are some excellent restaurants in Midtown (10 min. from downtown) that you can get to via MARTA if you are looking for more variety than what is available near the Hilton.

Kardio

Most antebellum homes were burned down by General Sherman when he marched through Georgia at the end of the civil war. There are a few that were used as Union headquarters or hospitals. That is why Atlanta is fairly new compared to Europe or even the New England States.

I have a 77 year old chiropractor who calls Sherman a war criminal. He can remember the tales told by his family of what happened, showing it really wasn%26#39;t that long ago.

Thank you all for giving me such interesting informations. Yes, I know that the Union troops burned down the city when they went southward in Georgia. I have heard about Atlanta History Center. Is that worth a visit if I am interested in historic (mostly antebellum) houses?

Which is the weather nowadays up there in Atlanta. At us, here in Hungary, we have still snowcovered streets all around... Where is springtime :-((

I asked when I could return to my downtown hotel at evening because there will be some conference related programs ending at about 10 pm in some other downtown hotels...

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