Atlanta: The Capital of the New South

The Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the United States — a 550,000-square-foot facility in Centennial Olympic Park containing 10 million gallons of water and housing more than 100,000 animals from 700 species. Its Ocean Voyager exhibit is the largest indoor marine habitat in the world — a 6.3-million-gallon tank that is home to four whale sharks (the largest fish on earth, reaching 40 feet in length) and three manta rays, viewable through the world's largest acrylic panel (61 feet wide by 23 feet tall). The aquarium's 20th anniversary in 2025 brought a new bioluminescence exhibit. It draws approximately 1.5 million visitors per year and should be booked in advance. Entry approximately $42 for adults.

The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park is the birthplace, church, and burial site of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — encompassing the Birth Home (the Victorian house on Auburn Avenue where King was born in 1929, free ranger-led tours), Ebenezer Baptist Church (where King and his father both preached, and where his mother was murdered in 1974), the Freedom Hall Complex (King's crypt, where he and Coretta Scott King are buried beside an eternal flame), and the recently opened International World Peace Rose Garden. Entry is free; Birth Home tours require same-day timed tickets from the visitor center.

The Beltline is Atlanta's most transformative urban infrastructure project — a 22-mile loop of multi-use trails built on former railway corridors encircling the city, connecting 45 neighborhoods, with public art installations, parks, and the Eastside Trail's concentration of restaurants and bars. The Eastside Trail (Inman Park to Ponce City Market, approximately 3 miles) is the most activated section — lined with food halls, coffee shops, and restaurants, and the social center of Atlanta's outdoor life on weekends. Ponce City Market (a converted 1920s Sears distribution center) anchors the trail's northern end.

Atlanta's food scene has evolved dramatically over the past decade — from a city known primarily for chain restaurants along suburban corridors into one recognized by the James Beard Foundation, Bon Appétit, and Eater as one of America's most exciting culinary destinations. The drivers: a generation of Atlanta-born and transplanted chefs committed to Southern ingredients and techniques, a vibrant immigrant restaurant community, and a food hall and market culture centered on Ponce City Market and Krog Street Market.

The essential Atlanta food experiences span from elevated Southern cooking (Staplehouse — the most celebrated Atlanta restaurant, a James Beard winner whose profits fund a nonprofit for service industry workers in crisis) to the Buford Highway food corridor (a 10-mile strip in Doraville northeast of Atlanta housing the most diverse concentration of authentic international restaurants in the South — Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Mexican, Ethiopian, and dozens more, all within one road) to the soul food tradition (Mary Mac's Tea Room, in continuous operation since 1945, the most authentic Atlanta soul food institution).

Chick-fil-A was founded in Atlanta (Hapeville, a suburb, in 1946) and College Football Hall of Fame includes the chain's name. The Varsity (a drive-in restaurant open since 1928, across from Georgia Tech, serving hot dogs and onion rings to 30,000 customers per day at peak — the world's largest drive-in restaurant) is the most specifically Atlanta fast food institution.