Help with Atlanta Trip

[PrincessSuzanne]

I want to take a Thursday thru Saturday and go to Atlanta to go to the New World of Coke, The Georgia Aquarium, and the Atlanta Zoo, possibly some other venues as well, time permitting. We were supposed to do this back in Aug for DH's birthday, but my mom passed away earlier that week, so needless to say we haven't had a chance to go.

My question here is where would you stay? I am trying to choose between the Westin Peachtree Plaza, the Ritz Carlton-Atlanta Downtown, or the Four Seasons. They each have a package/deal that would fit my budget, but I have never stayed at any of them (couldn't afford to in my younger days) before and have no clue what they look like except for the pictures on their sites. I want a place where I can feel safe (as if you can in Downtown Atlanta).

Any other suggestions would also be greatly appreciated.

Suzanne

 

[Bearvet]

We have stayed twice at the Westin Peachtree and loved it - great location and great hotel. There is a revolving restaurant on the top floor which is a lot of fun. If you don't want to eat there, you can still ride the glass elevator to the observation deck by showing your room key (others have to pay). The beds were the most comfortable I've ever slept on! I stayed there alone with my kids and felt perfectly safe.

I also recommend the CNN tour - very interesting and the CNN Center has a great food court/restaurants.

We were there for Tae Kwon Do tournaments both times and enjoyed our time there. We took one day to go to Stone Mountain which was fun (but crowded - we were there over July 4). World of Coke was still in its old location when we went, but we did go to the aquarium and really liked it.

Can't comment about the other hotels though, but we loved the Westin. HTH

 

[lauraDar]

Can't help you with hotels, but we went to GA Aquarium last September and really enjoyed it. You literally could spend a day in there! Its like a hub and spoke where you go in and out of each exhibit back into the central area. There is one closer to us in Chattanooga, you take an escalator to the top then wind your way down through the exhibits, but you feel pressured to move through it fast.

 

[Shmily1]

If you get a chance, don't forget to visit the Varsity!! It's an icon and a great place to go!!! You can see it on Food Networks show Drive-ins, Diners, and Dives. The man they feature in that show just died a couple months ago.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

I have lived in the Atlanta area for the past 20 years, and I wouldn't stay downtown.

It's not a walking city, and the MARTA (public transportation) does not bring you close to any of our tourist destinations.

I would stay at the Evergreen Resort in Stone Mountain Park or the Stone Mountain Inn in Stone Mountain Park (very southern), and rent a car and drive over to the Aquarium and World of Coke. You can see both in one day with no problem.

Don't go to Underground Atlanta, it's an unsafe tourist trap. Really, seriously avoid it.

The High Museum is ok, well, ok if you've never been to the Guggenheim or the Louvre. If you've ever been to any A list museums, you can skip the High.

The Zoo is in Grant Park and is nowhere near the other things (like, you can't walk to it). Make sure you go early in the morning when it first opens because it SMELLS TERRIBLE in Atlanta's afternoon summer heat and all the animals are sleeping in the hot weather.

Stone Mountain Park is becoming quite a resort in its own right, there's enough to do in the park itself for a few days of fun...

 

[Tink2000]

We are also planning a trip to Atlanta. We plan to go in Feb. We will be attending the King Tut exhibit. Has anyone been do you have any info? Any info on Atlanta would be great.

 

[crazelion]

Do not take Marta unless use taking public transportation. It is confusing as h@ll to figure out the trains to get where is going.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

We are also planning a trip to Atlanta. We plan to go in Feb. We will be attending the King Tut exhibit. Has anyone been do you have any info? Any info on Atlanta would be great.

The local news show here had a guy walking through it one morning when it first opened; it looked pretty cool but I don't know how extensive it is.

Another tip; the traffic here is insanely bad from 6:30 am to 9:30 am, and from 4:30 to 7 pm. Avoid being on the highways around those times, or you'll be sitting in traffic unless you know all the sneaky back ways to get around, and as a tourist, you won't.

Some of the best things about Atlanta are the many outlet places to shop, google Georgia Premium Outlets and Tanger outlets, some *incredible* deals on high end stuff like coach, banana republic, bcbg max azria...

I will second that Marta is useless, and 5 points station is gross (it's the hub where the north south and east west lines meet). Atlanta is a driving city, big time.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

If you get a chance, don't forget to visit the Varsity!! It's an icon and a great place to go!!! You can see it on Food Networks show Drive-ins, Diners, and Dives. The man they feature in that show just died a couple months ago.

Aww...

I was just watching a show last night called, Man v Food and they featured Glady's Knights restaurant. It is southern food for sure. I think it was called "Chicken and Waffles", maybe?

 

[lovebuzz]

The Ritz Carlton is in Buckhead. I would stay there. Big comfy beds and the service can't be beat. I would also feel comfortable walking around there. It is across from Lenox mall and Phipps plaza if you want to shop and it is in walking distance to Maggiano's if you are hungry. If you go on the weekend Maggiano's takes reservations.

 

[Tanuki]

There's a Ritz Carlton Downtown too (I think).

 

[kdudley3]

The Ritz Carlton is in Buckhead. I would stay there. Big comfy beds and the service can't be beat. I would also feel comfortable walking around there. It is across from Lenox mall and Phipps plaza if you want to shop and it is in walking distance to Maggiano's if you are hungry. If you go on the weekend Maggiano's takes reservations.

I wouldn't recommend it. My brothers work down there and even Buckhead is unsafe. It used to be really cool, but now all of Atlanta is bad. I will say that the aquarium is great, but I wouldn't be there alone.

My advice...go out during the day...not at night.

 

[mchames]

These "I'm planning a visit to Atlanta..." threads always frustrate me! I always find them filled with unneccessary fearmongering. Don't get me wrong, Atlanta is a large city and like any large city, it has it's crime problems and you need to be aware of your surroundings. That being said. it is not so unsafe here, that you have to stay in a hotel 20-30 miles away and lock yourself in at night! Ugh.

The three hotels you mentioned are all fine and relatively convenient to the places you wish to visit. I do reccommend using a car because public transportation in Atlanta is not really dependable. Atlanta traffic is a bear though, and you do need to plan ahead.

There are plenty of families that live inside the city limits of Atlanta and go to the aquarium, walk in Piedmont Park and shop in Buckhead regulary. My family is one of them.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

These "I'm planning a visit to Atlanta..." threads always frustrate me! I always find them filled with unneccessary fearmongering. Don't get me wrong, Atlanta is a large city and like any large city, it has it's crime problems and you need to be aware of your surroundings. That being said. it is not so unsafe here, that you have to stay in a hotel 20-30 miles away and lock yourself in at night! Ugh.

The three hotels you mentioned are all fine and relatively convenient to the places you wish to visit. I do reccommend using a car because public transportation in Atlanta is not really dependable. Atlanta traffic is a bear though, and you do need to plan ahead.

There are plenty of families that live inside the city limits of Atlanta and go to the aquarium, walk in Piedmont Park and shop in Buckhead regulary. My family is one of them.

Buckhead at night is fine; the ritz carlton in buckhead, I agree, it's nice, we've had some corporate christmas parties there. The worst thing that's going to happen to you in buckhead is that your car will get broken into, that happens a lot-people are leaving their gps's in the car and zap, gone. Unless you're a hooker or looking for drugs, there have been some nasty incidents involving those elements in Buckhead and Midtown. But normal people should be fine.

Having lived both OTP and ITP (inside the perimeter and outside the perimeter) there's more crime ITP. And that's not just my opinion, I work for a local paper and we publish the police logs. Yeah, there are places OTP that have crime issues, but it's worse ITP.

I think going to the aquarium by yourself in the daytime is fine, I had an annual pass and went there with my kids probably about a dozen times, never felt unsafe. Ripped off by the 12 dollar parking fee, yes. Although I don't think Piedmont Park is anything special and I've been approached by panhandlers when I was sitting on the lawn .

There are some cities that are wonderful to stroll around in the evening in (hellooo Seattle, South Beach, etc). Atlanta isn't one of them.

 

[IDoDis]

The Peachtree Plaza is within walking distance to the places you mentioned (aside from the Zoo). You can also walk to CNN and take a tour there, and hop on bus or drive for a 1 1/2 miles to the Martin Luther King Jr. historical site where the tours are free. You can tour the home he grew up in, visit the Ebenezer Baptist Church, visit his neighborhood firestation, as well as the MLK museum that is there. It is within walking distance but the area you'd have to walk through to get there looked pretty dangerous to me.

Downtown in any large city is dangerous, and Atlanta is no different. I saw homeless people walking around and some asked us for money, etc... But for the most part, it was fine.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Thank you for al your help. I thik I am leaning towards the Westin. We were at the GA Dome Saturday night for the Monster Jam and had to pass both the Ritz-Downtown and the Westin Peachtree and the Westin did look like it was in walking distance to the WoC and the Aquarium.

We will have our own car, because we only live 1.5 hours south of downtown, but the streets can be confusing to me and I have a hard time reading maps and telling DH where to turn and where not to, I get confused by all the one way streets. it looks like they hvae really cleaned up the area since I was there last in that area, probably 4-5 years ago. I think it is safe, I just didn't want to stay in a cheesy hotel, my standards are kinda high from many stays at WDW. I wanted to be able to take a cab if need be, or walk which I can't do alot of with my bad knee.

I don't want to stay as far off as Buckhead if at all possible and have always wanted to stay at the Westin.

Thanks for the suggestion to try Varsity, I saw it Saturday night and told Dh we needed to eat there, and we plan on eating at the Hard Rock, but not sure what else. We aren't fancy people when it comes to food.

Nah, Underground is nothing, they have nothing that interests me there. I wouldn't bother with MARTA, it is too confusing for me and I haven't ridden it since I was probably 15. I am not going to shop, and I have been to the Premium outlets and Tanger outlets. Stone Mtn is really of no interest to me either.

as I said, I was supposed to take DH to WoC for his birthday, but we didn't make it. I really want to see the Aquarium and the Titanic exhibit and the WoC, and the zoo. You know Coke was actually created right here in Columbus, Ga, not Atlanta as they tell it. I have been to the Pemberton house where it was created (sorry just wanted to throw that fact in there since it is always told wrong). I have thought about also going to CNN and the Fernbank, just have to see how times works for us.

Tink2000, I saw sighs for the King Tut exibit, but never did find much about it. I know several of the hotesl I have mentioned have specials that include tickets to the event and great rates, but that is all I have seen.

We are looking at going in March, so we don't have to be in the heat.

I definitely agree that Atlanta is no place to wander around in at night, but I wouldn't do that anyway. I did with a couple of my cousins and friends and NEVER again and they have cleaned up the area alot since then.

Thank you all again and if anyone can offer any more info, please do. I need to know a few more places to eat, too.

Suzanne