In recent years, Atlanta has become a major economic and cultural center and an important hub of air traffic. Internationally famed businesses, including Coca-Cola and CNN, have their headquarters here. Don’t expect to find a romantic southern city, but rather a large and vibrant American city with southern charm and plenty of things to see and do. The top tourist attractions in Atlanta range from the arts to sports and include historic sites, museums, and gardens.
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Top Tourist Attractions In Atlanta
Georgia Aquarium
One of the top things to do in Atlanta with kids, the Georgia Aquarium features a wide variety of marine life and some very interesting and interactive activities for visitors. The world’s largest aquarium, it houses more than 100,000 aquatic creatures, including the largest in the ocean – whale sharks. You can see rare albino alligators and watch as trainers interact with California sea lions.
One unique option offered by the Georgia Aquarium is the opportunity to dive or snorkel in the tank with the sharks. To participate in the dive program, visitors must have SCUBA diving certification. For those not looking to get wet, the aquarium also has an acrylic tunnel to walk through and view fish swimming on all sides.
Piedmont Park
This park in the Northeastern Atlanta near Midtown began life as an out-of-the-city gentleman’s farm owned by a doctor named Benjamin Walker. It went through a series of owners, ultimately ending up the property of the Piedmont Exposition Company. The park has had several architects of importance working on different parts, most notably Olmstead of Central Park fame, who created many pathways still in use today. It also includes a large basketball complex, and was home of Atlanta’s first team in the early twentieth century. A large fishing lake, playscape, and large lawn that is host to many concerts are just a few of the other offerings here
Atlanta Botanical Garden
This garden sits adjacent to Piedmont Park, and has a number of different sections, each highlighting a different region, plant, or animal type. These include a Japanese garden, a rose garden, woodland areas and a children’s garden. One of the main highlights of the botanical garden is the indoor Fuqua Conservatory which hosts a range of tropical, desert and subtropical plants and animals.
The nation’s largest orchid collection, tropical birds, turtles and poison dart frogs. For those who are not afraid of heights, the woodland park has a large canopy walk that allows guests to explore the treetops. The botanical garden often hosts art exhibits and other charity events. The most notable of these was a display of the glass work of Dale Chihuly in 2004, and brought half a million guests to the gardens.
High Museum of Art
At the Woodruff Arts Center is one of the leading art museums in the region, with a comprehensive collection traversing periods and places, from Italian Medieval painting to contemporary sculpture. As soon as you arrive you’ll be confronted by Rodin’s The Shade on the Lawn.
This was a gift from the French government following an air disaster at Orly Airport in 1962 that claimed the lives of 106 Atlanta arts patrons visiting Paris on a trip sponsored by this museum. There are outstanding works by Monet, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Chuck Close and Martin Johnson Heade, as well as one of the most complete surveys of American photography to be found anywhere.
And while the museum’s collection is robust, what makes the High Museum of Art unmissable is its superb temporary exhibitions.
Center for Civil and Human Rights
Atlanta’s place in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s is marked by a beautifully conceived interpretation center/museum that places this epic struggle into the greater worldwide movement for human rights. The Center for Civil and Human Rights explores the history of Jim Crow laws with actual television newscasts, speeches, photos, videos, personal accounts, and interactive experiences that bring visitors into the struggle. Portraits and stories of their work honor men and women who lost their lives in the struggle.
The Human Rights Movement gallery carries the story into the broader picture of human rights worldwide: Apartheid in South Africa, women’s rights, the rights of children and others, inspiring visitors to think about the rights of humans everywhere.
The Fox Theatre
The Fox Theatre was built in the 1920s as the Yaarab Temple Shrine Mosque, with an extremely posh Arabian-themed design. It has had a varied history, with problems during the Great Depression, but has always been a much loved landmark building since its construction. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The interior of the theater has seen considerable restoration work over the years in an attempt to maintain its original elegance, including the repair and restoration of the furniture collection to preserve its 1929 appearance. This is one of the top tourist attractions in Atlanta you should know for your trip.
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