I never had a yearning to visit Atlanta. I'd flown through it a few times on my way to other cities, but hadn't ever considered it as a travel destination. But when my mother, sister and I were trying to decide where to meet for our annual girls' weekend, we decided, why not try out Atlanta? Flights are cheap from our respective cities, and in February the weather was perfect for a visit.
Atlanta is a sprawling metropolis. There's not really one single area where you can stay and walk to see the attractions, so our first challenge was finding a good location for our hotel. A friend suggested Decatur, a charming suburb. We booked a room at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown Decatur, a nice hotel for less than $200 a night within walking distance of the town square, restaurants, shops and the public transportation system, MARTA.
Decatur to midtown
Decatur is delightful. It has an old-time charm complete with historic brick buildings and lots of the lush greenery you find everywhere in Georgia. Even though it was late February, trees were beginning to flower.
The afternoon of our arrival, we wandered the square, poking into a variety of shops, then had local beers paired with chips and guacamole at a place called Raging Burrito & Taco. After resting and fancying up back at the hotel, we had dinner at the locally recommended Brick Store Pub. The interior is full of wood and cozy corners and the atmosphere was lively. Local beer is the star here, and our dinner was high-end for pub fare. I had pan-seared rainbow trout on a bed of spaghetti squash for $17. My sister tried the pan-seared duck for $22 and our mother went traditional with fish and chips ($13), which were crisped to perfection.
After the meal, we caught an Uber ride to the historic Fox Theatre in midtown Atlanta. There, we saw the Alvin Ailey dance company, which was gorgeous and moving, but it's worth a trip just to see the theater itself. Built in 1929, the Fox has a Moorish design and feels like a strange and beautiful old castle complete with artificial starry sky. The theater hosts a variety of acts and was the site of Prince's final concert.
Midtown is filled with bars, restaurants and swank hotels, and many visitors often stay in the area. We were tired and full and decided to take the MARTA back to the hotel.
Bike tour
The highlight of our trip was a bike tour on Saturday through several Atlanta neighborhoods, hosted by a great little company called Bicycle Tours of Atlanta. We chose "Fall in Love With Atlanta," a three-hour, 8-mile adventure for $65. This jaunt took us through historic neighborhoods including the Atlanta BeltLine, Inman Park (giant old mansions, including the home formerly owned by Coca-Cola's founder), Little Five Points (the arts district), the Old Fourth Ward (Martin Luther King Jr.'s childhood home is here) and Cabbagetown (a funky area with murals and condos built in the glorious brick ruins of an old cotton mill). We also biked through the historic Oakland Cemetery, rode by the Jimmy Carter Center and the King Historic District, stopped at a bakery for treats, learned fun facts about the city, and held a photo shoot on the overpass looking toward downtown, where several iconic scenes of "The Walking Dead" were filmed.
Our guides kept us safe, told great stories and had electric bike options for cyclists not quite ready for some of the city's hills. It was a fun way to see neighborhoods and homes we would've missed by car, and it actually did make me fall in love with Atlanta.
