Atlanta, Georgia

From Olympics and sports, to a tour of Atlanta's historical landmarks, your visit will allow you to experience how Atlanta connects residents and visitors alike to the culture and history of the new South. For the business minded traveler, you can tour one of the banking centers of the world, as Atlanta is the headquarters for 13 Fortune 500 companies. In addition, Atlanta is home to some of the most prestigious universities, theaters, and museums in the nation. Your time spent in Atlanta will be a memorable one as you venture from Downtown to attractions outside the city.

Centennial Olympic Park

The Visitors Center at Centennial Olympic Park is a good place to start any visit to Atlanta. The site of the tragic Olympic bombing in 1996, the park now features a memorial, ringed fountains whose displays are choreographed to music, and a column of flags honoring past Olympic hosts. Across the street stands the state-of-the-art Georgia Dome, home of the Falcons and Super Bowl XXXIV, as well as Philips Arena, where basketball's Atlanta Hawks and hockey's Atlanta Thrashers play their home contests. Facing these two imposing structures is yet another: the CNN Center, headquarters to Ted Turner's media empire. Enjoy a 45-minute behind-the-scenes tour, which can be booked from the website. From CNN, walk along Marietta Street east to Peachtree, go south a few blocks to Capitol Avenue, then follow it west to the corner of Capitol and Washington, for a 45-minute guided tour of the State Capitol. Built in 1889, the 75-foot golden dome crowns one of the most beautiful government buildings in the Southeast. Before you leave the area check out the Peachtree Center where you can grab a bite to eat at Azio-Downtown.

World of Coca-Cola Museum

Atlanta-based soft drink giant Coca-Cola is never really out of sight in the city, and nowhere is that more true than at the interactive World of Coca-Cola Museum. Just beyond Centennial Olympic Park is Underground Atlanta, an enclosed 12-acre facility that now boasts over 100 stores and restaurants. While you shop, keep an eye out for the marker that denotes the location of the original last stop of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, from which the city got its original name: Terminus. Between the World of Coca-Cola and Underground Atlanta is Ted's Montana Grill, a great place for American fare. In addition, the Georgia Aquarium and Museum of Design Atlanta are both located close by and definitely worth a visit. One word of caution: Downtown Atlanta is primarily a business district, and the area largely shuts down after dark. While not explicitly dangerous, downtown at night is not the safest place to be.

Historic Virginia Highland

This 1900s vintage district is home to many galleries and specialty shops. Stroll south along Highland Avenue and enjoy a half-mile stretch of one of Atlanta's most charming residential districts, which features a diverse showing of late 19th and early 20th century architecture. As you approach Virginia Avenue and the neighborhood's namesake intersection, browse an array of boutiques featuring everything from folk art to high fashion. Here you will also find George's Restaurant & Bar, a great place to stop in for lunch, dinner, or a drink. Next, the Jimmy Carter Center features 30 acres of gardens and lakes, a commanding view of the downtown skyline, and more than 27 million pages of documents, correspondence and photos from the Carter administration. Backtracking along Highland to Ponce de Leon, turn right and head east into one of Atlanta's loftiest zip codes. Your final stop is the Fernbank Museum of Natural History at 156 Heaton Park, just half a block off Ponce. This unique building is set on 65 acres of wooded grounds and rolling lawns, and also houses a planetarium, science center and IMAX theater. Also nearby in Druid Hills is Emory University, one of the top ten universities in the nation. While in the area you can also relax at one of the many parks around the university.

Stone Mountain

Just 16 miles from downtown, Georgia's Stone Mountain State Park offers a broad range of activities for all ages. Stone Mountain is a great place for groups to get away and stay at the Stone Mountain Family Park Campground. The park centers around a 1,685 foot high granite boulder which can be accessed via a short gondola ride up the steep north face, or by a hearty mile and a half climb up the gently sloping east side. Be sure to get a look at the world's largest bas-relief sculpture, which portrays Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and President Jefferson Davis. More than 3,000 acres of natural woodland, lakes, fields, and trails provide opportunities for hiking, biking, or just communing with nature. Also, the Stone Mountain Golf Course is located inside the park. The Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad departs regularly on treks around the base of the mountain, making various stops on its breathtaking half hour run. Stone Mountain is easily-accessible by public transportation. Catch an East Line MARTA train to the Indian Trail station, from which point bus service will deliver you directly to the park. In addition, you can visit the Stone Mountain Antique Car and Treasure Museum. This museum is great for the whole family and features unique collections of historic toys and other memorabilia.

As you tour Atlanta you can catch a breath taking sunset via plane, hot air balloon, or as you roam around on your own. Wherever you end up in Atlanta you will be among southern hospitality and historic sites.

Historical Tours

Underground Atlanta ( +1 404 523 2311/ http://www.underground-atlanta.com/ )

Bus & Car Tours

Atlanta Tours ( +1 888 811 9237,+1 770 662 3827; http://www.atlantatours.us/?gclid=CMK_g9y0qpYCFQ89awodQGHRzQ/ ) American Sightseeing Atlanta ( +1 404 233 9140; http://www.americansightseeingatl.com/ )

Flight Tours

Air Atlanta Helicopters ( +1 770 458 7771; http://www.airatlantahelicopters.com/ ) North Atlanta Executive Air Service ( +1 770 844 8687; http://www.atlantaheli.com/Services.htm/ )

Ballooning Adventures

Magic Carpet Ride ( +1 770 436 9960/ http://www.magicballooning.com/ )

Visitors to Atlanta often ask about a certain local curiosity. Even though just about every other street, plaza, or business establishment is dubbed "Peachtree," there doesn't seem to be a single peach tree in the entire city. The reason for this absence, simply enough, is that peach trees are not indigenous to the area. But the phenomenon of the peachtree naming mania stems from a confusion that dates back 200 years.

In 1782, military scouts moving west through Georgia discovered a small Cherokee village on the banks of the Chattahoochee River named, as the explorers understood it, Standing Peachtree. Historians, however, speculate that since it was unlikely that the natives had named their village after a variety of vegetation they had almost certainly never seen, the settlement's name came from the pitch tree, a type of evergreen found throughout the region. Nevertheless, by 1812, the new American military had established Fort Peachtree on the site of the Cherokee village, establishing a tradition of misnomerism that would continue for hundreds of years.

The small outpost in northwest Georgia saw limited action in the War of 1812, but by the early 1820s, a growing influx of white settlers gave rise to conflict with the indigenous population. The peace was largely kept by the willingness of the Cherokee and Creek tribes to agree to a long series of ever more disagreeable treaties, which granted more and more land to the white settlers. The final blow was struck in 1837, when federal forces rounded up over 17,000 Cherokee and Creek Indians, and began a forced westward march that was to stretch over some 800 miles into what is now Oklahoma. More than 4,000 perished along the way, which later came to be known as the "Trail of Tears."

With the Indian situation no longer a concern, construction of the new Western & Atlantic Railroad proceeded. Late in 1837, a town was founded near the site of Fort Peachtree that would serve as the southern terminus of this new railway. The town was, rather poetically, named Terminus.

It grew rapidly, as rail workers, pioneers and traders established homes and businesses, which, in 1843, was renamed Marthasville. In 1845, the city was renamed Atlanta, and in 1848, Atlanta elected Moses W. Formwalt as its first mayor. As more track was laid throughout the South, Atlanta became connected to almost every major port and trade center, making it a vital link between Dixie and the markets of the North.

If the boomtown had been important to the South's economic well-being before, it became absolutely critical when war broke out. During the summer of 1864, 100,000 federal troops under General William Tecumseh Sherman pushed back Confederate defenders through north Georgia, culminating in the Battle of Atlanta on July 22nd. Sherman's forces shelled the city for over a month, until Atlanta surrendered on September 2nd. Before doing so, however, the rebel forces set flame to whatever they felt would be useful to the enemy, effectively burning down two-thirds of Atlanta. Of the 4,000 homes, businesses and civic buildings that stood in Atlanta before the summer of 1864, only 400 remained.

Reconstruction was a difficult period for the entire South, but it succeeded in Atlanta more than in other places. The valuable rail system was rebuilt within two years, and Atlanta became more urban and civilized, erecting theatres, schools and even two opera houses. By 1870, the city boasted over 250 stores, a horse-drawn streetcar system, and Atlanta University, which today stands as the world's largest predominantly-black college. In 1877, Atlanta was named the new capital of Georgia, with a population nearing 37,000.

In 1886, local druggist John Pemberton introduced something he called a "brain tonic." Meant to relieve headaches, the tonic proved such a hit with his patrons that Pemberton was able to sell the recipe to another local businessman a year later for a whopping USD2,300. Ten years later, recipe-buyer Asa Candler had made Coca-Cola a household name.

The trials of the early 20th century played out in Atlanta as they did elsewhere in urban America, with great city advancements frequently marred by civic strife. By 1900, the city's population and workforce was almost evenly divided between white and black, but the laws of segregation dramatically divided these two populations. In 1960, Atlanta native and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in his Auburn Avenue neighborhood. His Center for Nonviolent Social Change now stands near his boyhood home within the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Site. Atlanta was also the first major Southern city to elect a black mayor: 35 year-old Maynard Jackson in 1974.

Through the latter part of the 20th Century, Atlanta has continued to expand as a vibrant, vital international city. In 1966, the city became the first in history to be awarded a professional baseball and football franchise in the same year. Eight years later, this would be the site of baseball history, when the Atlanta Braves' Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record. In 1968, the Atlanta Hawks brought professional basketball to Atlanta. In 1976, the Georgia World Congress Center opened as the largest single-floor exhibit space on the planet, and in 1979, Atlanta unveiled MARTA, a state-of-the-art public transit system.

Today, Atlanta stands as a premier American city and the capital of one of the nation's most rapidly-developing economic regions. Expansion and development continue as new ventures are born and residents flock from around the country. The influx has been so great that it is sometimes said that the hardest thing to find in Atlanta (besides a peach tree) is someone who was born in Atlanta.