When I told my 18-year-old son I was going to Atlanta, he replied: “You mean Hotlanta?” Apparently, Georgia’s capital has earned the nickname for its hot music scene, hot nightlife, hot climate and hot economy.
Turns out both of us were off in our vernacular. “It’s not forbidden to say it, but no one is really using Hotlanta any more,” says Rachel Rosenberg of the Georgia Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Now it’s ATL like initials or just ‘A’. Or we also like The New South because it conveys how the city has so much history, but also modern possibilities.”
Whatever you call it, this metropolis of six million is a gleaming collection of downtown highrises with quaint neighbourhoods surrounding it. Everywhere there are friendly people speaking in that infectious southern drawl that oozes hospitality and laid back attitude. So that’s how I find myself on the sidewalk in front of City Segway Tours downtown with guide Kristie Carter talking in her soothing southern intonations. She’s explaining how we could fall off these wonderous two-wheeled motorized machines and hurt ourselves, but her lulling voice makes it seem like it could never be so.
Fortunately everyone in our group catches on quickly and we have a blast. We spend an hour and a half zipping around downtown Atlanta taking in its greatest hits – from Centennial Olympic Park, CNN headquarters and the Georgia Aquarium to the World of Coca-Cola, famous Peachtree Street and the State Capitol. A walking tour or a bus tour just can’t compare to the novelty of having your own personal transportation that makes it look like you’re gliding suspended over the sidewalk at great speeds.
While we thought we were adrenalin junkies, Carter tells us upon our return that the Segways were set to go a maximum of six miles and hour or ‘turtle’ speed. Evidently, if the group shows promise she’ll change the settings to nine miles an hour or ‘rabbit’ speed. I guess our group didn’t instill that much confidence. Oh well, we had a riot anyway and came back ready for more serious pursuits – namely an afternoon of history and culture.
So aboard a bus this time we head to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic District just east of downtown to see where the assassinated civil rights hero was born, grew up and served as co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. The district is actually a National Park with his birth home preserved, a visitor’s centre and his tomb in the middle of a giant reflecting pool. As such park rangers, complete with khaki uniforms and Stetson-style hats, are the tour guides.
Then it’s on to the President Jimmy Carter Library Museum that pays homage to the peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia that ruled the country with a peace and human rights mandate from 1977-81. In between, we, of course, found time to drop into Sweet Auburn Bread Company to see owner Sonya Jones, who recommended we snack on southern specialty sweet potato muffins. Yummy.
Speaking of southern food, as a city straddling old and new, Atlanta abounds with restaurants the serve up traditional fried chicken, meat loaf, mashed potatoes and grits as well as those that have gone nouveau south with dishes like local apple salad and grilled Georgia mountain trout.
There are non-stop flights to Atlanta from Toronto and Montreal.
For more information on Atlanta, Georgia visit http://www.atlanta.net/