The Informed Traveler
The Informed Traveler
Georgia Gems
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We've taken our show on the road this week and we invite you to travel with us through the state of Georgia—a place where history, music, and Southern charm come together. Our journey took us from the timeless streets of Savannah, to the soulful sounds of Macon, and finally to the big city attractions of Atlanta.
Savannah
SPEAKER_03Well, hello and welcome to the Informed Traveler Podcast, a weekly travel podcast, where our goal is to help you become a more informed traveler. And I'm your host, Randy Sharman. We've taken our show on the road this week as we invite you to travel with us through the state of Georgia, a place where history, music, and southern charm come together. Our journey took us from the timeless streets of Savannah to the soulful sounds of Macon, and finally to the big city attractions of Atlanta. We began our tour in Savannah, where tree-lined streets lead to charming squares, historic homes, and a relaxed southern atmosphere. The city offers everything from scenic riverfront stroll. In fact, our hotel we stayed at, the Thompson Hotel, was just half a block away from the riverfront. There's world-class cuisine with fascinating stories around every corner, even a few ghost stories. Our day in Savannah, including a morning visit to the first Girl Scouts headquarters building and the Andrew Lowe House Museum, one of the many house museums located in Savannah, followed by an afternoon tour of the Mercer Williams House Museum, a place made famous by the book and movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. And it was reading that book that inspired me to want to visit Savannah and experience the charm it has to offer. In between all that exploring, I got the chance to sit down and learn more about visiting Savannah by chatting with our two gracious hosts, Supriya Christopher, Director of PR for Visit Savannah, and Ten B. Shohan, communications manager for Visit Savannah. The website is visitsavanna.com, and here's that conversation for you now. Hello to the both of you. I'm going to uh introduce uh Supriya first. We're talking with you first. Hello.
SPEAKER_01Hello, and thank you so much for including me on your podcast today. I'm thrilled to be here with you. And welcome to Savannah.
SPEAKER_03Well, thank you for inviting us. Also, Ten B. Shohan Communications Manager.
SPEAKER_05Hi, thank you so much for having us, Randy. It's lovely to be here talking to you.
SPEAKER_03Uh well, again, thank you for uh bringing me to uh Savannah. Uh one of the things that constantly comes up, because we're only here for a day, is it's too bad you're here for a day because there's so much to see and do. But we before we get all the things to see and do, let's do a geography lesson. So for those who have never been to Savannah, um tell us where it is.
SPEAKER_01We are located in the very southeastern coastal portion of Georgia. So we are two hours north of the beautiful state of Florida and St. Augustine and all of those areas. And we are two hours away from Charleston, South Carolina, if that gives you some more framework for where we're located. But this is called the low country of the United States of America. So think tidal marshes, swamps, um, beautiful coastal regions, low-lying tides, just a gorgeous place to live and to be from, and that's what Savannah, Georgia is all about, and so that is where we're located, southeastern United States of America.
SPEAKER_03So let's talk about the things to do. It's a very uh historical place. This is what I love about Savannah. Like there's so much history going on here. If you're a history history buff like myself, um, I think I heard it's older than the United States itself.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely correct. I mean, here we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States and Savannah, Georgia. You can't tell that story without starting here. We were founded in 1733. We are almost 300 years old. And along those 300 years, there is so much history to talk about and fit in. Obviously, you can't just do it in a day.
SPEAKER_03When we are sitting uh in the historic district of Savannah, uh the cobblestone streets, I mean, uh the one thing uh that stuck with me is that you want to preserve the history, right? It's sort of like uh a mandate, a thing that's uh makes Savannah unique.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's very true. Um, there's a lot of historic preservation that the city actively pursues. We have a historic Savannah Foundation that makes sure that anything we do within the historic district, whether it's architecture, buildings, hotels that come through, restaurants, they all have this um this reasoning behind why we're doing what we're doing. So we're not getting rid of the old, we're preserving the old while embracing the new.
SPEAKER_03One of the places that we visited this morning um was the Girl Scouts' first headquarters. Uh it's an amazing place. It was one of those places where you kind of go, Well, I didn't know about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's kind of an obscure type of interesting fact about the Girl Scouts of America. I mean, one of those iconic institutions that many of us have grown up with. I mean, I was a Girl Scouts, you know. I was in the Girl Scouts when I was young. And you don't really stop thinking about, well, geez, where did this all begin? Well, it started all here in Savannah, Georgia. Juliet Gordon Lowe is the founder of the Girl Scouts of America. We have the home that she lived in here. Today, I believe, Randy, you toured the headquarters office as well as the Andrew Lowe home, which was Juliet Gordon Lowe's husband's home. Um, so you know, uh, there's so much history that is tied into the Girl Scouts. You heard a lot about it. It's actually an international organization now. And so it's super interesting, but something that most people wouldn't think about when they thought of Savannah, Georgia. But here we have it.
SPEAKER_03And I think if you do a tour of the Lowe House Museum, that you really get a flavor of what Savannah was like in the eight mid-1800s all the way into the early 1900s. It's an amazing story. That's one of the places in the historic area. There's many, many others.
SPEAKER_05Yes, and indeed. I mean, we have so many museums within the historic district, so many house museums, but also a lot of other quirky museums as well, which when you come to Savannah, you'll see. We have something like the Pirates and Treasure Museum. It's one of our newly opened museums, as well as the Prohibition Museum. We also have an art museum here, the Telfair Academy and the Jeffson Center of Arts. So a lot of different things to do for every kind of customer coming through, visitor actually coming through.
SPEAKER_03And our the hotel we're staying at, the Thompson Hotel, I'm gonna say it's almost on the waterfront. It's like a short little half-block walk to the waterfront, and the waterfront itself is beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely. Well, you're staying aboard uh on the most historic part of Savannah, and that's the Savannah Riverfront. So when you think of Savannah, Georgia, way back in 1733, well, there was a lot of commerce going on at that time, right? I mean, today we are one of the largest ports in the United States of America. We're always in the top five for imports and exports coming and going from our nation. But uh way before that, you know, this was a major hub for the cotton trade and uh other other goods such as rice and different things like that, indigo. So where you're staying on River Street, sure, today you're staying in a luxury hotel, the Thompson, located right there on the eastern wharf of Savannah, is what we call it. And so we're seeing Savannah evolve. Um, you know, if I had to really think of it in a visual, I would say there are all these layers starting down on River Street where it all began, and then we go up the next layer and we hit Bay Street in the historic district, and we can walk through those 22 original squares. Many uh few very few cities in the United States can say that they have the originality still preserved that Savannah has kept. I just because of modernization and industrialization, many of these original places throughout the country have been mowed over and developed upon and so forth. But as Fenby was just saying, because of our preservation rules and laws here, we have kept those 22 original squares. So it literally is like walking and living in a museum. So when you walk through our squares and on our sidewalks and on River Street, you are seeing the past and the present all together and even the future because you see development that's coming and happening, everything from very luxury hotels to boutique shopping to restaurants and so forth. So it's a very unique destination for all those reasons.
SPEAKER_03And if you explore uh a little bit outside of Savannah, there's even more things to see and do.
SPEAKER_05Yes, um, for that matter, you should definitely consider visiting Tybee Island. That's our beach location, our beach destination, just 20 minutes away from Savannah. It has one of the oldest lighthouses in America. It has a marine science center where um there's preservation efforts for terrapin turtles. And we have such a unique ecosystem on the Atlantic East Coast in our region. You can actually do things like fossil hunting, uh shark tooth hunting on Little Tybee Island. You can charter a boat there and go there and experience that kind of thing. You can do kayaking and really explore the flora and fauna of the Atlantic East Coast. So really unique experiences out when you come to Savannah. Not only are you immersing yourself in sort of the historic part of one of America's oldest cities, but also you have this extremely unique wellness option connected to Savannah. That's like a getaway within a getaway.
SPEAKER_03I always think that uh to take a tour of a city when you get there is the best thing to do. And there's so many different tours you can do. There's the trolley tour, there's I saw one last night, it was the haunted ghost tour or whatever.
SPEAKER_01That's all the uh well, of course, you mentioned the haunted. We are considered one of the haunted city most haunted cities in the United States of America for good reason. We've gone through everything from plagues to civil war to slavery to you know, everything in between. So we definitely have our haunted. And if you come to our city, you will realize that uh it's not just the quirk in us, but it's actually something in the air, is what we like to think of it as. But beyond that, you're right. There are many ways to see this beautiful city. And the trolley tour, Old Town Trolley Tours is the best way. I always tell visitors hop on a trolley, it's about an hour and a half long. Don't get off of it. Uh, the second time around, you can do the hop-on-hop-off stuff, but sit on it for 90 minutes and see everything in this beautiful historic district. Think about it the live oaks and that Spanish moss draping down as you go through old Victorian mansions, um, a Gothic Catholic church, uh, you know, just so many beautiful things to see in Savannah, Georgia. So that, and then there's a riverboat. So if you want to have that vantage point from the water, well, you have that too.
SPEAKER_03And the people. I mean, that's that's kind of what makes Savannah. And it's ironic that I'm talking to two people that never grew up in Savannah. So, what did you learn when you moved here?
SPEAKER_05So, as an immigrant to the country, not just Savannah, I can say for sure that you know, everybody talks about southern hospitality down south here. Um, and you know, South, the American South is such a vast region. But when I tell you that Southern hospitality as it pertains to Savannah is inherent, people are genuinely willing to host you, genuinely willing to show you around, are proud of the city that they live in. So I think to me, that's what that means. Southern hospitality is inherent, it's genuine, and it's intentional. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02For you?
SPEAKER_01Well, very similar to what Thenby said. I was born and raised in the Northeast and up in upstate New York, and I'm very proud of that too. But I will say I've lived most of my adult life in the Southeast. And Savannah just is really that symbolic sense of Southern hospitality that I think Thenby just touched on there. But it's that feeling of community, of people wanting to be there for you, and really a sense of wanting to really feel excited about someone else's experiences and curiosities. So that's what Savannah, Georgia, we really try to exemplify. Hospitality is number one to us here. We take it very seriously, um, not just in our personal lives, but it's also big business for us as um a DMO, a destination marketing organization. And uh we intend to keep it that way because it makes other people happy and it makes us happy too.
SPEAKER_03And I think people don't even realize they're the front line, right? Like it's it's the shopkeepers and the hotel people and the bus drivers and all those people, even the Uber drivers, uh they're the front line.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and that's that's exactly right. That's where the stories are at, truly. It's not so much of course we have great history, it's it's very, very sort of uh enduring history that we've had over the years, but also it's the people that make it, also, you know, it's the the the people behind those stories that truly make our destination today what it is. And not just the people here, but the people that are coming here that are building this into a mini cosmos of some sort.
SPEAKER_03Okay, any last words, any quirky stories, anything you want to add?
SPEAKER_01Well, I don't know about quirky stories because I think we may have too many. And then your podcast would go on and on. And um, but I will say that uh if you haven't been to Savannah, Georgia, you have to put it at the top of your list. It's a welcoming city. We love to say that all are welcome in Savannah, and we mean that genuinely. So, I mean, you noticed today when we had lunch, the waiter was asking us at the end of lunch, can I get you a glass of water to take on the road? And hey, uh, do you need any touring trips or um tips while you're here? And I thought, you know, I don't know a lot of places where people actually do that. So it's just another example, but I would say Savannah, Georgia is a unique destination. If you've been to all the big cities in the United States, then it's time for you to kind of uh come and see the real people who make up our country in different ways. In the Southeast, you have to come to Savannah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And I think I want to just finish off this podcast with a little fun fact that a lot of people don't realize. We have a lot of firsts in Savannah, like you experienced the Girl Scouts, this is where it started. But also a lot of people don't realize it. But Savannah is actually America's first planned city. Not first city, but first planned city. We are we still have the preserved 22 squares, and it's built on this grid network that was, you know, centuries ago. And and therefore, this was like a um a roadmap for so many other cities in America to follow. So so just interesting fun fact that you know Savannah is is small but so mighty in its ideas and foundations.
SPEAKER_03One thing I learned if you want to carry a drink down the street, you can.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01If that's not a selling point, Mandy, I don't know what is, but we we do have an open container carrying law and what that means is you can go and choose your favorite cocktails anywhere in our historic district and take them with you as you stroll through those 22 squares that we keep talking about. And that's what we want you to do. So please come and visit Savannah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we do also have a very extensive mocktail menu in every part of the city. So those who don't drink are also welcome.
SPEAKER_03Yes, we welcome everybody. I think I'm gonna grab a beer and go for a walk. Thank you so much. We're chatting with Sapria Christopher, she's the uh director of public relations with Visit Savannah and with Tendy Shohan. She is the uh communications manager with Visit Savannah. Visit Savannah.com is the website. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for having us, Randy. Yes, thank you so much. Have a great time.
Macon
SPEAKER_03Our second stop on our tour through Georgia was in Macon, about a two-hour drive northwest of Savannah. The tagline they like to use is Where Soul Lives, and it definitely does. If you're a music lover, history buff, or just enjoy a good local meal, Macon is the must-place to explore. Highlights of our visit included tours of the Okamulgie Mounds National Historic Site. It's the ancestral home of the Muscogee Creek Nation, and it sits along a 54-mile stretch of the Okamogee River, where artifacts reflect more than 17,000 years of human habitation. It's a pretty amazing sight. We also had a tour of Capricorn Records, a place that still uses the original sound studio that the likes of the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, and Leonard Skinnard recorded some of their biggest hits in. Another place we toured was the Hay House, known as the Palace of the South, a gigantic 18,000 square foot mansion. It is a mansion. We finished our day meeting up with Gary Wheat, president and CEO of VisitMakon, who describes some of those places in more detail. VisitMakon.com is their website, and here's that chat now. So we've been touring around the Macon area. One of the first places uh that we stopped was Oakmogee Mounds uh National Historic Park, an amazing place, and it's one of those places uh that even when you think you know some of some things about the history, you're gonna learn something there.
SPEAKER_04Sure. Well, it's uh proven almost 17,000 years of uh continuous human habitation there. So it's the ancestral homeland of the Muscogee Creek people. So uh they were mound builders. Uh so if you go out there, you can climb uh almost uh 10, uh 11 stories uh one of these mounds that they built. And this was like their capital city here, yeah. Uh right on the banks of the Oatmogee River, and that's where it gets its name, which means bubbling waters uh in their language. Uh so for them, this was their ancestral homeland that they were forced off of to Oklahoma, uh, to a reservation in Oakmoge, Oklahoma, with OK, not an OC, like it is here. Um so it's our kind of our our trade or our our symbolism with that relationship is Oakmogey to Oakmoge. And our relationship has grown over the years uh with the Muskogee Creek people who come back each year for the indigenous celebration and to celebrate their homeland. And we go out in turn, uh take a group from Macon Out every year to their festival to celebrate their homeland uh with them there in Oklahoma. So it's really a wonderful attraction, it's very moving, a lot of uh vibrations we like to say, that are there. Uh you can feel uh the the homeland of their people, and for us, it's one that uh we hope and we know that is going to become America's newest and Georgia's first national park.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was gonna mention that. There's a lot of new things that are coming. Uh they're just waiting for the word, right, to be a national park.
SPEAKER_04Yes, legislation is with Congress right now, and so they are moving it through committee, and hopefully we'll see that designation before this Congress is finished at the at the end of the year. And uh we've been very um in touch and working well closely with our uh delegation uh from Georgia. Uh this is a bipartisan uh supported bill. Um the entire Georgia delegation supports this uh language and this legislation. Um we hear that the president will sign it, and so for us, uh that will be America's newest national park, which will put us on track with some of the largest uh parks uh in America, and something that uh attracts a new traveler for us, uh somebody that's got that national park unit stamp and that passport, and we look forward to welcoming them. And all the numbers say that we're gonna see a significant amount of traffic come through with those visitors.
SPEAKER_03Well, and I think too, Indigenous tourism is something that's growing, so the timing is perfect.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely, and it's something that we've kind of visit making embraced and learned from. Um, we've had um for the last almost decade brought the Muscogee Creek people here to audit how we tell their story and their history. Um, that has been very eye-opening for us, yeah, and so they have helped us basically re mold and revision our visitor center as well as our messaging. Uh it's led to initiatives such as uh resident artist Muskogee. Uh, we're working on a resident chef program here. Uh, is in addition to that, we've had our street signs that now feature English as well as Muskogee Creek language. Uh so just a way to reintroduce um their people to our destination, but also showcase their history.
SPEAKER_03Well, and that's uh to me, it's it's part of the three things that uh stood out for me for Macon is is the uh history, the music, and the food. And you know, that and you know, you can combine all three together, you know, the the music with history, uh the the history of music, and then the the culture of the food.
SPEAKER_04Sure. Well, for us, our our tagline and our brand is where soul lives, and soul is so much more than just our music, it's our food. And you can look at me and tell me we got good food. Um that's a prerequisite for anywhere I go. And and we also have that history and and even the architecture. Um, you know, Macon was a a city that was primarily spared during the Civil War battles, uh, so a lot of that architecture still exists. Um, film productions love it because it can be multiple cities or multiple places uh just based on the architecture. Um but the music legends that came out of here, um the food, the history, I mean, it's it's all kind of wrapped up into that flavor and that soul that is making Georgia.
SPEAKER_03And more specifically for uh people coming to visit here, some of the places that we went to today, Hay House, which I would like to uh for you to describe a little bit for our listeners.
SPEAKER_04Sure, we we call it the Palace of the South. The Hay House is 18,000 square foot. And uh Mr. Johnston um married uh here in Macon, and he and his wife preceded on a three year honeymoon in Europe. So think about that for a minute. And they brought back all these architectural designs and styles and European decorations and architecture, and they built uh their dream home, uh which has become Hay House, and it is truly a Marvel and some of the things that they were able to incorporate that are modern amenities that were built in the 1850s. And for us, people love it because it's it has a lot of legend and lore attached to it, which people just kind of like that flavor. But it's also an architectural gem. I'm a big fan of architecture and to go in there and take that tour and see some of the things that went into that home and some of the priceless um ingenuity, if you will, that went into it. It's just special, very special.
SPEAKER_03No kidding. Yeah, like it's it's it's very uh it's awe-inspiring. It's just like wow, and when you mentioned the three-year honeymoon, like talk about talk about being a tourist, right? Uh so there's that, and then we we also stopped at Capricorn Records, and that in itself is another an amazing place.
SPEAKER_04Well, it's the birthplace for us of Southern Rock, and that's the Allman Brothers and Leonard Skinner and Charlie Daniels and all those great hits that came out of the 70s, and and was really the the brainchild of uh Phil Walden, Alan Walden, and also Otis Redding. Uh it was the precursor to that was going to be Red Wall Records, which was Otis Redding and the Walden Brothers. And tragically, we lost Otis, and that morphed into uh Capricorn Records uh with the Waldens and went on to produce hit after hit. And it's a really great preservation story because it was the building itself was falling in around itself, and Mercer University stepped in and really went a long way to saving that. But one of the things that was so preserved was that famous Studio A, where those classic hits came out of that Southern Rock sound of the Allman Brothers. And uh, so for us to be able to start introducing new hits coming out of there with uh Eddie Ninevolt and Brent Cobb and Marcus King and some of those artists that are really starting to uh rocket up the charts, that special sound is now coming out uh again um in music, and that's really special for us here.
SPEAKER_03Well, and you can go upstairs too and you can listen. And so I did that. I was listening to Allman Brothers Jessica, and you can almost envision in your mind them recording it after being in that studio.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. I mean, you the the sound comes across, and and another aspect and and something that y'all probably didn't have time to see today, but Rose Hill Cemetery, which is the cemetery that is our city cemetery, where they didn't have a lot of money when they were trying to make their sound, and so they would go hang out in the cemetery. And so a lot of their songs you see on that were inspired by gravesides, and they spent a lot of time, their album covers were shot there, and for them to kind of feel that sound, and and a lot of people go and take pilgrimage to Rose Hill Cemetery because uh Barry Oakley's buried there, Dwayne Allman's buried there, Greg Allman's buried there. So a lot of the band is there, and so people love to come and pay their respects and and experience some of that that soulful music, that that southern rock sound that, as you said, you can hear it come through in some of those songs.
SPEAKER_03Um and uh speaking of the Allman brothers, we did have lunch at H H uh restaurant, what do you I don't know what you call it, but and it uh it's amazing just the the the images on the walls of all the artists and things.
SPEAKER_04Well, hopefully they told you the story of how that kind of took off. And if you'll indulge me a little bit, but uh Mama Louise Hudson and Mama Inez Hill were two uh African-American ladies here that had a diner, H. Um, and one day they had two young men come in and sat down and ordered one plate of food. And Mama Louise brought the one plate and said, Why are you on ordering one? And they said, We can only afford one. And she says, Well, maybe everybody eats here. So she brought them both a plate and they said, Well, we have some friends, can they come back? And she said, Absolutely. Well, that was the Allman Brothers. And the band started eating there, and she started feeding them, which led to a relationship that she went out on the road with them, she fed them on the road, and you can see the pictures in the in the diner there of them sitting there, all of them having a meal, and it's just a really special place because in the 60s and 70s in the South, that was very uncommon. And to see those relationships in making Georgia in that time in the South, whether it was Otis Redding and the Waldance and their relationship, whether it was Mama Louise and the Allman brothers, you really just saw that integration and that ability of people to come together over common things like music and food. Exactly. And that's what it should always be about for all of us.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, exactly. And uh a fair warning to anybody that wants to go for be prepared to stand in line or wait for a table because it's very popular, but it's worth it, it's so worth it.
SPEAKER_04It's it's belt busting good. That's a great way to describe it.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so those are some of the highlights that we get to do. So if you've got a chance to spend more time here, give me some other ideas.
SPEAKER_04Well, you know, for for us, it's it's a lot of that that history, you know. You you saw Hay House. For Hay House, we've got Cannonball House, which is very historical, uh, Annabellum Home. We have more homes on the historic register than than Charleston, more buildings than Savannah. Uh so for people to come and see that, you know, the the Otis Redding Museum, uh, Little Richard's childhood home, where he grew up with his uh siblings, um, Grant's Lounge, where a lot of acts came to perform trying to get on that Capricorn label. Uh so for us, there's a lot of history here. Uh the Tubman African-American Museum has a lot of um African-American art and local culture. Uh I highly encourage people to come see that. Uh so there's a lot to see and do here in this town. We've got a live music scene like nobody's out. And you know, for the legends that have come out of Macon, Georgia, you know, people talk about some of the big music cities, but you had the architect of rock and roll and little Richard. He grew up here. Otis Redding, the King of Soul, the birthplace of Southern Rock and the Almonds, and uh, you know, Jason Aldeen now on the country charts in America is from Macon, Georgia. So, you know, we're we're one of those that we like to think of ourselves as a music town. And and then again, you mentioned it earlier, and we talked about it, and that's the um bringing the Muskogee Creek people to their home, uh, creating that national park experience, and that's what a lot of this destination will become centered around welcoming those visitors to that history and that legacy that is making Georgia, but was also basically the capital city of the Creek nation. Um, and for us to be able to give back to them and welcome them home uh is is so uplifting for not only this community that's rallied around it, but for the reservation in Oklahoma, uh their chief and second chief. It's it's been quite a process, but something that if you go out on the veranda here where we're sitting tonight, you can see their flag fly over our city hall. Yeah. And that in itself means so much to us as well as them.
SPEAKER_03Which, and we should mention that too, by the way. We are at the Hotel 45, which is a historic building in itself.
SPEAKER_04So if you're looking for a place to stay, it's absolutely a wonderful boutique hotel. Uh it's a Marriott uh tribute property, and uh highly advise you to come. It's like as you said, it's a renovated bank building which became a city annex. Uh so there's still remnants of the old police department around. There's an old vault downstairs, and and you talk about stories and legend and lore. There's plenty here, and it's a wonderful, wonderful stay and a wonderful experience.
SPEAKER_03And a great view on the sixth floor in the lounge, which we are going to go and partake in. Gary Wheat is the president and CEO of VisitMaken, visitmakon.org, for all the information to come and visit because there's lots to see from history to music to food. So thank you, Gary.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely a pleasure.
Atlanta
SPEAKER_03This is the Informed Traveler Podcast. I'm Randy Sharman. Just want to remind you of our website, the informedtraveler.org. That's where you can find our contact page if you have any questions or comments about the podcast. You can also email me too with any questions you might have. My email address is randy at the informtraveler.org. You can check out our social media pages too at facebook.com slash informed traveler, Instagram at informed traveler, or on X at InformTraveler. That's where you'll find videos and images from our stops in Savannah, Macon, and Atlanta that we visited on this week's show. So let's continue that now by sharing our two days in Atlanta, which has so much to offer. We'll describe it all for you in our conversation with Samantha Joyner, public relations specialist with the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. DiscoverAtlanta.com is the website. Here's that conversation for you now. We are outside our hotel, the beautiful fourth hotel. And first of all, obviously Atlanta's a big city. Um, it has all the big city attractions compared to Savannah and Macon's, uh, the two other places that we've been to. Uh and I I understand like the the way I heard it described, it's a city of neighborhoods. So describe what neighborhood we're in first to give uh to paint a picture.
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely. So Atlanta is best understood by looking at all the various in-town neighborhoods that really make up the culture and infrastructure of the city. Um currently we are in Old Fourth Ward, which is on the east side. Um one of the great ways to explore all of our unique neighborhoods is the Atlanta Beltline, which our hotel is just off of the Beltline. The Beltline is actually a redevelopment project transforming old, unused railroad tracks into walking trails, green spaces, retail dining. It creates a very pedestrian-friendly way to see the city and explore a bit of nature.
SPEAKER_03And like I said, uh it is a big city, but for a big city, it still has that southern charm. There is a lot of greenery, as uh one of our colleagues mentioned yesterday. So it you know, it doesn't have that big city feel, as is what I get.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And Atlanta is commonly known as the city in the forest because of our tree canopy coverage. Um there's about 300 parks and green spaces in the city. Um so there's a wonderful, wonderful ways to explore all it has to offer.
SPEAKER_03Let's talk about some of the neighborhoods that we visited yesterday and just touch on some of them. Uh Cabbage Town, there was Sweet Auburn, Eastside, uh, and uh downtown area where Pemberton Place is located, right? So let's start with Pemberton Place because that is such a cool area. It's world it's where the world of Coca-Cola is, it's where the Atlanta Aquarium is, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, which we're gonna visit today. It's just an amazing area.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. So Pemberton Place has um World of Coca-Cola, National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Georgia Aquarium. That whole area, Pemberton Place, um, is located just outside of Centennial Olympic Park. That is our city's legacy to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, um, which we are celebrating the 30th anniversary this year. Um but overall, our downtown neighborhood, it's actually it features more than 13,000 hotel rooms, nearly 300 dining options, all within a walkable space. We commonly think of it as our entertainment district, if you will.
SPEAKER_03Well, you certainly get that vibe, and if you walk a little bit further out, you get into the if you're a sports fan, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. So just a short walk from Centennial Olympic Park, um, you have Mercedes Benz Stadium, which is where the National Football League's Atlanta Falcons play, Major League Soccer's Atlanta United, as well as our upcoming women's major league soccer expansion team, which has yet to be named. Um, but Mercedes-Benz Stadium is also going to host eight matches during FIFA World Cup 2026. So we are very excited about that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, uh exactly, right? Now let's talk about uh some of the other neighborhoods that we uh went through yesterday. We did a art walk tour through Cabbage Town, interesting history and lots of stories there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Cabbage Town is actually one of my personal favorites, but um it's a historically protected neighborhood on the east side, very close to Old Fourth Ward. Um, but it has a unique history of um changing cultures, and now it's very much an artist's paradise there. Um so Cabbage Town is very well known for its eclectic public art scene. Um along Wiley Street, you will see a series of murals, which is what the walking tour kind of covered. Um, these murals are part of an art project called Ford Warrior Art Project. So essentially, every year, usually in September, um, a group of artists will come out for one week only. They each have their own section and they paint a mural. Um it's one week only, so if they don't finish it, they have to wait until the next year.
SPEAKER_03It stays as is.
SPEAKER_00It does. It does, but it's an ever-changing uh display of public art, and it it really reflects a lot of the communities and culture of the city itself.
SPEAKER_03And then uh there's um next to that, is it Sweet Auburn? Uh you can give me a geography lesson if I'm wrong. And then East Side.
SPEAKER_00Yes, so Cabbage Town is within the East Side, um, with Old Fourth Ward and Sweet Auburn. Gonna sound a little confusing, but um Sweet Auburn is also uh just in Old Fourth Ward as well. Um but Sweet Auburn is where uh Dr. King, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that is where he was born, and um where he and his father both preached at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. So um the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, which is within Sweet Auburn, um, it's a national park that uh is hor historically protecting a lot of these um landmark institutions. Um you can go and visit Dr. King's birth home. Uh you can also go and visit uh his um his tomb, he and his wife's tomb where they are buried. Um you can visit the King Center, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Fire Station number six. Um and it's it's a very impactful area to walk in the steps of our former civil rights leaders, essentially.
SPEAKER_03Now talk a little bit about just the logistics of of Atlanta. Because the the neighborhoods are you know so um eclectic, is that a good word to describe? If you're planning a visit here, um if you're a sports fan, then maybe you want to stay closer to the downtown area. If you're an art lover, maybe closer to Cabbage Town, that kind of idea, right?
SPEAKER_00It can be, yes. But um either way, I mean, if you are a sports fan, you can stay on the east side and still be very close and conveniently located to downtown. Um Old Fourth Ward, it's only about maybe a mile and a half, so about 10-15 minutes from downtown. Um very easy to get to there. Same way if you are staying downtown for a sporting event, there's a ton of public art downtown itself, but again, same way. It's very easy to get to uh the east side, very easy to get to Sweet Auburn and the history there. That's only about five-minute um five-minute drive from downtown itself.
SPEAKER_03Now, if we had more time, what are we what are we missing that I didn't see?
SPEAKER_00So actually, where we ate dinner last night, which uh was a Yaybo Beach House, that is located in Buckhead, which is a little bit north of the downtown area. Um Buckhead is very well known for well, very well known as our luxurious neighborhood, if you will. Um it has some of the best shopping in the southeast with Lenox Square, Phipps Plaza, and Buckhead Village District. Um, but also Midtown, which is another area that we haven't dove into deep yet, but Midtown is very much our arts and cultural area. Um it features the Woodruff Art Center, which has the High Museum of Art, as well as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Um Midtown, there's a lot of shopping and walkable streets to just kind of enjoy the city life.
SPEAKER_03And while we mentioned this uh when we were talking together last night, that uh Atlanta is such an easy city to get to. It's got the largest, or I shouldn't say the largest, the busiest airport in the world. So there's no excuse no matter where you live.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. So Atlanta is home to the busiest airport, busiest and most efficient airport, Hartsville, Jackson, Atlanta International Airport. The airport, it actually uh connects 80% of the US population within a two-hour flight. So it's great for anyone who is wanting to extend a trip. But also it connects to nearly 150 international destinations, uh, direct connectivity. Atlanta is also the hub for Delta Airlines. Um so any traveler looking to fly to Atlanta or looking for their next trip, they will find that it there's plenty of options to get here.
SPEAKER_03Well, and even if you're going somewhere else, why not stop in Atlanta for a couple of days, explore some of the areas and neighborhoods, and or see a sporting event or something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. Um, so many people uh have traveled through the airport, and I recommend them, you know, taking a second, staying for a night or two, um, and heading up to downtown. You can easily take Marta, which is our public transport system. Um that can provide very quick access from the airport to downtown, midtown, buckhead, and so forth. So um it's very easy, very convenient, and um makes it easy for travelers to see the city.
SPEAKER_03And that's what we want, right? Anything I've missed?
SPEAKER_00Atlanta is uh a welcoming city. It is commonly thought of as the capital of the southeast. Coming to Atlanta, you get to experience that southern hospitality, that innovation of a big global hub, and you get to enjoy a lot of nature, which a lot of people don't really anticipate with this city.
SPEAKER_03Well, true. Lots I mean, it's an overused phrase, something for everyone, um, and lots to do here in Atlanta. I learned how to say Atlanta properly. Samantha Joiner is the public relations specialist with Discover Atlanta. DiscoverAtlanta.com is their website where you can find out more and more information. Appreciate your time, Samantha. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03So that concludes our four-day tour through the state of Georgia. From here, we head to Mobile, Alabama to attend the annual Travel South USA Media Marketplace, of which the folks from Explore Georgia and all the destinations we visited will be attending as well. We'll have more on that for you on next week's show. And we want to thank all the wonderful hosts that took such great care of us from Visit Savannah, Visit Macon, Discover Atlanta, and Explore Georgia. You can check out our social media pages too to see the photo and video highlights of our journey through Georgia at facebook.com slash informed traveler, Instagram at Informed Traveler, or on X at InformedTraveler. In the meantime, thanks for listening. Travel safe and be an informed traveler.