TRIP OVERVIEW
Day 1 – World of Coca-Cola · National Center for Civil and Human Rights · Georgia Aquarium
Day 2 – High Museum of Art · Piedmont Park · Atlanta Botanical Garden · Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail
Day 3 – Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park · Historic Oakland Cemetery · Inman Park · Little Five Points · Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum
Day 4 – Margaret Mitchell House · Virginia-Highland · Fernbank Museum of Natural History
Day 5 – Centennial Olympic Park · SkyView Atlanta · College Football Hall of Fame · Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Day 6 – Stone Mountain Park · Stone Mountain Village
Day 1
1. World of Coca-Cola~1 hr 30 min
The flagship museum of the drink invented in Atlanta, on a plaza named for the pharmacist who first mixed it. The vault holding the secret formula, a century of advertising art, and a tasting room pouring more than 100 Coca-Cola products from around the world make it a uniquely Atlanta visit.
Daily 9:00am - 7:00pm
2. National Center for Civil and Human Rights~1 hr 30 min
A powerful museum connecting the American civil rights movement to global human rights struggles. The lunch-counter sit-in simulation — headphones on, hands on the counter — is one of the most affecting museum experiences in the country, and the gallery of Dr. King's personal papers grounds it all in Atlanta.
National Center for Civil & Human Rights Admission · Skip the Line · 4.7 · 7+ reviews — GetYourGuide
Monday - Saturday 10:00am - 5:00pm · Sunday 12:00pm - 5:00pm
3. Georgia Aquarium~2 hr 30 min
One of the largest aquariums in the world — ten million gallons and the only whale sharks on display outside Asia. The Ocean Voyager tunnel sends you through a habitat where the giants glide overhead alongside manta rays, an experience no other aquarium in the Western Hemisphere offers.
Monday - Thursday 9:00am - 9:00pm · Friday - Sunday 8:00am - 9:00pm
Timed-entry tickets — online prices beat the door and peak dates sell out
Day 2
1. High Museum of Art~2 hr
The leading art museum of the South, as famous for its architecture as its collection — Richard Meier's white-porcelain building won him the Pritzker Prize, and Renzo Piano later doubled it. Inside: American decorative arts, self-taught Southern artists, and a sunlit atrium ramp worth the visit alone.
Tuesday - Saturday 10:00am - 5:00pm · Sunday 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Closed Monday
2. Piedmont Park~1 hr
Atlanta's great lawn — 200 rolling acres laid out on the old Gentlemen's Driving Club grounds, where the Midtown skyline rises over Lake Clara Meer in the city's most photographed view. Joggers, picnics, and dog parks fill the meadows, and the Eastside BeltLine and Botanical Garden both touch its edges.
Daily 6:00am - 11:00pm
3. Atlanta Botanical Garden~2 hr
Thirty acres on the edge of Piedmont Park, crowned by the glass Fuqua Conservatory and the Canopy Walk — a 600-foot skywalk through the treetops of an urban hardwood forest. The orchid house holds the largest collection in the country, and summer evenings bring sculpture and light installations to the paths.
Tuesday - Sunday 9:00am - 9:00pm
Closed Monday
Timed-entry tickets — book online and weekends fill first
Heights
4. Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail~1 hr 30 min
Atlanta's signature urban reinvention — a railway corridor reborn as a landscaped trail stitched with murals, sculpture, and skyline views, busy with walkers and cyclists from morning to night. Join it at Ponce City Market, the old Sears building turned food hall, and stroll the street art toward Old Fourth Ward.
Day 3
1. Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park~1 hr 30 min
The blocks of Sweet Auburn where Dr. King was born, preached, and now rests. Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the King Center with the crypt of Dr. and Mrs. King beside a reflecting pool, and the eternal flame sit within a few steps of each other. Start at the visitor center for the exhibits and the film.
Daily 9:00am - 5:00pm
The Birth Home is closed for rehabilitation — church, crypt, and visitor center remain open
2. Historic Oakland Cemetery~1 hr 30 min
Founded in 1850, Oakland is a 48-acre Victorian garden cemetery — final resting place of six Georgia governors, Margaret Mitchell, and Bobby Jones. Ancient oaks, magnolias, and elaborate 19th-century funerary sculpture make it one of the most atmospheric open spaces in Atlanta.
Open 24/7
3. Inman Park~1 hr
Atlanta's first planned residential suburb, laid out in 1890 with curving boulevards, pocket parks, and Queen Anne and Craftsman mansions. The streetcar suburb fell into decay, was saved by early preservationists in the 1970s, and now anchors Atlanta's most walkable historic neighborhood.
Open 24/7
4. Little Five Points~1 hr 30 min
Atlanta's counterculture hub since the 1980s — built around the intersection of Moreland, Euclid, and McLendon avenues. Independent record stores, vintage clothing, tattoo parlors, and street murals with no major chains in sight.
5. Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum~2 hr
Opened in 1986, the museum preserves 27 million documents from Carter's presidency alongside a full-scale Oval Office replica and his Nobel Peace Prize medal. The 35-acre parklike campus — Japanese gardens, two small lakes, and Atlanta skyline views — sits off Freedom Parkway.
Monday - Saturday 9:00am - 4:45pm · Sunday 12:00pm - 4:45pm
Day 4
1. Margaret Mitchell House~1 hr 30 min
The Tudor Revival apartment building on Peachtree where Mitchell lived from 1925 to 1932 and wrote Gone with the Wind, calling the cramped flat "The Dump." The house burned twice — 1994 and 1996 — and was restored. Guided tours run every 30 minutes through the apartment and a photo gallery.
Tuesday - Sunday 9:00am - 4:00pm
Closed Monday
2. Virginia-Highland~1 hr
Atlanta's best-preserved streetcar suburb, laid out in 1912 along the Nine-Mile Circle streetcar line and named for the intersection of Virginia Avenue and North Highland Avenue at its center. The commercial strip concentrates independent bookstores, bars, and restaurants in storefronts unchanged since the 1930s.
3. Fernbank Museum of Natural History~2 hr
Opened in 1992 on a 65-acre old-growth Piedmont forest campus in Druid Hills, Fernbank's signature exhibit — Giants of the Mesozoic — displays a 123-foot Argentinosaurus alongside a Giganotosaurus at full scale, the largest dinosaur pair on exhibit in the Eastern United States.
Day 5
1. Centennial Olympic Park~45 min
Built as the town square for the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 21-acre park remains downtown Atlanta's central gathering space, anchored by the interactive Fountain of Rings. Commemorative paving bricks sold to help fund the Games are engraved with donors' names underfoot, and the fountain's water jets sync to music and lights several times a day.
Daily 7:00am - 11:00pm
2. SkyView Atlanta~15 min
A 200-foot observation wheel spinning directly across from Centennial Olympic Park, its 42 climate-controlled gondolas complete several rotations above the stadium district in seven to twelve minutes. Downtown Atlanta has no taller public vantage point, and the wheel lights up the skyline after dark.
Sunday - Thursday 10:00am - 10:00pm · Friday - Saturday 10:00am - 11:00pm
3. College Football Hall of Fame~2 hr
A 94,000-square-foot shrine to the college game, anchored by a three-story helmet wall representing more than 760 schools and an indoor playing field where visitors can call their own plays. The Hall of Fame gallery honors the sport's first-team All-Americans dating back to 1889.
Wednesday - Monday 10:00am - 5:00pm
Closed Tuesday
4. Mercedes-Benz Stadium~1 hr 30 min
Home to the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, the $1.6 billion stadium was the first professional sports venue in the country to earn LEED Platinum certification. Daily tours cross the retractable roof's engineering, both team locker rooms, and the field itself beneath a 360-degree halo video board — the largest of its kind in the world.
Day 6
1. Stone Mountain Park~4 hr
The largest exposed granite monolith on Earth, its north face carved with the largest bas-relief sculpture in the world — Confederate leaders on horseback, each figure taller than a nine-story building. A Swiss cable car climbs 825 feet to the summit for a 60-mile view, and the park's Historic Square gathers original 19th-century Georgia buildings moved here plank by plank.
Daily 10:00am - 8:00pm
2. Stone Mountain Village~1 hr
A rare surviving railroad town listed on the National Register of Historic Places, its Main Street storefronts date to the early 1900s and now hold antique shops, galleries, and a visitor center set inside a vintage 1915 wooden caboose. It sits a few minutes from the park's West Gate — the low-key counterpart to the mountain's crowds.
Weekly Closures
Museums & Gardens · Closed Monday
Tours
Viator
Half-day small-group immersion in the Black Mecca — Sweet Auburn, Ebenezer Baptist Church, the West End, historic Black colleges, and Tyler Perry Studios, with civil rights landmarks and film locations woven through four hours.
4 hr 15 min · 27 max
Walking food tour through Atlanta's first garden suburb — six locally owned restaurants, Victorian streets on the National Register, Krog Street Market, and BeltLine street art over three leisurely hours.
3 hr · Small group
A half-day air-conditioned shuttle tour from Downtown Atlanta to the vineyards of North Georgia — two winery visits with guided tastings in the foothills of the Appalachians, with pickup from the Hilton Atlanta and return by late afternoon.
5 hr 30 min · 23 max
A 6-hour small-group luxury vehicle tour of Atlanta's Civil War and civil rights history — antebellum plantations, battlefield sites, and the landmarks of the civil rights movement woven into a full-day narrative of the city's defining chapters.
6 hr · Small group
A full-day shuttle tour from Atlanta into North Georgia wine country — three wineries, 13 tastings, and two hours of free time in Helen, the charming Bavarian Alpine village in the mountains, aboard a 23-passenger air-conditioned coach.
9 hr 30 min · 23 max
GetYourGuide
4-hour small-group driving tour of Atlanta's African-American history — Sweet Auburn Avenue, the King Birth Home, Atlanta University Center HBCUs, and Tyler Perry Studios, with a live guide and five photo stops.
4 hr 15 min · 27 max
A 3-hour food and history walking tour through Inman Park and the BeltLine — six locally owned restaurants, Victorian streets on the National Register, Krog Street Market, and murals along the trail, with a small-group local guide.
3 hr · Small group
A full-day tour from Atlanta into North Georgia wine country — three winery visits with 13 tastings, a scenic stop in the Bavarian Alpine village of Helen, and round-trip air-conditioned coach transport from the Hilton Atlanta.
9 hr 30 min · 23 max
A 2-hour tour through the Sweet Auburn Curb Market — the historic indoor market that fed Atlanta for nearly a century — with tastings of soul food classics and a hands-on biscuit-making class with a local chef.
2 hr · Small group
A 2.5-hour guided outdoor walking tour of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Sweet Auburn — the King Birth Home, Ebenezer Baptist Church, the King Center, and the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, led by a civil rights historian.
2 hr 30 min · Small group
TripAdvisor
3.5-hour walking food tour through Historic Downtown — 15 tastings at seven locally-owned eateries covering fried chicken, biscuits, peach desserts and more, woven with civil rights history. Groups of 8 max.
3 hr 30 min · 8 max
5-hour guided group tour to Georgia's iconic Stone Mountain Park — the Quarry Exhibit, Indian Island, scenic lakes, and mountain views with a live guide and multiple stops. Meets at Hero Doughnuts near Grant Park.
5 hr · 14 max
Half-day small-group immersion in the Black Mecca — Sweet Auburn, Ebenezer Baptist Church, the West End, historic Black colleges, and Tyler Perry Studios, with civil rights landmarks and film locations woven through four hours in an air-conditioned vehicle.
4 hr 15 min · 27 max
A 2-hour tour through the Sweet Auburn Curb Market with tastings of Southern classics and a hands-on biscuit-making class with a local chef — the indoor market that has fed Atlanta for nearly a century, from Unexpected Atlanta.
2 hr · 28 max
A 6-hour small-group tour of Atlanta's Civil War and civil rights history — antebellum plantations, battlefield sites, and the city's defining historical chapters, with round-trip transport from Atlantic Station.
6 hr · Small group
Cappuccino
Dancing Goats Midtown · 4.5 · 1000+ reviews
Monday - Friday 6:30am - 7:00pm · Saturday - Sunday 7:00am - 7:00pm
Café Intermezzo · 4.5 · 5900+ reviews
Sunday - Thursday 9:00am - 12:00am · Friday - Saturday 9:00am - 1:00am
Restaurants Near Hotel
Lyla Lila · 4.5 · 700+ reviews
Italian with Southern grace notes — the duck lasagna is the calling card.
Sunday - Thursday 5:00pm - 10:00pm · Friday - Saturday 5:00pm - 11:00pm
Mary Mac's Tea Room · 4.4 · 14000+ reviews
Atlanta's classic Southern tea room — fried chicken, collards, pot likker.
Daily 11:00am - 9:00pm
The Vortex · 4.5 · 7200+ reviews
Burgers and attitude behind the giant laughing-skull facade — adults only.
Sunday - Thursday 11:00am - 12:00am · Friday - Saturday 11:00am - 2:00am
Ecco Midtown · 4.7 · 2100+ reviews
Modern European — hearth pizzas, housemade pastas, famed fried goat cheese.
Monday - Thursday 4:00pm - 9:30pm · Friday 4:00pm - 10:00pm
Saturday 5:00pm - 10:00pm · Sunday 5:00pm - 9:00pm
South City Kitchen Midtown · 4.7 · 7000+ reviews
Refined Southern in a bright bungalow — buttermilk fried chicken, bourbon bar.
Monday - Friday 11:00am - 2:30pm · Saturday - Sunday 10:00am - 3:00pm
Monday - Thursday 5:00pm - 9:00pm · Friday - Saturday 5:00pm - 10:00pm · Sunday 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Downtown Restaurants
Aviva by Kameel · 4.8 · 1600+ reviews
Beloved family-run Mediterranean — Atlanta's most five-starred lunch counter.
Monday - Friday 11:00am - 3:00pm
Closed Saturday & Sunday
Alma Cocina · 4.6 · 3900+ reviews
Contemporary Mexican — duck carnitas tacos and serious margaritas.
Monday - Friday 11:30am - 3:00pm
Monday - Thursday 5:00pm - 9:30pm · Friday - Saturday 5:00pm - 10:00pm · Sunday 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Nikolai's Roof · 4.4 · 630+ reviews
French-Russian fine dining on the Hilton's top floor — skyline panoramas.
Tuesday - Saturday 5:30pm - 10:00pm
Closed Sunday & Monday
White Oak Kitchen & Cocktails · 4.3 · 1600+ reviews
Upscale modern Southern — deep bourbon list, white-tablecloth calm.
Monday - Friday 11:30am - 10:00pm · Saturday - Sunday 4:30pm - 10:00pm
The Busy Bee Café · 4.0 · 3500+ reviews
Soul food landmark — the fried chicken Dr. King ate, Michelin Bib Gourmand.
Daily 11:00am - 7:00pm
Local Tastes
Lemon Pepper Wings
Atlanta's signature chicken wing — dusted in lemon pepper, often finished wet with lemon-butter sauce. Born in the city's wing shops and now an emblem of Atlanta food culture, name-checked in hip-hop and television alike.
The Frosted Orange
The creamy orange shake of The Varsity, the world's largest drive-in, slinging chili dogs and onion rings two blocks from the hotel for nearly a century. Order an F.O. with a chili dog and eat under the neon.
Fried Chicken & Pot Likker
The classic Atlanta meat-and-three plate — skillet fried chicken with collard greens and a cup of pot likker, the smoky broth left from the greens, served with cracklin' cornbread for dipping.
Peach Cobbler
Georgia is the Peach State, and its cobbler — buttery crust over baked spiced peaches, usually under vanilla ice cream — is the dessert Atlanta's soul food kitchens are judged by.
Food Delivery
DoorDash
Foreign number: not accepted. — the code arrives by SMS to a US number, and DoorDash serves only the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, so a foreign SIM has nowhere to receive it.
The longest restaurant list in Atlanta by some margin, and the one that still reaches out into the suburbs where the others thin out. Strong on late-night delivery around Midtown and the Old Fourth Ward — but it needs a US number to set up.
Uber Eats
Foreign number: accepted. — it runs on the same Uber account, so the code comes by SMS to any international number, with a voice call as the fallback.
The visitor's way in, since it runs on the Uber account you already have. A shorter list than DoorDash, but solid across Midtown, Downtown and the BeltLine corridor, and its delivery estimates hold up well in Atlanta traffic.
Shows, Performances & Concerts
Fox Theatre
Broadway tours, concerts, and the Mighty Mo organ under a starlit Moorish sky — America's grandest surviving movie palace.
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
The South's flagship orchestra — long a Grammy magnet — performing at Symphony Hall in the Woodruff Arts Center.
Getting Around
Uber
Foreign number: accepted. — the code comes by SMS to any international number, and "Call me with code" reads it out if the SMS is blocked.
Atlanta is spread out and MARTA rail reaches only a slice of it, so ride-hailing covers the gaps between Midtown, Buckhead, the BeltLine and Hartsfield-Jackson. Cars are plentiful; expect surge pricing around Braves and Falcons games.
Lyft
Foreign number: not accepted. — Lyft's own help says the number must be a US, Canadian or Puerto Rican one, and the code is texted only to that number.
Runs alongside Uber across the metro with much the same coverage, and fares often undercut it outside peak hours, so it is worth having both open to compare. Registration is the catch, and it is a hard one for a visitor.
Train Stations Near Hotel
Atlanta Peachtree Station
Amtrak Crescent → New Orleans · Birmingham · Charlotte · Washington · New York.
Day Trips by Train
Anniston · 1 hr 22 min
Pickleball
Sharon Lester Racquet Center · Outdoor
6 outdoor courts at the racquet center inside Piedmont Park
Daily 6:00am - 11:00pm
Atlanta Pickleball Center · Indoor
10 indoor courts; drop-in open play sessions grouped by skill level
Monday 8:00am - 12:00pm · 4:00pm - 10:00pm · Tuesday - Thursday 8:00am - 10:00pm · Friday 8:00am - 9:00pm · Saturday - Sunday 8:00am - 6:00pm
Michelin Restaurants
Lazy Betty
Tasting-menu New American in an open-kitchen Midtown room.
Hayakawa
Edomae sushi omakase at an intimate hinoki counter.
Mujō
Seasonal omakase blending Tokyo discipline with Georgia produce.
Bacchanalia
Atlanta's defining contemporary American tasting menu.
Atlas
New American fine dining amid museum-grade art at the St. Regis.
Not shown: 3 more in Atlanta
Heads Up
MLK Birth Home — Closed for Rehabilitation
The Birth Home at 501 Auburn Ave is closed for a major rehabilitation project — no interior tours.
Fox Theatre — Tours three days a week
Guided tours run Monday, Thursday and Saturday only; the auditorium is otherwise open just on show nights.
Georgia Aquarium — Timed entry sells out on peak dates
Admission is timed-entry; online prices beat the door and peak summer and weekend slots sell out.
Hiking
Kennesaw Mountain Trail · Moderate
Wooded climb to Big Kennesaw's summit and broad Atlanta views.
2.2 mi return · 700 ft ascent
1 hr
Noses Creek Loop · Moderate
Yellow-blazed woodland loop through Kennesaw's central battlefield district.
3.6 mi loop · 260 ft ascent
2 hr 30 min
Worth Knowing
Peachtree Notes
The hotel and the Fox Theatre have been staring at each other across Peachtree Street for nearly a century. When Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta, the stars screened the film down the street and the celebration gala filled the hotel's ballrooms — while the Fox's own survival later came down to a grassroots campaign of schoolchildren's pennies and benefit concerts that saved it from becoming a parking lot.
Day 1 traces a quieter thread: the Coca-Cola fortune that built Pemberton Place also helped fund the city's civil rights institutions, and Atlanta's old nickname — the city too busy to hate — was coined by the same business establishment whose skyline now forms the backdrop to Dr. King's crypt on Auburn Avenue. Commerce and conscience have always shared this city's streets.
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