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New York City? Tokyo? London? Paris? Didn't even make the top 10. They all bow down to the World of Coca-Cola. Get out of here, villages in the Swiss Alps- we're heading to Norcross- apparently Atlanta's "best kept secret".
Lmao, this "list". And of course they put the stupid Ferris wheel as one of the main things to do in Atlanta. Honestly I feel like most of these people who list Atlanta's attractions on websites, have never actually been there, or if they did, they did a terrible job as a tourist. The World of Coke is a total commercial suck-fest, obviously- the Georgia Aquarium is better than that, but still actually pretty underwhelming (I mean, it's just an aquarium- you look at fish). And all the MLK related historic stuff is not really the huge draw that they advertise it as. And the Jimmy Carter presidential library, where, you can tour the achievements of Jimmy Carter's presidency? That made the "best in travel" list? Really?
New York City? Tokyo? London? Paris? Didn't even make the top 10. They all bow down to the World of Coca-Cola. Get out of here, villages in the Swiss Alps- we're heading to Norcross- apparently Atlanta's "best kept secret".
Lmao, this "list". And of course they put the stupid Ferris wheel as one of the main things to do in Atlanta. Honestly I feel like most of these people who list Atlanta's attractions on websites, have never actually been there, or if they did, they did a terrible job as a tourist. The World of Coke is a total commercial suck-fest, obviously- the Georgia Aquarium is better than that, but still actually pretty underwhelming (I mean, it's just an aquarium- you look at fish). And all the MLK related historic stuff is not really the huge draw that they advertise it as. And the Jimmy Carter presidential library, where, you can tour the achievements of Jimmy Carter's presidency? That made the "best in travel" list? Really?
haha, you're post gave me a good chuckle (because I agree).
I love ATL, but it's not a top 10 in the world city to visit. I've been to Rome, Paris, sailed in the Med in Croatia. I've done Big Sur and Napa, driven the Rockies and Glacier National park. Our Ferris Wheel doesn't even scratch the surface.
When people come here, we take them to the mountains, a winery, a good restaurant, perhaps the beltline and PCM. It's all good, don't get me wrong.
But even when I visited my cousin in Hampton Roads last year, despite that I wouldn't want to live there, It had the ocean, unique seafood, palm trees, and so much history in Williamsburg. We visited taverns that the founding fathers drank at. We visited NASA. So many unique areas along the ocean or coastal inlets. It seemed like one new sensory experience after another and it made for a great vacation.
I don't necessarily feel that way about Atlanta personally. Atleast not in a "Top 10" sense anyway. Frankly I care much more about good places to live than visit, and for that I think ATL makes the list!
Atlanta is a great place to live if you are part of the hustle. But right now it is severely lacking in the kind of thing you are talking about— one meaningful sensory experience after another. It's not that the history and beautiful forested areas aren't here, it's that they play second fiddle to hustle culture— getting as many people and goods through the city as quickly as possible. Many areas that were once really beautiful areas to be in, have turned into soulless, high volume-traffic areas. It will take countless labors of love to make the pivot between "business city" and "destination city". Ultimately, if business is the only priority, that's fleeting. No one will care in 50+ years how much business people got done in Atlanta. People desire a deeper experience, a place to find meaning and solid relationships like citykid is talking about. We have a huge metro area now, I think it would be wise to make that pivot early, and leverage the amount of money flowing through here so that we still have a pleasant place to live even if we lose the business— so that we don't become another Detroit.
People want to visit places that are unique and different or exceptional, and things they don't have at home. Every decent size American city pretty much has history museums and aquariums and generic tourist rides and all the stuff like that.
ATL's great to visit, don't get me wrong, but I dunno about 'Top 10', especially with totally lacking water features, and such low density and limited walkability. Anyway if I was showing someone around who'd never been there, depending on the individual and their preferences and all that, I think my priorities for showing off some of the genuine coolness of ATL (and depending on the weather/time of year) would probably be:
-Piedmont Park/Botanical Garden/Midtown
-Beltline/Ponce City Market/Inman Park/Krog St Market/various cool art, especially around the Krog St tunnel
-Little Five Points, Fernbank, drive down historic Ponce, Decatur
-Westside Park, Howell Mill corridor
-Swan House/history center, gawk at Buckhead mansions, Vinings village area and skyline views around there, river trail
-Vickery Creek area and canoes on the river and historic Roswell, possibly.
-Stone Mountain - genuinely cool and truly unique gem.
-Kennesaw Mountain maybe if they're into hiking, and Civil War history.
-W A F F L E H O U S E
-All the various best restaurants and bars and breweries along the way. Monday Night Garage.
-Various famous filming locations, Gwinnett Place Mall if they're a big Stranger Things fan.
-Probably a few other cool things I'm forgetting now.
With some variations in there of course, depending on what kinds of stuff they're into. But most of the rest is kind of, whatever, lol. I'd take them for a Moe's burrito/Kroger shopping/Chick-fil-A drive thru out in Gwinnett, if they want the authentic typical resident experience, lol.
But really, Downtown is pretty much completely skippable, sadly. I so wish that weren't the case, but Peachtree St is just not that impressive, especially if you've been to an actual city. Centennial Park is not really the great attraction that Atlantans think it is. It's just kind of like an Olympics nostalgia thing, with some museums around. And Underground wasn't even that great when it was in its heyday- now it's like way worse.
(Seeing a good concert at the Tabernacle is definitely a worthwhile experience, tho.)
Atlanta's main man-made marvel, is actually the airport, honestly. Obviously it's not like something to visit, but someone from Seattle or something, with the very run of the mill airport here, would probably be pretty amazed at the massive size and scope of that massive, sprawling world of a facility.
People want to visit places that are unique and different or exceptional, and things they don't have at home. Every decent size American city pretty much has history museums and aquariums and generic tourist rides and all the stuff like that.
ATL's great to visit, don't get me wrong, but I dunno about 'Top 10', especially with totally lacking water features, and such low density and limited walkability. Anyway if I was showing someone around who'd never been there, depending on the individual and their preferences and all that, I think my priorities for showing off some of the genuine coolness of ATL (and depending on the weather/time of year) would probably be:
-Piedmont Park/Botanical Garden/Midtown
-Beltline/Ponce City Market/Inman Park/Krog St Market/various cool art, especially around the Krog St tunnel
-Little Five Points, Fernbank, drive down historic Ponce, Decatur
-Westside Park, Howell Mill corridor
-Swan House/history center, gawk at Buckhead mansions, Vinings village area and skyline views around there, river trail
-Vickery Creek area and canoes on the river and historic Roswell, possibly.
-Stone Mountain - genuinely cool and truly unique gem.
-Kennesaw Mountain maybe if they're into hiking, and Civil War history.
-W A F F L E H O U S E
-All the various best restaurants and bars and breweries along the way. Monday Night Garage.
-Various famous filming locations, Gwinnett Place Mall if they're a big Stranger Things fan.
-Probably a few other cool things I'm forgetting now.
With some variations in there of course, depending on what kinds of stuff they're into. But most of the rest is kind of, whatever, lol. I'd take them for a Moe's burrito/Kroger shopping/Chick-fil-A drive thru out in Gwinnett, if they want the authentic typical resident experience, lol.
But really, Downtown is pretty much completely skippable, sadly. I so wish that weren't the case, but Peachtree St is just not that impressive, especially if you've been to an actual city. Centennial Park is not really the great attraction that Atlantans think it is. It's just kind of like an Olympics nostalgia thing, with some museums around. And Underground wasn't even that great when it was in its heyday- now it's like way worse.
(Seeing a good concert at the Tabernacle is definitely a worthwhile experience, tho.)
Atlanta's main man-made marvel, is actually the airport, honestly. Obviously it's not like something to visit, but someone from Seattle or something, with the very run of the mill airport here, would probably be pretty amazed at the massive size and scope of that massive, sprawling world of a facility.
I think world of Coca, the human rights museum and the Aquarium are all decent museums.. Are they the greatest in the world no but Coke is unique, Aquariums are always a nice thing to take kids to see and the Human Rights museum is important being that this region(Southeast) was the heart of the civil rights movement and birthplace of Martin Luther King. So I don't think they should be excluded necessarily depending on the person's interests. I can't take you seriously if you really think Waffle House is an attraction over those three exhibits. Yes people in Atlanta take Waffle house seriously but it's also a large chain at this point that's located in half of the country. The college football hall of fame is also downtown which for college football fanatics may be something worth seeing once. The CNN tour used to be cool when all the anchors were actually located there instead of NYC.
No Atlanta is absolutely not a top ten city in the United States to visit much less the world. The list wasn't exactly filled with top places to visit anyway. Atlanta is a decent city to visit but not on the level of Miami, Vegas, New Orleans, New York, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, anywhere with a great beach, anywhere with watersports, mountains, etc. It's popular for people to take weekend trips for partying and just hanging out but not a top level tourist city.
I mean, Waffle House was sort of a joke mention, but if they've never been to the South at all, then yeah it's absolutely a cultural icon. Obviously not for someone visiting from elsewhere where they also have WH.
I think world of Coca, the human rights museum and the Aquarium are all decent museums.. Are they the greatest in the world no but Coke is unique, Aquariums are always a nice thing to take kids to see and the Human Rights museum is important being that this region(Southeast) was the heart of the civil rights movement and birthplace of Martin Luther King. So I don't think they should be excluded necessarily depending on the person's interests. I can't take you seriously if you really think Waffle House is an attraction over those three exhibits. Yes people in Atlanta take Waffle house seriously but it's also a large chain at this point that's located in half of the country. The college football hall of fame is also downtown which for college football fanatics may be something worth seeing once. The CNN tour used to be cool when all the anchors were actually located there instead of NYC.
No Atlanta is absolutely not a top ten city in the United States to visit much less the world. The list wasn't exactly filled with top places to visit anyway. Atlanta is a decent city to visit but not on the level of Miami, Vegas, New Orleans, New York, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, anywhere with a great beach, anywhere with watersports, mountains, etc. It's popular for people to take weekend trips for partying and just hanging out but not a top level tourist city.
You can add Orlando and Boston to those cities but according to Expedia, Atlanta was the 10th most booked city in the United States for hotels on their site. So Atlanta is basically in the top 10 or on the cusp of it along with Dallas and Houston.
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