Destination Guides

Actor's Express

• Performing Arts | Theater

This adventurous company, with space in the King Plow Arts Center on the Westside, has a penchant for producing works (including many premieres) that explore important-and often uncomfortable-contemporary issues.

Alliance Theatre

• Performing Arts | Theater

Located in the Woodruff Arts Center, the Alliance is Atlanta's premier legitimate theater, mainly mounting local productions of well-known works on its main stage, as well as original plays in the more intimate Hertz Stage.

APEX Museum: The African American Panoramic Experience

• Sightseeing | Museums

APEX contains African art, exhibits about local black history, and traveling exhibits by local and national black artists.

Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum

• Sightseeing | Museums

Located right next to the zoo in historic Grant Park, the Cyclorama features the world's largest oil painting and a three-dimensional diorama of the 1864 Civil War Battle of Atlanta. Visitors experience this from a seat on a revolving platform, following

Atlanta History Center and Museum

• Sightseeing | Museums

This award-winning museum is devoted to the story of the city and its people. Visitors can examine thousands of artifacts and southern folk art, research their family trees, and listen to the heartaches and hopes of Union and Confederate soldiers. The cen

Bobby Jones Golf Course

• Recreation | Golf

This scenic public course is just minutes from downtown.

Centennial Olympic Park

• Sightseeing | Landmarks and Historic Sites

The most visible reminder of the 1996 Summer Olympics, this downtown park is a 21-acre/8.5-hectare site with a plaza paved with patterned bricks. The Fountain of Rings, the largest interactive fountain in the world, is the centerpiece. Its 251 water jets

Center for Puppetry Arts

• Sightseeing | Museums

This monument to all things puppet includes a hands-on museum, a workshop for children that lets them make a puppet to take home, local and international touring puppet shows and, of course, a puppet gift shop. There are even puppet shows for adults. Tick

Dad's Garage Theater

• Performing Arts | Theater

This local favorite always features lively and laughable comedy and improv performances.

Fernbank Museum of Natural History

• Sightseeing | Museums

Atlanta's dinosaur museum is one of the two Fernbank institutions in Atlanta. Its <i>Giants of the Mesozoic</i> permanent exhibit houses a skeleton of a 100-ton <i>Argentinosaurus</i>, the largest dinosaur found to date, as well as a<i> Giganotosaurus</i>

Fernbank Science Center

• Sightseeing | Museums

This science center and planetarium introduces scientific research to the public. It includes the 65-acre/26-hectare Fernbank Forest, an undisturbed, mature mixed hardwood forest where the public can enjoy 2.5 mi/5 km of paved trails with self-guided tour

Fox Theatre

• Sightseeing | Landmarks and Historic Sites

Atlanta's fabulous Fox Theatre was designed in the late 1920s as the headquarters for 5,000 Yaarab Temple Shriners. The interior was inspired by the 1922 discovery of King Tut's tomb and the country's fascination with Egyptian-style decor. It is both beau

Georgia Shakespeare

• Performing Arts | Theater

Oglethorpe University's Conant Performing Arts Center, northeast of Buckhead, presents Georgia Shakespeare each summer.

Georgia State Capitol

• Sightseeing | Landmarks and Historic Sites

Listed on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places, Georgia's Capitol is a must-see. Georgia gold tops the dome, which was patterned after the U.S. Capitol and built in 1889. Inside, there's a museum with history and natural-scienc

Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center of African American Art

• Sightseeing | Museums

More than 500 important artists of African descent are represented in this collection, which is housed in a 19th-century Eastlake Victorian house. It displays a fine arts collection of contemporary African Art and Haitian Art. The center also offers speci

High Museum of Art

• Sightseeing | Museums

Exhibit space for Atlanta's art museum has more than doubled with the addition of three buildings. Architect Renzo Piano designed the additions, and the original white-porcelain-coated steel exterior was crafted by Richard Meier. The collection encompasse

Horizon Theatre Company

• Performing Arts | Theater

This long-established company has a soft spot for new southern plays of all types.

Imagine It! The Children's Museum of Atlanta

• Sightseeing | Museums

Hands-on, action-oriented experiences await visitors at this innovative museum, where children (especially age 8 and younger) can let their imaginations run wild. History, science and world cultures are featured in a fun way.

Ivan Allen Jr. Braves Museum and Hall of Fame

• Sightseeing | Museums

Named after the mayor who first lured the baseball team to Atlanta, the museum displays more than 600 Braves-related items as well as photographs of the old Atlanta Crackers team and the Atlanta Black Crackers of the Negro Leagues.

Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum

• Sightseeing | Museums

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter founded the private, nonprofit Carter Presidential Center in 1982 in partnership with Emory University. The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, one of 11 presidential libra

Margaret Mitchell House and Museum

• Sightseeing | Landmarks and Historic Sites

This historic site in Midtown includes the <i>Gone With the Wind </i>Movie Museum and the National Register-listed former apartment house where Margaret Mitchell lived between 1925 and 1932 and where she wrote <i>Gone With the Wind</i>. It also houses the

Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site

• Sightseeing | Landmarks and Historic Sites

The foremost civil-rights figure in the U.S. was born in Atlanta, and this historic site is a 39-acre/16-hectare area that includes the places where Dr. King was born, worked, worshipped and is buried. The National Park Service has carefully preserved and

Michael C. Carlos Museum

• Sightseeing | Museums

The largest collection of ancient art in the Southeast, located on the Emory University campus, contains a permanent collection of more than 18,000 objects from around the world. See artifacts from ancient Greece, Rome and the Americas, as well as galleri

Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia

• Sightseeing | Museums

Focusing on contemporary visual art by Georgia artists, this museum features more than 300 works. A variety of media are displayed, including sculptures, paintings, prints, photography and installation pieces.

National Museum of Patriotism

• Sightseeing | Museums

Currently closed with plans to reopen in November 2009 in new location. <P> At this Midtown museum you can ring a Liberty Bell, hear soldiers sing the national anthem, see sculptures, films and artifacts pertaining to U.S. military and patriotic history,

Seven Stages

• Performing Arts | Theater

Social, political and spiritual themes predominate there, with a view to new international works.

The Herndon Home

• Sightseeing | Landmarks and Historic Sites

This 1910 mansion is a National Historic Landmark that tells the dramatic story of former slave Alonzo Herndon and his family. He overcame slavery and rose to prominence among the African-American business community in Atlanta, eventually becoming the fou

The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum

• Sightseeing | Museums

Exhibits range from the Holocaust to comic books.

Theatrical Outfit

• Performing Arts | Theater

This long-established company began 30 years ago in an Inman Park laundromat, but now it has its own home downtown. Many of the productions have a southern setting or theme.

True Colors Theatre Company

• Performing Arts | Theater

Founded by former Alliance Theatre artistic director Kenny Leon, this company produces works that mainly explore the African-American experience. It does not have a permanent performance space of its own, however, and often mounts plays in other Georgia c

Wren's Nest

• Sightseeing | Landmarks and Historic Sites

A National Historic Landmark, this was the home of Joel Chandler Harris (1881-1908), famous for his <I>Uncle Remus</I> stories, which were adapted from African-American folktales. (Harris' writings were, in turn, adapted by Disney for the movie <I>Song of