Atlanta Hotels

Eddie's Attic
One of the city's best venues to hear live folk and acoustic music, in a nonsmoking atmosphere seven nights a week.

Varsity
The world's largest drive-in restaurant and an Atlanta institution since 1928, the Varsity is a glorified fast-food joint, but it's always packed with folks ordering walk-a-dogs (hot dogs), glorified steaks (hamburgers) and bags of rags (fries).

Fado Irish Pub and Restaurant
In Buckhead, this is a comfortable Irish pub with a good selection of beers. There's a lunch, dinner and snack menu to weigh the Guinness down. Entertainment on offer includes regular live music performances, screenings of big football (round ball version) matches from Europe and, of course, Irish-American 'craic'.

Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site Visitors Center
The historic Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site commemorates the life, work and legacy of the Civil Rights lodestar. The center takes up several blocks. A stop by the bustling Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site visitors center will help you get oriented with a map and brochure of area sites and exhibits. From here, free guided tours leave for the Martin Luther King Jr Birthplace. If you miss the tour, a film in the visitors center tells about King's life in the house.

Blind Willie's
To get a dose of serious blues, get yourself over to Blind Willie's. This is well-established blues bar presents a roster of local performers, as well as the occasional visiting big-name act to a crowd that laps it up.

World of Coca-Cola
Next door to the Georgia Aquarium is the new World of Coca-Cola, a self-congratulatory yet entertaining museum that opened in 2007, relocating from several blocks away. The climactic moment comes when guests sample Coke products from around the world. But there are also Andy Warhol pieces to view, a 4-D film to catch, company history to learn, and what seems like 20 billion promotional materials to behold.

Fat Matt's Rib Shack
Less than a mile north of Piedmont Park, a much more down-home choice is divey Fat Matt's, a shrine to two great Southern traditions: barbecue and the blues. Take special note of the Brunswick stew, a delicious side dish best described as barbecue soup.

Flying Biscuit Café
Sleep in if you want, the Flying Biscuit serves all-day breakfasts of omelets, organic oatmeal pancakes, fried green tomatoes and tasty grits, all accompanied by their justifiably famous fluffy biscuits. A diverse, happy crowd enjoys the rest of the vegetarian-friendly menu of black bean quesadillas and veggie burgers.

CNN Center
CNN Center is the headquarters of the cable-TV news service. You might be tempted to take the CNN tour, a behind-the-scenes glance at the 24-hour news organization, but don't be heartbroken if you miss it. The tour is dark, dingy and just a little bit condescending. Except for an early encounter with a teleprompter, visitors don't get close enough to the action to feel connected. They do, however, get to ride on an enormous escalator that climbs above a food court and into the CNN facility.

High Museum of Art
Through 2009, the expanded High Museum of Art, is working in partnership with the Louvre, displaying works that belong to the famous Parisian museum. But don't overlook the High's permanent collection of American art, which includes fascinating works from the turn of the 20th century, plus contemporary pieces from the likes of Gerhard Richter and folk art from Georgia treasure Howard Finster. The whole museum is done up in blinding white, making the facility itself feel quite artful.

Margaret Mitchell House & Museum
Margaret Mitchell House & Museum is a shrine to the author of Gone With the Wind. Mitchell wrote her epic in a small apartment in the basement of this historic house. A separate, adjacent museum includes memorabilia from the blockbuster film version of the title.