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Georgia Central

About 30 miles north in the city of Alpharetta, Avalon is a mixed-use development with over 60 upscale stores and boutiques, lots of local dining, an outdoor “living room” with a bocce court and a community fire pit, a seasonal ice-skating rink and a plaza for free concerts and other community events.

The neighboring town of Roswell is home to the Southern Trilogy, a trifecta of three historic house museums: Barrington Hall, Bulloch Hall and Smith Plantation. The trio of antebellum homes and grounds are open to visitors to tour and explore.

A few miles west, Marietta is “a prime example of a wonderful, historic downtown that’s thriving,” Greene said. Marietta Square is surrounded by restaurants, shops and museums, although the Gone With the Wind Museum relocated this spring from the square to Brumby Hall and Gardens. The Historic Marietta Trolley Co. offers a one-hour driving tour that includes the historic downtown, antebellum homes and battlefields at Kennesaw Mountain. But the area also has a relatively new addition: In spring 2017, the Atlanta Braves moved from Turner Field in the heart of Atlanta to the team’s new ballpark, SunTrust Park, outside the city in Cobb County.

On Atlanta’s west side, Douglasville’s historic downtown is packed with shops and restaurants, Greene said. And though Six Flags Over Georgia sits just outside the city limits, most people who visit the massive amusement park stay in Douglasville, she said. At the nearby Sweetwater Creek State Park, visitors can walk a wooded trail that follows a stream to the ruins of the New Manchester Manufacturing Co., a textile mill that burned during the Civil War. Groups can also arrange ranger-led hikes or rent fishing boats, canoes, kayaks and paddleboards to enjoy the park’s 215-acre George Sparks Reservoir. The park’s visitors center features history exhibits and wildlife displays and has a rentable room that seats 40 people.

When Margaret Mitchell wrote her novel, “Gone With the Wind,” she chose Clayton County south of Atlanta as the setting for the fictional Tara plantation because it was where she grew up visiting her grandparents’ home, Fitzgerald Plantation. In Jonesboro, a costumed guide leads a 70-minute Gone With the Wind trolley or step-on tour of the area’s ties to Mitchell, the novel and all things Scarlett, Rhett and Tara. At the Road to Tara Museum, housed in Jonesboro’s 1867 train depot, groups can take tours with a costumed guide or explore exhibits on their own; there they’ll find reproductions of Scarlett’s most famous dresses, portraits displayed during the movie’s 1939 Atlanta premiere and authentic Civil War artifacts. Groups can also tour the 1839 Stately Oaks Plantation to experience a real-life version of the book’s fictional setting.

Rachel Carter

Rachel Carter worked as a newspaper reporter for eight years and spent two years as an online news editor before launching her freelance career. She now writes for national meetings magazines and travel trade publications.