Although New Jersey, South Carolina and California each grow significantly more peaches than Georgia, it’s Georgia that has long enjoyed the nickname of “the Peach State.” Fruit production aside, Georgia is a peach of a tour destination. It has mountains and beaches, big cities and small towns, colorful festivals and quiet museums — and plenty of peach cobbler, too.
Popular Demand
Helen
Helen was a tiny Appalachian town on the wane in the 1960s and 1970s when community leaders transformed it into slice of the Bavarian Alps with Bavarian-inspired architecture, festivals, decorations and food. Oktoberfest is a huge deal, as are Christmas shopping and fall foliage season. The popular summertime activity of floating down the Chattahoochee River on colorful inner tubes is decidedly not German, but it’s still fun to watch and photograph. Dining hotspots include Hofer’s of Helen, a German bakery and café with a biergarten, as well as Cafe International, the Hofbrauhaus Restaurant and The Heidelberg. Groups can walk off calories on miles of hiking trails in the surrounding mountains, including the popular Anna Ruby Falls Trail.
Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island covers only nine square miles, but it is a destination packed with activities for tour groups. A causeway connects it to the mainland, and it’s famous for its Atlantic beaches, the skeletal trees on Driftwood Beach, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, dolphin cruises and many chapters of Indigenous, Colonial and American history. It gained fame in the late 1800s when developers built resorts and homes for wealthy visitors escaping winters in the Northeast. The still-operating Jekyll Island Club Resort is a vivid reminder of that period. One of the resort’s interesting historic facts is that it was on the line for America’s first transcontinental phone call.
James Brown in Augusta
“The Godfather of Soul,” “The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business” and “Soul Brother Number One” were nicknames for James Brown, whose memory lives on in Augusta, his hometown. Visitors can learn about his career through a permanent exhibit at the Augusta Museum of History and then pose for photos beside a life-size statue in the middle of Broad Street and in front of colorful building murals. Brown, a first-year Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, influenced musicians worldwide. As the museum exhibit explains, “He was an innovator, emancipator and originator who brought Southern gospel, R&B and soul into the mainstream.” It’s OK to shout, “I feel good!”
Georgia Aquarium
Downtown Atlanta seems an unlikely place to see dolphins, sea lions, sea dragons, sharks, rays and a gigantic whale shark, but unlikeliness disappears at the Georgia Aquarium, which is, by many measurements, the largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere. Within its walls are 11 million gallons of water, with more than half of that in the massive Ocean Voyager exhibit. That’s where the mild-mannered whale shark hangs out. In all, there are 100 habitats for 500 species, including penguins, sea otters and clown fish that everyone calls Nemo.
Up and Coming
Savoy Automobile Museum
The Savoy Automobile Museum is a big attraction in the small town of Cartersville, 45 miles northwest of Atlanta. Among its great appeals is constant change. The museum’s founder is a Cartersville businessman who sold his telecommunications company in the 1990s and shifted gears to creating museums. He had a small collection of approximately 140 cars, but the museum is not dedicated to them. One gallery showcases some of his cars, but four other galleries feature changing exhibitions drawn from many sources. Something new arrives every month.
Margaret Mitchell House
The two-story Atlanta house where Margaret Mitchell wrote “Gone with the Wind” isn’t exactly new, but it was off everyone’s itineraries for four years, starting with the COVID shutdown. It reopened in 2024. The Atlanta History Center made major changes during the closure to address some of the novel’s myths, especially relating to slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction. Beyond Mitchell’s novel, another book also gets attention in the updated museum — “Black Reconstruction in America” by fellow Atlantan, W.E.B. Du Bois.
Otis Redding Center for the Arts
The legacy of Otis Redding, the “King of Soul,” expanded with the opening of the Otis Redding Center for the Arts in early 2025 in downtown Macon, his hometown. The center is a philosophical extension of the nearby Otis Redding Museum. A museum expansion is in the works to tell even more of the story of the artist who gave the world “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” and “Try a Little Tenderness.” An amphitheater at the new performing arts center faces downtown Macon’s main street.
Overnight Sensations
Windsor Hotel
President Jimmy Carter’s death in 2024 drew revived attention to south Georgia and his hometown of Plains. Americus, the “big city” near Plains, and its history-laden Windsor Hotel serve as a base for area exploration. The five-story, 53-room Victorian landmark was built in 1892, occupying most of a city block. Its three-story atrium was quite impressive before high-rises were common. It closed in 1972 but reopened after renovations in 1991, 2010 and 2019. Of course, its rooms inventory includes the Carter Presidential Suite. Sipping a cocktail from Floyd’s Pub in a veranda rocking chair adds a special touch to a day of touring. The hotel is part of Choice International’s Ascend Collection.
Plant Riverside District
Savannah’s hulking municipal power plant from 1912 is now a hospitality magnet with lodging, dining and entertainment venues. The star of the Plant Riverside District is the JW Marriott Savannah, with 419 guest rooms in three buildings, each with its own theme and feel. It also has 14 hotel-owned restaurants, 14 shops, a 330-seat concert venue, a recording studio and a broadcast/podcast facility. Its main lobby is a veritable museum filled with geodes, fossils, an imposing dinosaur sculpture overhead and exhibits about the district’s history. It is in the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Hotels of America program.
Chateau Elan
Chateau Elan is a touch of France in the town of Braselton in the North Georgia hills above Atlanta. Hillside vineyards set the scene for stays at the 276-room Chateau Villa and a 95-room Hampton Inn on the 3,500-acre estate. The Chateau Elan Winery produces 30 wines from its own grapes and grapes from California. Resort amenities include three golf courses — two championship 18-hole courses and a nine-hole, par-3 course — a 35,000-square-foot spa and a Viking Culinary Studio.
Memorable Meals
Dillard House
Changes — good changes — are coming to the Dillard House restaurant in the far northeast corner of the Georgia mountains when the Dillard House resort completes extensive renovations this summer. The traditional Appalachian-style family fare will remain the star in a dining room that seats more than 200 guests eager for fried chicken, green beans, biscuits and apple pie, while the Rock House Tavern is becoming a true farm-to-table restaurant with an à la carte menu. A brewery is in the mix, too. The destination’s original 80 rooms are open, and a 60-room hotel and spa are expected in late 2026.
Twin Smokers
Finding a countryside barbecue joint isn’t unusual, but finding a standout barbecue joint in downtown Atlanta is. Twin Smokers is barely a five-minute walk from the Georgia Aquarium. Its “Wood Library” is stocked with mesquite and post oak for Texas-style barbecue and white oak and hickory for Southern-style barbecue. Meats are smoked overnight for each day’s meals. Come for brisket, pulled pork, ribs, turkey, Springer Mountain chicken and sausage. Some of its beers flow from its next-door neighbor and sister company, Stats Brewpub, and its bourbon milkshakes have plenty of fans.
The Olde Pink House
Dining in The Olde Pink House’s crystal chandelier-lighted rooms while admiring a collection of oil paintings detailing Savannah’s history is special, but the experience is made extraordinary learning that the restaurant was built in 1781 on a royal British land grant. The story only begins there, with subsequent chapters involving transformation into a bank, time as a Union Army headquarters, fires, pandemics and more. Leisure groups can arrange special menus. Ask the staff why the building is pink. It wasn’t by plan.
