Atlanta Streetcar Tour
Though Atlanta is packed with attractions, many in concentrated areas, it’s never been a city one would classify as walkable. But a new electric streetcar program that kicked off December 30 of last year is looking to change that and keep groups from sitting in traffic when navigating among some of Atlanta’s more distant attractions.
Atlanta had streetcars as early as the 1880s, but they fell into disuse in the 1940s, said Scheree Rawles, Atlanta Streetcar director of marketing and communications. “The new streetcar is a way to get people moving within the city and connect diverse parts,” she said. “They run every 10 to 15 minutes, so there’s always one coming, and we’ve accommodated 183,288 riders from the start of service through the end of March.”
The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau has created a daylong streetcar tour itinerary for groups that leave from the convention district and takes in all the city’s top attractions, from the World of Coca-Cola and Georgia Aquarium in Centennial Olympic Park to the King Center, and finishing with dinner and a view at the 73-story-tall Sun Dial Restaurant in Peachtree Plaza.
The streetcar service was initially announced as free for the first three months, but that has now been extended for the whole of 2015, allowing groups to seamlessly hop on and off the network. Ambassadors on the trains help direct visitors from streetcar stops to nearby attractions and dole out recommendations for restaurants along the route.
College Football Hall of Fame
Atlanta’s College Football Hall of Fame may be an update of the fan favorite that’s spent the past few decades in South Bend, Indiana, but don’t expect to find decades-old exhibits at the high-tech, interactive new space.
“It’s more of an attraction or museum with a hall of fame in it than the other way around,” said president and CEO John Stephenson Jr. “We pretty much threw out the old model of a hall of fame. It still has the history and reverence, the theme is college football, and we have all an aficionado would want to see, but the experience lends itself to nonfans.”
When visitors arrive at the museum, the building greets each arrival individually by lighting up the helmet of the visitor’s college football team of choice in the lobby through RFID technology embedded in the award-winning All Access Pass each visitor receives in lieu of the standard ticket. Teams are selected during the initial group registration either upon or before arriving at the museum. Interactive touches at the Hall of Fame, such as digital pregame face painting or fight song karaoke, also load on the All Access Pass so visitors can access them after leaving.
Stephenson recommends groups allow two hours for a self-guided visit to the museum and dress for fun; the football field in the middle of the exhibit area lets groups run a pass pattern and kick field goals.
Zoo Atlanta
What can run across water, instantly change to highlighter-bright colors and see more than 300 feet into the distance? The scaly, slimy inhabitants of Zoo Atlanta’s new expansion, the first new major exhibit it has debuted in more than 10 years. In “Scaly Slimy Spectacular: The Amphibian and Reptile Experience,” zoo visitors can meet these gifted creatures and many others like them in a new 14,000-square-foot zoo addition.
While the zoo’s “World of Reptiles” exhibit is a fond memory for many locals, the $18 million investment into a new space, complete with a 45-foot glass dome, is the beginning of a new era for the zoo, transporting visitors to 12 different ecosystems from around the world, from the Australian billabong to a cloud forest to a re-created Cuban river with a 30-foot-high waterfall for the Cuban crocodile.
“‘Scaly Slimy Spectacular’ has been a very long time coming, and it finally gives this collection, its staff and the people of Atlanta and Georgia the facility they deserve,” said president and CEO Raymond King.
The zoo’s new exhibits allow visitors to experience the different types of behaviors of its 100 residents even when the animals aren’t in the mood to show off that day through interactive kiosks accompanying animal signage that features videos of the animals.
