I think a day downtown is...
by IceRam26
I think a day downtown is something you have to do in Atlanta. The city is very clean and has very nice shops around town. I miss the warm, muggy temperatures the most. The city is very beautiful at night. I also miss that.
Powder Up
by lisa_lise
Atlanta's summer weather was VERY humid. This may sound funny, but my friend who was raised in Carolina showed me the trick of putting on Shower to Shower powder to keep from sweating. It was weird, but it worked.
Ride a bike
by flannery2
It might sound scary, but Atlanta has some great places for biking. You can bike around Piedmont Park if you want to play it safe, or you can go out and see a lot of the city from the Atlanta/Dekalb bike trail. The trail starts at Georgia Tech in Midtown and goes all the way to Stone Mountain. You can ride all or part of it. Some of it is on city streets, but most of those trail stretches are separated from motor traffic with a bike lane that is well-marked. Much of the trail is off-road on paved paths. It's a great way to see a lot of different parts of the city if you want to get out of the car or off the bus for a day.
You can rent bikes from the nice people at
Skate Escape, 404-892-1292
1086 Piedmont Ave. (Corner of 12th & Piedmont)
Gay man's guide to Atlanta nightlife
by nielsoneric about Blu
Very circuity crowd. Hottest guys dancing in town. Cut circuit boys, daddy muscle bears, take your pick. Most die-hard partiers start either at Blu or Heretic at midnight/1am and then move to Backstreet at 4-6am and dance till daylight. Saturdays and or special holidays and events are the only decent times to go. Wear a shirt that you can take off and tuck in your pants/shorts. It's expected. And yes..it's hot enough in this town during the summer that many locals wear shorts out to the clubs.
Crazy roads
by Redlats
This is a car-type city (not like downtown San Francisco or New York). You need a car to get around. We rented a car at the airport -- all the major car rental companies are there, but the one I chose - Thrifty's was a pain-in-the-butt as their cars are not at the airport, but a few miles away (probably all rentals compounds were away from the airport, but I had never dealt with it before).
We had no problems leaving the airport, but I got lost returning the car (and almost missed my plane home). So heed my warning, when renting car with off-site rental locations (especially fairly distant off-site locations like Atlanta), leave enough time to drop your car off!!
We were told over and over again, unless you wanted to wait in slow traffic, do not to mess with the Atlanta rush hour. We didn't -- the traffic was bad enough in mid-day and evening. One reason traffic is so bad in Atlanta is that three major interstates meet in downtown Atlanta, the I-85, I-20, and I-75, plus the city is ringed by I-285.
Once you get downtown, there appears to be two subways (the transit system is called MARTA) - one going north/south, and the other east/west. I never tried the subway. We stayed near the airport, and drove downtown, parked and walked around. Many Atlanta features are within walking distance - Turner field, Philips arena, CNN, Coca Cola tour, Atlanta Underground, etc.