Athens Things to Do

pictured is the beautiful 1904 beau arts athens city hall. the city hall is located on a hill on the highest point of the city. the city hall is a a couple of blocks from the university of georgia campus and from athen's entertainment district. the city hall is a good spot to begin a walking tour of downtown athens.

the athens welcome center is a good first stop to visit when in athens. the welcome center is located in the historic 1820 church-waddel-brumby house. this house is the oldest in athens and was once home to moses waddel the president of the university of georgia from 1820 to 1829. at the welcome center you can get directions to the historic homes and buildings of athens or you can arrange a tour of the city.

To get a true feel for Athens, you really need to spend some time downtown. Stay someplace within walking distance (I've heard good things about GameDay, but being from in town, never stayed there, or another option is The Foundry.) Walk down in the morning. Pick up a Flagpole, the free weekly entertainment newspaper, and grab some coffee at one of the many coffee spots, like Walker's, Espresso Royale, or Hot Corner. Read about all the music and arts events happening while you are in town. Browse the many shops. Frontier for gifts with an earthy, arty organic feel; Helix, a grabbag of tons of cool things from jewelry to baby clothes to soap and sushii plates; Native American for incredible beads, turquoise and other handmade items; Schoolkids or Wuxtry records for vinyl or cd's of local and other music with an emphasis on indies; Agora, for the most ecclectic crazy thrift store experience; Masada, for great leather and outdoor gear. This is just a sampling. Have some lunch. (See restaurant tip.) Go walk around on the beautiful UGA campus, and don't forget to hit the Founders Garden. Walk down to the Tate Student Center on the UGA campus and check out all the flyers for what the University has to offer, and get a feel for student life. Go across the street and look at the crazy big UGA football stadium. Go rest. Have dinner, again, see my restaurant tips. Then, go and see some music!! You may need to see movie at Cine, a great new art-house theater, or grab a drink at The Manhatten or 283 or The Globe or Transmetropolitan or any other of the millions of bars downtown. Look around, and you'll find one to meet your age, dress, drink, or other preferences. Music typically starts LATE. You have to go to the 40Watt if you want the true Athens experience. Also of note, Tasty World, Caledonia and the Georgia Theater. If you can't make it late, try the Melting Point at the Foundry or Flicker, who tend to have earlier shows. Wake up in the morning, and, if it's a weekend, hit The Grit for brunch or try Big City for pastries and coffee. Hope you have fun!

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At the botton Of E Broad Street you can join an O'Conee river walk that takes you, (yes by the river), and points out where the old mills were situated and into Dudley Park.
Just by the river ant the bottom of Broad Street is Weaver D's restaurant which gave it' name to the REM record, "Automatic For The People".

Athens is one of the coolest college towns around. Tons of bars and party opportunities. All you really have to do is go downtown and you'll find more bars than you'll be able to attend. Yes, the women are hot. If you're a little over the average college age and want to avoid runins with the frat kids, I'll leave some bars for you to explore. Most of the non-frat bars are on the same part of downtown.
Flicker bar, this is a towny, alternative type of place that frequently hosts bands. 40 Watt, a music venue with a different band playing every night. Manhatten Cafe', if you're over 30, you can meet cool people your age here. Ga. Bar, has a reputation as a coke-head hangout, but generally very cool people are hanging out here. The Globe, as the name suggests, people off all nationalities will hang out here. You can get premium beers at premium prices here also.

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As we came off of the North O'Conee Greenway walk we stumbled accross a disused old wooden railway bridge, well half a bridge.
Looking at a map I think it was close to the SR-10 and Poplar street junction by Dudley Park. It's very impressive but there were no signs and no plaques giving info about it as there were for other less impressive items. I think they should make a bit more of it.

Not surprisingly (and rather depressingly), there's a large national chain coffeeshop on the most prominent corner immediately across the street from the campus. However, there are also a number of locally owned independent coffee dispensors which seem to be doing quite well.

Next to the college campus is an interesting collegetown, with a high density of small shops, restaurants, and bars. The latter serve as venue for a florishing music scene that is a lot more diverse than you might think. Athens apparently deserves its reputation as an incubator for some very creative music-making.