Get to know: Georgia, USA

Get to know

GEORGIA, USA

CUMBERLAND ISLAND RUINS

What’s it all about?

This southern U.S. state has golden beaches, epic mountains, exciting cities with fascinating history and a host of cute white picket fence towns in between. Georgia is often visited on a fly/drive with neighbours like Alabama and Tennessee and is just three hours from Orlando.

FORSYTH PARK, SAVANNAH Atlanta

Milledgeville

Capital attractions State capital Atlanta is a buzzing city where innovative chefs collide with southern hospitality, slick skyscrapers rise from urban forest and iconic African American culture has its roots. The city spreads out from its original centre at Five Points, with must-see neighbourhoods including Sweet Auburn where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born and raised, now home to numerous museums and historic landmarks. Green spaces include Piedmont Park with its famous urban panorama and the Centennial Olympic Park. You can also go behind the scenes of two iconic American brands – Coca Cola and CNN. Savannah St. Simons Island Jekyll Island

Suave Savannah

Established in 1733 this city’s history is palpable amongst its many squares, lined with elegant houses sporting Greek columns, gothic turrets and grand staircases and shaded by gnarled live oaks. Savannah is a traditional place where horse carriages rumble over cobbles but it’s also one of the few U.S. cities where you can get a cocktail to go.

MARTIN LUTHER KING MURAL, ATLANTA

G e org ia at charitable .trav e l Book

Georgia is the setting for lots of films and TV series, here are a few locations:

SMALL TOWN CLASSIC Visit the cute cafe where Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe was filmed in Juliette and treat yourself.

ZOMBIE ALERT The Walking Dead series was filmed across the state, including Driftwood Beach on Jekyll island, where Tara washes up in season seven.

STRANGE PLACE You can visit Hopper and Eleven’s cabin from Stranger Things at Sleepy Hollow Farm near Atlanta.

GET GUMP Sit where Forrest Gump sat in Chippewa Square, Savannah.

Great outdoors

Georgia’s scenery varies dramatically, from the hazy heights of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Okefenokee Swamp where you can paddle through lilies and under hanging cypress trees to spot alligators, turtles and bears. The ChattahoocheeOconee National Forest has 530 miles of trails taking in rivers, waterfalls and crystal clear lakes.

CURRAHEE MOUNTAIN

It’s a shore thing

Georgia’s coast stretches for 100 miles. The largest island is National Park Service-owned Cumberland, where wild horses gallop along bonewhite beaches and alligators and armadillos roam the tangled interior of oak-lined creeks. You can also explore the ruins of Dungeoness, a grand old house now claimed by wild turkeys.

Jekyll Island is accessed via a bridge which crosses marshes of whispering reeds and its beaches via boardwalks over the dunes. Inland are clapboard houses and maritime forests of magnolias and live oaks dripping in ghostly Spanish moss. The grand Jekyll Island Club Hotel was described in 1904 as “the richest, most exclusive and inaccessible club in the world”. Nearby Sea Island is one of the U.S’s richest zip codes, only accessible if you stay at its five-star resort.

More down to earth are St. Simons Island, with its quirky antique and book shops and Tybee Island, where locals go to relax and feast on fresh crab.

Taste local dishes like fried chicken, peach cobbler or low country boil, a stew of corn, crawfish and sausage

Heartland and soul

Don’t drive straight through Central Georgia, stay awhile and soak in its Antebellum architecture and rolling countryside. Georgia’s former capital Milledgeville has a quiet and collegiate atmosphere and its streets are lined with white columned houses shaded by dogwood trees, including the former Capitol building. In sleepy Madison too, rocking chairs creek and the stars and stripes flutter from many-a white-painted porch.

SMALL TOWN FORSYTH

FOX THEATER, ATLANTA