A Perfect 24 Hours in Atlanta, Georgia

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Greetings Internet Stranger! I’m Stella Jane, author of the travel guide Get Lost, and welcome to 24 hours in Atlanta!

Some people think the South is an area bereft of culture. Nothing could be less true! In 24 Hours in Atlanta, you could see everything from an orchid show to a statue of perhaps the world’s most famous Parisian basketball player. (In fact, we will see both today.)

You could dine alongside President Obama. You could even meet Atlanta’s most famous defense attorney, and this website’s mascot, Ben Matlock. (OK, that might be hard because tragically he is fictional.)

Then come with me for some upscale glass installations and some down-home cooking. What’ll ya have?

24 Hours in Atlanta

Where to Stay?

Atlanta’s a big city with many different spread-out neighborhoods. But I like staying in Downtown Atlanta because it’s easy to reach many of the most popular attractions right away. Also it’s near the subway system, aka MARTA. Everyone likes to rag on MARTA, but it’s still better than Atlanta traffic!

Anyway, that’s why I recommend Hyatt House Atlanta Downtown. The rooms are huge, there’s a free breakfast spread every morning with many options, and the staff has that friendly Southern charm. Also it’s in a great, safe location. You can’t do better in this price range.

If you want a great deal on this hotel, click here.

And if you’re looking for other great deals on over 1000 other hotels in Atlanta, click here. This search engine will help you find the perfect place to stay during your plans for your 24 hours in Atlanta. With plenty of options to choose from, I’m sure you’ll find something for your schedule and budget.

24 Hours in Atlanta

Morning: Trolley Tour

There is no better way to introduce yourself to the city of Atlanta than through this excellent 90 minute trolley tour. You’ll learn tons of fun facts about the city, and you won’t have to walk around while doing it. It’s affordable and entertaining to boot!

Check rates and availability right here!

You won’t get to see literally every sight in Atlanta, but you will see some of the most famous ones.

Here is Centennial Park, where Atlanta hosted the famous 1996 Olympics. Yup, that’s a real Ferris Wheel in the background.

You will be able to see the Mercedes Benz Stadium where the Atlanta Falcons have never won the World Series. Just never say the number 28 or 3 in Atlanta. I am warning you in all seriousness.

You will also see Inman Park, which has some of the prettiest homes in the city. Perhaps you will even meet the famous Fitness Santa who lurks in Inman Park!

There is all this and so much more on the trolley tour. I hope I have convinced you that this tour is worth experiencing during your 24 hours in Atlanta!

Check rates and availability right here!

24 Hours in Atlanta

Early Afternoon: Atlanta Botanical Garden

Many people are unaware that Atlanta is sometimes called “the city in a forest”. It is jampacked with parks galore. In fact, it has the largest percentage of tree cover of any city in the United States. And the best place to get your tree hugging on is the Botanical Garden in Piedmont Park.

The Garden has been in Atlanta since the 70s, so I assume that Jimmy Carter founded it. (Not going to look that up. Just go with it.) I always have a wonderful time at the ABG, except for that one time I found this lost dog and couldn’t find his owner.

Hope you got home safe and sound, big guy!

The Botanical Garden often has special artistic installations to go along with its exuberant plant life. Of course, Atlanta has just about three seasons every year, so the plants will change along with the seasons.

I was there in the summer, so if you go in Spring-Fall or Almost Winter because it never snows in Atlanta and if it does everyone freaks out, I can’t guarantee you’ll see the same plants. However I can guarantee you will learn…

Three fun facts: atlanta botanical garden edition

1) why so many trees?

Atlanta, Georgia is 36% tree. That’s a scientific fact. And at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, you can actually walk in the canopies of the trees. That’s because the garden has the largest tree-canopy walkway in the United States. You can make like a squirrel or an arboreal gnome and scurry from tree to tree with no one to stop you.

The tree canopy is located in Storza Woods, which used to belong to something called the Gentlemen’s Driving Club. What is a driving club? Is that driving with cars or driving with golf clubs? It’s very hard to tell in Atlanta.

2) who built that orange phallus?

Glass-based artist Dale Chihuly has a special relationship with the ABG. He’s been exhibiting pieces here since 2004. Some, like the Saffron Tower Water Mirror Staircase pictured above, are permanent.

Some, like these red and yellow demon fingers, are more temporary in nature. But what happens to the glass exhibits when the exhibition is over? Does the glass get moved to a museum? Or does it get thrown away? That seems like a terrible waste of sand.

3) what are the prettiest flowers?

The Atlanta Botanical Garden’s best indoor collection are its gobsmacking display of orchids. They are located in the Fuqua Center, which I think was named after Training Day director Antoine Fuqua.

There are so many wonderful treasures in an orchid. Did you know the orchid has the greatest variety of any species of flower? And did you know that the vanilla plant is really the world’s most delicious orchid? Finally, did you know that orchids need humid temperatures to thrive?

Well, you need to know that fact about the temperature so you can prepare and bring a hairbrush with you to the Botanic Garden. Once you leave the Orchid Center, your hair will have frizzed into oblivion.

24 Hour Treasure: The Flying Biscuit

Any time I am in Atlanta, I crave breakfast at The Flying Biscuit. It has quite a few locations now, but it started as a local place in Atlanta, and it still has the feeling of a neighborhood hangout, not a chain. For this itinerary, you should visit the Midtown location.

My favorite thing about The Flying Biscuit is that they serve breakfast all day. As Leslie Knope says, “Why would people ever want to eat anything but breakfast food?” Especially when that breakfast comes with sausage, grits, AND a biscuit. That spread you see in the little metal dish is cranberry apple butter. It’s just the right sweet-tart choice to plop on that tangy biscuit.

As much as I like the food here, I’m always tempted to complain because I’ve been here several times and I have never even once seen that biscuit fly. I call that false advertising.

24 Hours in Atlanta

Afternoon: High Museum

The High Museum of Art has been around since 1905. Its name has nothing to do with tree canopies, flying biscuits, or drug use. It was named after the High family who donated their ancestral abode to house the museum. ATLiens sometimes call this museum “The High” for short.

You might be confused because this modern structure above doesn’t look anything like a place a wealthy Atlanta family might live in around the turn of the century. You are most correct, Internet Stranger! The current building was erected in the 80s, thanks in large part to a grant from Coca Cola Big Wig (TM) Robert Woodruff. So I guess this makes the High the umpti-millionth thing the city owes to Coke.

PS. Try saying high with a Southern accent. It’s very fun.

The High has a rich collection of art as well as regular temporary exhibitions, so allow me to focus your journey with…

Approximately top 5: high museum edition

1) Pennsylvania Dutch Trunk

It’s always a pleasure to find pieces in an art museum that aren’t just your typical painting or bust. This beauty is a colonial trunk belonging to the Pennsylvania Dutch. These are more commonly known as the Amish, from the Harrison Ford film Witness.

Each image on the trunk would have had a special significance for the Pennsylvania Dutch. The hearts symbolize God’s love. The star also symbolizes God. But I want to know which design symbolizes scrapple.

2) Still Life With Orange by emile bernard

I enjoy learning about new artistic styles almost as much as I like trying new foods. This painting is the Synthetist style. Apparently this means the painter was supposed to attempt to paint from memory and not from life.

Is this really how Bernard remembers fruits and vegetables? Because they kind of look like ghost vegetables to me. He might want to consider shopping at a different farmers’ market.

3) Half-Tide Annisquam River by Cecilia Beaux

Cecilia Beaux was the most prominent female painter in the United States at the turn of the century. Yet I had never heard of her before visiting the High! Sometimes I feel like my high school textbooks left a lot of information out.

Apparently she was famous for painting portraits of rich people. Isn’t that how most portrait painters get famous? It seems a lot harder to get famous by painting portraits of randos on the street. They just don’t give as much publicity.

4) Face Jugs

Face jugs are an African-American art form that dates to the 1800s. They are probably a continuation of a tradition practiced in the Congo. Nobody knows exactly why enslaved Africans began making them. I mean, we know that the jugs were made to hold liquid.

But scholars can’t agree on the purpose of the faces. Some think it was the enslaved people’s way of making a self-portrait. Others think the faces were meant to scare off evil spirits. What everyone agrees on is that face jugs are one of the first uniquely American art forms.

5) The church is the union hall by Ben shahn

This illustration was commissioned by Fortune magazine in 1946. They wanted Shahn’s commentary on the movement to create unions in the South.

Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born Jewish artist and a strongly pro-labor member of the Social Realist movement. His best-known work may be his portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. My brain struggles to visualize Fortune Magazine commissioning such an image today.

24 Hours in Atlanta

Evening: Dinner at The Varsity

This is my second chain restaurant recommendation of the evening, and yet I regret nothing. I’ve been going to The Varsity since I was a little girl. I used to sleep in a bright red Varsity shirt. At least four presidents have dined here. (That’s Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.)

Comedian Nipsey Russell got started as a carhop here. If you spend 24 hours in Atlanta and don’t go to the Varsity, I don’t think you can really say you’ve been to Atlanta at all.

24 hour treat: The Stella Special

The Stella Special is what I call my regular order at The Varsity. It is not on the menu. Do not try to order it. At The Varsity, they always ask to take your order by asking “What’ll ya have?” It’s the restaurant’s catchphrase. If you want the Stella Special, ask for two chili dogs with fries, an Varsity orange drink, and a fried peach pie. 

The Varsity has its own special language so just be aware if you ask for a “hot dog”, you’re going to get a chili dog with mustard on top.

I don’t know exactly what is the magic in the Varsity chili. It’s not like chili you’d eat by itself but it’s the perfect consistency for the hot dog. The Varsity orange is the perfect sweet way to wash down the slightly spicy chili.

And then the fried peach pie is just the most Georgia dessert there is. I could eat here every day, but I’d probably need triple bypass. Just once every couple of years will have to do for me!

24 Hour Tip

Of course The Varsity, as majestic as it is, will not take up an entire evening. But there are so many things to do in the Phoenix City at the end of your 24 hours in Atlanta. You could take in a show at the historic Fox Theatre! They spell theater the British way, so you know it’s extra classy.

Whether or not you’re able to take in a show here, check out the architecture. It’s the only theater in the United States that I know of to be modeled after a mosque.

You could also check out one of Atlanta’s beloved sports teams. You can see the 2021 World Champion Atlanta Braves, my very favorite sports team in the world, play in their new-ish home at Truist Park. But if you’d rather stay in the main part of Atlanta, you could see the Atlanta Hawks get their space jam on in the State Farm Arena.

Even if the Hawks aren’t playing, you get walk outside the State Farm Arena and admire the statue to legendary Hawk and native Parisian Dominique Wilkins. I was so surprised to find out that Wilkins was from Paris because it’s really hard for me to imagine any Parisian playing basketball. They are so cool, and it’s such a sweaty sport.

If football’s more your speed, the Atlanta Falcons play in the dodecahedral Mercedes Benz stadium. There’s a sign outside advertising Southern Hostility, showing a Falcon tackle an opposing player with extreme prejudice. I chuckled because the phrase should really be Southern Hospitality. But the phrase would be funnier if the Falcons were doing better.

Oh well, as we say in Atlanta, there’s always next year! (The Atlanta Braves are the only local sports team that wins championships, the most recent in 2021. But the city makes up for it in tree percentage.)

24 Hours in Atlanta

Shopping List

• An excellent small cell charger so you can keep taking pictures of your 24 hours in Atlanta
• My favorite guide to Georgia, including Atlanta
• The most reliable travel umbrella that is small enough to fit in my purse, but strong enough to stand up to powerful winds during our 24 hours in Atlanta
• These great TSA approved clear toiletries bags, so I can always keep spare toothpaste and travel sized toiletries in any carry-on.
• My book Get Lost, that I wrote myself with all my best travel tips. This book will show you how travel can take you on a journey of self-discovery.

24 Hours in Atlanta

How to Get There

Now, I wish I knew where you lived, Internet Stranger, because I could send you a box of Atlanta’s finest chili dogs. But sadly, I do not, and so I can’t tell you exactly how to get from your home to your 24 hours in Atlanta.

But I can tell you that you can use a lovely airplane to get from my hometown NYC to the Atlanta airport, and I recommend Expedia for the best way to find the cheapest flight to Atlanta at the best time of day. The Hartsfield-Jackson Airport is the busiest airport in the entire world, so no matter where you live, I’m sure you’ll be able to find a flight to Atlanta easily.

Just click here to start looking for the best possible deals on your flight, so you can head out to your 24 hours in Atlanta ASAP.

And That’s a Perfect 24 Hours in Atlanta, Georgia!

What would you do with 24 hours in Atlanta? Are you ready to start booking your hotel in Atlanta right now? Have you ever made up your own special at a restaurant and tried to get Internet Strangers to order it? And what crazy magic will make biscuits fly? Please email me at stellajane@aroundtheworldin24hours.com and let me know!

Note: If you want to know how I put my travel itineraries together, just click here. Keep in mind that while each article is about how to spend 24 hours in a place, that doesn’t mean you should ONLY spend 24 hours in Atlanta.

Check out what to do Downtown Atlanta. Dive into the best tours Atlanta Georgia. Go on a Martin Luther King Atlanta museum tour. Get going on the best Atlanta Tripadvisor things to do. Experience an Inman Park Atlanta Georgia tour.