If you're planning to tour the eastern USA, Atlanta, Georgia provides a great starting point. This modern metropolis, near the south Atlantic seacoast, offers a variety of sights, shopping, nightlife, sports and entertainment. Atlanta's proximity to Florida, the Georgia coast, and the Appalachian Mountains position it perfectly for the start of a driving tour of the eastern or southern USA.
Hartsville International Airport receives direct service from many European capitals and offers domestic flights to most US cities. It is located five miles south of downtown Atlanta. You can take a taxi from the airport to downtown for $20, or a shuttle bus for $8, or the train for $1.50. MARTA, Atlanta's mass transit system, can transport you around the city very efficiently and very economically. The International Information Counter at Hartsville Airport has MARTA maps and information.
Metropolitan business center of the southeast
During the American Civil War, Atlanta was burned to the ground by the advancing Union army. The city rebuilt around 140 years ago and hasn't stopped growing since. Atlanta is a business center and home to hundreds of corporate headquarters including Coke Cola, United Parcel Service and many more. It's a great hub of business activity. It is also a regional center for nightlife, entertainment and sports attractions. It has a temperate climate that makes club hopping, late night shopping and outdoor activities a pleasure all year round.
Buckhead is considered the center of Atlanta nightlife. Its history dates back to the 1800's when a tavern owner mounted a "buck's head" in his establishment near the corner of West Paces Ferry Road and Roswell Road. Whether you're seeking Latin music, a coffee house, a cigar bar, a romantic nook, a gay bar, or a disco, you will find it here. It is worth a walk through this affluent neighborhood simply to see the palatial homes, to sample the unique restaurants, and to browse in the luxury shops. You'll find currency exchanges and other services for international tourists and businesses in this area. Lennox Square Mall in Buckhead is the largest shopping mall in the southern USA. Art galleries, boutiques and small shops are plentiful, making it a perfect place to browse during the day.
In the heart of the old south
In almost every part of Atlanta, you can find interesting neighborhood nightclubs and bars featuring a wide variety of entertainments. The Grant Park area has a range of venues catering to crowds from country and western fans to rockers. Zoo Atlanta and the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum are also located in the Grant Park area. The Cyclorama, a 42 feet-high 360-degree painting of the battle of Atlanta, has been on public display since 1898. The Museum is next to the zoo and opens daily from 9:30 AM until 4:30 PM, with admission prices of $5.00 for adults, $3.00 for children and $4.00 for seniors.
For a glimpse of the Old South, visit the Atlanta History Center at 130 West Paces Ferry Road. You'll find fascinating exhibits on everything from antebellum arts to Coke Cola, plus information about touring some of Atlanta's stately homes and gardens. The Southeastern Railway Museum in nearby Duluth, Georgia has over 80 pieces of rolling stock and is a must-visit for folks who like trains. If you're a Gone With the Wind fan, you can visit the house where author, Margaret Mitchell, lived in at 999 Peachtree Road. Tours are given continuously from 9:30 AM until 5:00 PM for an admission fee of $12. Literary tourists will also enjoy the Wren's Nest House Museum, home of J. C. Harris who authored the Uncle Remus tales.
Home of Martin Luther King
If you like modern history, visit the museum at the Carter Center or The Martin Luther King National Historic Site. The long anticipated reopening of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King preached, is scheduled for December 2001. If you prefer modern culture, visit the World of Coke Cola for memorabilia and exhibits related to this distinctive US beverage . Underground Atlanta is one of the most popular attractions in the city spanning six blocks, twelve acres, and three levels with entertainment, shopping, and restaurants It is in the center of downtown near the Braves Baseball stadium, the CNN center, and the Georgia State Capital.
For shopping, Atlanta is a great place to end your tour of the USA. You will find a variety of retailers including upscale and funky as well as discount outlets. Bargain hunters seeking toiletries, blue jeans, and other American goods should head for the suburbs and explore Wal-Mart, or another discount store for good buys. For serious bargain hunters, there is a Tanger Factory Outlet Mall 30 miles south of Atlanta in Forest Grove.
Taste the southern cooking
For a real Southern culinary experience, have breakfast at a Waffle House restaurant and try some grits (a hot corn meal cereal) with your eggs and bacon. Grits are eaten with bunches of butter, salt and pepper as a breakfast side dish. Other specialties of the Southeast are southern bar-b-cue and "soul food". "Soul food" is African-American cooking and uses a lot of chicken and pork as well as interesting ways of preparing familiar vegetables. Corn bread and biscuits both accompany most soul food, which is often served with an ample coating of gravy.
Sixteen miles east of downtown Atlanta you'll find Stone Mountain State Park, home of the world's largest granite monolith. It is best known for the great equistrian sculpture of three Civil War Confederate Generals carved into its side. The park is open year round from 6AM until midnight. Stone Mountain's attractions include a laser show, an antebellum plantation, a railroad, a riverboat complex, a beach and waterslide complex as well as a sky lift and numerous areas of natural beauty. Camping and lodging are available on site.
Sports, culture and entertainment
West of Atlanta theme park fanciers will discover Six Flags Over Georgia, a mere twenty miles down Interstate 20. With over 100 rides, special areas for tiny tots, and a water park, Six Flags is a great day trip. It's open from late February until the end of October.
Sports fans will appreciate the variety of major league events in Atlanta. The NFL Atlanta Falcons play football, the National League Atlanta Braves play baseball and the NBA Atlanta Hawks play basketball in the city. NASCAR racing is featured at the Atlanta Speedway 20 miles south of the city. For cultural events, Atlanta offers a symphony, a ballet and a variety of theater companies.
Atlanta has enough tourist attractions and entertainment options to keep you busy for quite a few days --- but it is also a great place to see a slice of the "real America" to see how we work and play every day.
Written by : Diane Goldberg
Provided by USATourist.com
Friday, May 23, 2008
in Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland is situated along the shores of the vast Chesapeake Bay nearly 200 miles (over 300 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately 35 miles (60 km) northeast of Washington DC and 75 miles (125 km) southwest of Philadelphia Pennsylvania. It is one of the great eastern coast seaports of the United States with extensive facilities for container shipment and for the transport of automobiles via roll-on roll-off cargo vessels. It is an older city with plenty of character and many historically significant attractions.
The Inner Harbor
The old inner harbor basin located at the heart of downtown Baltimore has been refurbished and converted to a large entertainment and shopping area. The docks and streets surrounding the inner harbor now house museums, restaurants, shops, entertainment venues and hotels. The National Aquarium, the Maryland Science Center, Port Discovery Children's Museum, and the World Trade Center of Baltimore are all located around the basin. Docked along the Inner Harbor piers, you will also find: the USS Constellation (the last all-sail war ship built by the navy); the USS Torsk (a World War II vintage submarine); the lighthouse ship Chesapeake and the US Coast Guard Cutter Taney. They are all open to the public for tours. The Baltimore's Inner Harbor is a very colorful and historically interesting place to visit.
The Harbor Shops are located right on the Inner Harbor basin downtown. They contain a variety of shops, a fast food mall and an assortment of nice restaurants. You can buy a souvenir of Baltimore and sit down to feast on some genuine Maryland crab cakes while enjoying the harbor scenery. You can stroll along the esplanade to the nearby Science Center or the Aquarium or can tour the USS Constellation and the other museum ships. Water taxis depart from the pier just behind the Harbor Shops to take you to Fells Point, Little Italy or Fort McHenry. All-day tickets on the water taxis cost about $6.
The Old Neighborhoods
The city of Baltimore has many old ethnic neighborhoods. A few of them have been restored and refurbished into interesting shopping and dining locales with plenty of character. Little Italy is located just a few blocks east of downtown. It offers many Italian restaurants, groceries and pastry shops. It is only a 15-minute walk, a five-minute cab ride or a 10-minute water taxi ride from the center of downtown.
Fells Point, a small shipyard community located about 3 miles east of downtown along the harbor basin, has been revived as a shopping and entertainment center. The old central markets still offer a variety of meats, produce, ethnic delicacies and seafood. The surrounding shops have been beautifully restored and converted to bars, restaurants, boutiques, art galleries and antique shops. On weekends, live music and entertainment attract a lot of young folks. You can get to Fells Point via a 10-minute taxi ride or a 15-minute water taxi voyage.
The Federal Hill district of Baltimore lies just south of the Inner Harbor Basin. Its most prominent feature is the low hill situated directly south of the harbor. From its summit in Federal Hill Park, you get a great panoramic view of the entire city.
You can reach it by walking south along Light Street past the Maryland Science Center. It is less than a mile. The surrounding neighborhood is composed of neatly refurbished brick and stone fronted town houses, with a nice selection of small shops, restaurants, stores and neighborhood bars. The Cross Street Market offers a nice selection of meats, produce, seafood, pastries and flowers. This is a place where the residents of Baltimore go to shop and to eat.
Sports, Entertainment and Culture
Baltimore has an American League baseball team, the Orioles, who play their games at the beautiful Camden Yards stadium just a few blocks from the Inner Harbor. They also have a NFL football team, the Ravens, that play in a stadium just south of Camden Yards. They also have an Indoor soccer team, a professional lacrosse team and a women's football team. There are two thoroughbred horse racing tracks nearby including the famous Pimlico Race Course, home of the world famous Preakness. There are plenty of opportunities to see some great sports matches in Baltimore.
Baltimore has a symphony orchestra and an opera company. It has several theater venues in the area including two dinner theaters. There are dozens of art galleries and museum in the city including some unusual and interesting places like the National Cryptology Museum, the Antique Toy Museum, the Museum of Dentistry and the Nanny Jack collection of Afro-American memorabilia.
Getting to Baltimore
You can drive to Baltimore from New York City or Philadelphia by taking Interstate route 95 south. It is only four hours from NYC and only two hours from Philadelphia. From Washington DC it is less than one hour north on Route 95 or a bit longer if you take the Baltimore Washington Parkway or old Route one. You can fly into Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) which is only a half-hour drive south of downtown. There are plenty of public transportation options from BWI to downtown Baltimore. You can take the MARC trains, the light rail, the AMTRAK passenger trains, the super shuttle vans or the taxis.
Route 95 skirts around Baltimore along a circular beltway known as route 695. Many hotels, motels and modestly priced accommodations can be found along route 95 or near the major exits from 695. Other accommodations are concentrated near BWI airport and along route one south of the city. Some of the finest hotel accommodations are located on or near the Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore.
Shopping
Likewise, shopping centers are clustered near route 95 and route one and near some of the major exits from 695. The Towson Town Center Mall and the White Marsh Mall are located in the northern suburbs and the huge Arundel Mills Mall with nearly 200 factory outlets is just south of the city in Hanover Maryland. There are also some upscale malls and boutiques near the Inner Harbor area in downtown including Harborplace and the Gallery at Harborplace.
Nearby Attractions
Annapolis, capitol of the state of Maryland and one of the oldest cities in the USA, is located just 25 miles southeast of Baltimore. It is a lovely little city located in a picturesque setting on the Chesapeake Bay with some of the best preserved 18th and 19th century architecture in the country. It is home of the US Naval Academy and home of St. John's College, originally founded in 1696. This historically significant attraction is only a 30-minute drive from downtown Baltimore and it offers many interesting attractions.
Ellicott City is a charming village with a restored historical district located just a few miles south of the 695 beltway around Baltimore. The central business area has a selection of quaint shops, art galleries and restaurants.
Washington DC, our nation's capitol, is less than a one-hour drive south of Baltimore. You can take the MARC or the AMTRAK trains to Union Station, you can drive to one of the park and ride lots in the DC suburbs or you can drive all the way to downtown Washington. There are so many monuments, museums and historical attractions in the city that I will not attempt to list them all. It is one of the best tourist destinations in eastern USA.
Written by : Mike Leco
Provided by USATourist.com
Baltimore, Maryland is situated along the shores of the vast Chesapeake Bay nearly 200 miles (over 300 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately 35 miles (60 km) northeast of Washington DC and 75 miles (125 km) southwest of Philadelphia Pennsylvania. It is one of the great eastern coast seaports of the United States with extensive facilities for container shipment and for the transport of automobiles via roll-on roll-off cargo vessels. It is an older city with plenty of character and many historically significant attractions.
The Inner Harbor
The old inner harbor basin located at the heart of downtown Baltimore has been refurbished and converted to a large entertainment and shopping area. The docks and streets surrounding the inner harbor now house museums, restaurants, shops, entertainment venues and hotels. The National Aquarium, the Maryland Science Center, Port Discovery Children's Museum, and the World Trade Center of Baltimore are all located around the basin. Docked along the Inner Harbor piers, you will also find: the USS Constellation (the last all-sail war ship built by the navy); the USS Torsk (a World War II vintage submarine); the lighthouse ship Chesapeake and the US Coast Guard Cutter Taney. They are all open to the public for tours. The Baltimore's Inner Harbor is a very colorful and historically interesting place to visit.
The Harbor Shops are located right on the Inner Harbor basin downtown. They contain a variety of shops, a fast food mall and an assortment of nice restaurants. You can buy a souvenir of Baltimore and sit down to feast on some genuine Maryland crab cakes while enjoying the harbor scenery. You can stroll along the esplanade to the nearby Science Center or the Aquarium or can tour the USS Constellation and the other museum ships. Water taxis depart from the pier just behind the Harbor Shops to take you to Fells Point, Little Italy or Fort McHenry. All-day tickets on the water taxis cost about $6.
The Old Neighborhoods
The city of Baltimore has many old ethnic neighborhoods. A few of them have been restored and refurbished into interesting shopping and dining locales with plenty of character. Little Italy is located just a few blocks east of downtown. It offers many Italian restaurants, groceries and pastry shops. It is only a 15-minute walk, a five-minute cab ride or a 10-minute water taxi ride from the center of downtown.
Fells Point, a small shipyard community located about 3 miles east of downtown along the harbor basin, has been revived as a shopping and entertainment center. The old central markets still offer a variety of meats, produce, ethnic delicacies and seafood. The surrounding shops have been beautifully restored and converted to bars, restaurants, boutiques, art galleries and antique shops. On weekends, live music and entertainment attract a lot of young folks. You can get to Fells Point via a 10-minute taxi ride or a 15-minute water taxi voyage.
The Federal Hill district of Baltimore lies just south of the Inner Harbor Basin. Its most prominent feature is the low hill situated directly south of the harbor. From its summit in Federal Hill Park, you get a great panoramic view of the entire city.
You can reach it by walking south along Light Street past the Maryland Science Center. It is less than a mile. The surrounding neighborhood is composed of neatly refurbished brick and stone fronted town houses, with a nice selection of small shops, restaurants, stores and neighborhood bars. The Cross Street Market offers a nice selection of meats, produce, seafood, pastries and flowers. This is a place where the residents of Baltimore go to shop and to eat.
Sports, Entertainment and Culture
Baltimore has an American League baseball team, the Orioles, who play their games at the beautiful Camden Yards stadium just a few blocks from the Inner Harbor. They also have a NFL football team, the Ravens, that play in a stadium just south of Camden Yards. They also have an Indoor soccer team, a professional lacrosse team and a women's football team. There are two thoroughbred horse racing tracks nearby including the famous Pimlico Race Course, home of the world famous Preakness. There are plenty of opportunities to see some great sports matches in Baltimore.
Baltimore has a symphony orchestra and an opera company. It has several theater venues in the area including two dinner theaters. There are dozens of art galleries and museum in the city including some unusual and interesting places like the National Cryptology Museum, the Antique Toy Museum, the Museum of Dentistry and the Nanny Jack collection of Afro-American memorabilia.
Getting to Baltimore
You can drive to Baltimore from New York City or Philadelphia by taking Interstate route 95 south. It is only four hours from NYC and only two hours from Philadelphia. From Washington DC it is less than one hour north on Route 95 or a bit longer if you take the Baltimore Washington Parkway or old Route one. You can fly into Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) which is only a half-hour drive south of downtown. There are plenty of public transportation options from BWI to downtown Baltimore. You can take the MARC trains, the light rail, the AMTRAK passenger trains, the super shuttle vans or the taxis.
Route 95 skirts around Baltimore along a circular beltway known as route 695. Many hotels, motels and modestly priced accommodations can be found along route 95 or near the major exits from 695. Other accommodations are concentrated near BWI airport and along route one south of the city. Some of the finest hotel accommodations are located on or near the Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore.
Shopping
Likewise, shopping centers are clustered near route 95 and route one and near some of the major exits from 695. The Towson Town Center Mall and the White Marsh Mall are located in the northern suburbs and the huge Arundel Mills Mall with nearly 200 factory outlets is just south of the city in Hanover Maryland. There are also some upscale malls and boutiques near the Inner Harbor area in downtown including Harborplace and the Gallery at Harborplace.
Nearby Attractions
Annapolis, capitol of the state of Maryland and one of the oldest cities in the USA, is located just 25 miles southeast of Baltimore. It is a lovely little city located in a picturesque setting on the Chesapeake Bay with some of the best preserved 18th and 19th century architecture in the country. It is home of the US Naval Academy and home of St. John's College, originally founded in 1696. This historically significant attraction is only a 30-minute drive from downtown Baltimore and it offers many interesting attractions.
Ellicott City is a charming village with a restored historical district located just a few miles south of the 695 beltway around Baltimore. The central business area has a selection of quaint shops, art galleries and restaurants.
Washington DC, our nation's capitol, is less than a one-hour drive south of Baltimore. You can take the MARC or the AMTRAK trains to Union Station, you can drive to one of the park and ride lots in the DC suburbs or you can drive all the way to downtown Washington. There are so many monuments, museums and historical attractions in the city that I will not attempt to list them all. It is one of the best tourist destinations in eastern USA.
Written by : Mike Leco
Provided by USATourist.com
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