Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Atlanta Is For ... Little Ones?!
Monday, April 9, 2007

I'm in Atlanta for a few days doing research on my new book and I have virtually no access to a computer. In the meantime, I've run into a few articles in recent days about the changes coming to this traditionally uninteresting tourist and food city. The NYT even announces it's now a great place for kids:

ATLANTA has reinvented itself again.

When the city last grabbed the national spotlight as host of the 1996 Summer Olympics, it had transformed itself into a pedestrian-friendly metropolis in full party mode. Now, it has re-emerged as a tourist destination with a surprising child-oriented focus.

The city is still a place rich with the echoes of history, the Civil War and the civil rights movement. But it's also a place that offers the teen-and-younger set — on a recent visit, my brood included my son, then 14, and my daughter, then 7 — many attractions geared especially for them, beginning with the $200 million-plus Georgia Aquarium, called the world's largest, that opened in late 2005.

With a metro-area population of five million, Atlanta is a real city, one that may have more than its share of urban woes (traffic, crime), but one that also has bohemian neighborhoods that make for funky exploration and ethnic communities with lively shopping and dining. If your kids are old enough to appreciate what a great metropolitan center has to offer, they'll love Atlanta all the more.

Labels: Travel

Posted by B Feiler at 7:03 PM
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