Georgia & The Carolinas Travel Guide

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Whether you’re looking to relax and unwind on pristine beaches, explore history and culture, or seek adventure off the beaten track; the State of Georgia offers something for everyone. Located just to the North of Florida Georgia offers a temperate climate with mild Winters and a gloriously warm Springtime.

Georgia’s state capital, Atlanta, is home the world’s busiest international airport. This bustling city hosted the summer Olympic Games in 1996 and maintains a laid-back Southern feel. Atlanta offers visitors plenty to see and do including the Georgia Aquarium, the CNN Center and the World of Coca Cola.

Follow Georgia’s Antebellum Trail that runs 100 miles south from the vibrant city of Athens. You’ll discover stately homes, see authentic Civil War battle sites and explore historic towns dotted with splendid Ante-bellum architecture. Savannah is a quintessentially romantic Southern city set on 22 beautifully historic squares.

Gorgeous Georgia

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Atlanta, Rome, Athens,
Macon, Savannah, Jekyll Island,
Thomasville & Atlanta

Atlanta, Macon & Savannah

from £1599 Per Person

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Multi Centre

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3 Nights Marriott Suites Midtown
3 Nights 1842 Inn
3 Nights Mansion on Forsyth Park

Charlotte, Asheville & Myrtle

from £1589 Per Person

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3 Nights Aloft Ballantyne, Charlotte
3 Nights Indigo Hotel, Asheville
3 Nights Embassy Suites, Mrytle Beach

Georgia

Georgia’s coastline offers stunning sandy beaches and charming coastal resorts. More than 20 barrier islands dot the Atlantic seaboard from Savannah to St Mary’s. A short ferry trip takes you to the idyllic Cumberland Island. Wander the many trails that wind through its unspoilt forest and stroll the Island’s 17-mile long beach perhaps catching a glimpse of the almost 300 wild horses that roam the island.

Georgia is a haven for adventurers and nature-lovers alike. In the North Georgia Mountains, the Chattahoochee National Forest offers gorges and waterfalls and world class hiking trails. It’s here that you will find the southern starting point for the world-famous Appalachian Trail that sets its 2,200-mile mountainous course through 14 states to Maine. North Georgia also boasts some of the United States’ best white water rafting and is where the Olympic events were held in 1996.

Top ‘Must see/do’

Sundial Revolving restaurant and bar atop the Westin Hotel in downtown Atlanta. Amazing views of the Skyline, especially at night!
Urban White-water rafting in downtown Columbus.
Booth Western Art Museum, Cartersville.
Visit Cumberland Island. Unspoilt beaches and wild horses abound.
Georgia Sea Turtle Center, Jekyll Island.
‘Savannah Dan’ walking Tour, Savannah.
Wine Tasting & Tour, Yonah Mountain, Cleveland.
Taste Fried Green Tomatoes at the ‘Whistle Stop Cafe’, Juliette. Where the 1992 movie of the same name was shot.
Visit the newly opened Center for Civil and Human Rights, Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta.
Horse riding and stay at the Southern Cross Guest Ranch, Madison. Voted best family ranch in the US by BA Highlife Magazine.

Top Tips

Use Atlanta’s MARTA rail system to get around the city and from the airport. It’s cheap and easy to use.
Ditch the car when staying in Savannah’s Historic District. It’s a true walking city!
Best times to visit Georgia are Spring (mid March to end of June) and Autumn (September to mid November)
Get off the interstates and visit the quaint, historic and welcoming towns through the State!
Buy an Atlanta City pass when visiting attractions in the city. They offer great value and can get you to the front of the line.
Grab a ‘to-go’ cup in Savannah’s Historic district. One of the USA’s few cities that allows you to carry your alcoholic beverages from bar to bar in an ‘open container’. Enjoy!

Savannah

Savannah, a coastal Georgia city, is separated from South Carolina by the Savannah River. It’s known for its manicured parks, horse-drawn carriages and ornate antebellum architecture.

Savannah Tours & Attractions

Noble Jones Tours
Welcome to Noble Jones Tours, purveyors of highly accurate, in depth, engrossing Savannah walking tours. Discover this Southern jewel of a city, from her founding, her trials and triumphs, to her grace, beauty and mysteries within.

Savannah Sidewalk Tours
There’s no better way to get an up-close-and-personal look at Savannah than by taking a walking tour with a small group led by a professional guide. Your Savannah Sidewalk Tours guide is a veteran Georgia journalist, Savannah storyteller, and a long-time downtown resident who knows and loves the city and its history.

Savannah Tour Walk
Savannah Tour Walk is the only walking tour that provides iPads to each patron making it the best walking tour in Savannah. Patrons enjoy viewing monuments, squares, historical buildings, and streets as they appeared over 160 years ago.

Savvy Savannah Tours
Savvy Savannah Tours offers a variety of experiences including the Savannah Shaken martini tour, the Savannah Cinema movie tour, the Savannah Suds craft brew tour, the Savor Savannah food tour, the Scenes of the Past history tour, the Specters of Savannah ghost tour and the Spiritual Savannah religious history tours.

Old Savannah Tours
Bringing Savannah’s history to life isn’t just a slogan…it’s a promise. Along with our uniquely personal descriptions of Savannah’s rich and spellbinding history, actual historical re-enactors appear from time to time, boarding and walking the isles of your trolley.

Old Town Trolley
Savannah’s original orange and green trolleys have been thrilling guests for more than a quarter of a century, transporting them to the city’s array of historic homes and quaint squares. On the Old Town Trolley visitors get an ideal mix of historical icons, local sights of interest, and superb architectural landmarks.

Savannah Taste Experience
Experience the diverse and distinctive cuisine of Savannah and learn about the city’s history, architecture and culture on this 3-hour walking tour. Stop at seven specialty food stores and restaurants, and sample local favorites including shrimp and grits, Scotch pies and fried green tomatoes. This tour is an ideal way for visitors and residents alike to learn more about Savannah while enjoying intriguing food samples that add up to an authentic southern lunch.

Full Moon Tours
An evening of high spirits, some of this world and some of another! We can leave non-believers in doubt and it’s always a good time.

Savannah Ghost & Crime Walks
Join Savannah Dark Crime researcher Chuck “Hurricane” Norras on Savannah’s first and only true Dark Crime Tour at 9 pm. Based on murder case evidence and police reports and featuring new case evidence in The Gribble Axe Murders and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Adults Only!

Savannah on Wheels
Our historical bike tour is the most unique and complete tour Savannah has to offer. We cover most of the historical area and stop at many of the most popular sites. Our tours also include key knowledge of where to ride safely and what streets to avoid in order to safely ride through the city of Savannah.

The Andrew Low House
The Andrew Low House, which overlooks Lafayette Square, offers insight into life in Savannah more than 150 years ago. Owned and operated by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia, this Italianate-style stucco-over-brick building was originally designed by architect John Norris and built for wealthy cotton magnate Andrew Low.

Top things to see in Savannah:

River Street
Bordering the river port, River Street imparts old-world charm. The nine-block brick concourse is ideal for strolling and ship-watching.

Beach Institute
Georgia’s oldest school for African Americans. Initially, the school had 600 students enrolled, with nine female teachers and a male principal.

Leopold’s Ice Cream
Leopold’s is an ice cream parlor circa 1935. Much of the decor is original including the original soda fountain, soda fountain cover, back bar, sundae holders, banana split boats, and malte milk dispenser – all of which are still in use

Georgia State Railroad
Savannah’s Central of Georgia Railway National Landmark District is the oldest and most complete antebellum railroad manufacturing and repair facility still in existence in the United States

The Olde Pink House
The Olde Pink House was built by one of the city’s founding families in the mid 1700s and was, at one time, a bank. This iconic building is now an upscale restaurant

The National Museum of the Mighty Eighth
This $13 million museum honors the courage, character, and patriotism embodied by the men and women of the Eighth Air Force from World War II to the present

South Carolina

South Carolina Offers a lot in a relatively little space. Shaped roughly like a diamond by geography, polished by more than 300 years of American history and made gracious by a tradition of hospitality as diverse as its people, South Carolina offers visitors a broad array of attractions and accommodations limited only by the imagination.

Anchored by nearly 200 miles of beaches and coastal attractions – including world-famous Charleston (with Fort Sumter and scores of colonial homes and cobblestone carriage rides), leafy golf haven Hilton Head Island and family friendly Myrtle Beach (with more than a hundred golf courses of its own) – millions of folks make their annual beach trip to South Carolina. Attractions range from the affordable flashiness of Myrtle Beach – with its thousands of hotels and restaurants to fit all price ranges – to the quiet elegance of Kiawah Island, home to one of the nation’s consistently top-ranked golf and beach resorts.

Perhaps the most affordable of all beach destinations are the four state parks that offer combinations of camping and cabins, surf and sun. But there’s more to the coast than sand and surf for those who want to understand the complexity of South Carolina’s past. And it doesn’t take much digging.

For instance, those sweetgrass baskets, iconic symbols of the Gullah tradition still made by local residents at roadside stands and Charleston markets — they’re just a part of the living, breathing Gullah culture that grew from the long abandoned rice plantations that now form the heart of thousands of acres of nature preserves such as the ACE Basin. The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor is now being organized to help preserve and tell that story, including at such sites as the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, home to the first school for freed slaves and still a center of African American culture to this day. The state also operates historic plantation homes that interpret the slavery- and post-slavery experience of planter and African American alike.

And as the South Carolina story spreads inland, through the pristine swamps and pine-filled Midlands to the Blue Ridge Mountains themselves, it’s all available in one day’s journey. Little known fact: More Revolutionary War battles were fought here than in any other colony, stories told at preserved national and state battlefield sites such as Kings Mountain and Musgrove Mill. Modern military buffs won’t want to miss historic waterfront Beaufort and Parris Island.

Cotton fields themselves, something most northerners haven’t seen in real life until they drive by, spread by the thousands of acres through much of the Midlands. Tobacco fields can be seen in the Pee Dee and roadside farm stands selling produce of all kinds dot the highways across the state. And then there are peaches. South Carolina grows more than any other state than California and the orchards and stands are hard to miss.

South Carolina also is dotted with unique small towns and big cities, each with its own cultural and culinary offerings. (Barbecue, of course, is a mainstay.) Greenville’s robust downtown and unusual cantilevered bridge over the Reedy River falls is a good example not to be missed. Columbia, the state capital, offers Statehouse tours, its own dynamic museums, a major university and the nation’s largest Army basic training base. Aiken and Camden, too, bear mention as unique equestrian towns of unusual quiet wealth and charm. And then there are hidden gems such as Newberry, Cheraw and Abbeville, filled with history and antebellum homes.

Then there’s the great outdoors. From whitewater rafting on the roiling Chattooga in the Blue Ridge to paddling through quiet tidal creeks, and huge inland reservoirs in between, along with hundreds of miles of unspoiled hiking trails, South Carolina offers something for everyone, and all within an easy day’s drive of most of the Eastern United States.

Top 10 things to do

Ride the Skywheel in MB
Visit Brookgreen Gardens, the largest outdoor sculpture garden in the US
Tea Plantation, only tea plantation in the US
Charleston’s plantation tours – Boone Hall, Drayton Hall, Middleton Place & Magnolia
Food tasting tour in Charleston
Carriage tour in Beaufort
Dolphin watching tour in HHI
Biking trails in HHI
BMW Performance Center
Ceasars Head State Park scenic outlook

North Carolina

North Carolina: Land of Diversity, Culture, History and Charm. From the highest mountain peaks east of the Mississippi to the tallest natural sand dune system in the eastern United States, North Carolina takes diversity to new heights. Across the state, visitors will find a rich cultural heritage, abundant history and modern cities. And more than 400 North Carolina golf courses provide varied terrain and challenges suitable for golfers of all skill levels.

The 300-plus miles of North Carolina coastline are dotted with picturesque lighthouses. A chain of barrier islands along the northern coast beckons visitors to familiar places such as Kitty Hawk, Duck and Cape Hatteras. Along the southern shoreline lie the historic Cape Fear Coast, Crystal Coast and Brunswick Islands. Each area has a unique style and offers spectacular beaches, events and activities in a relaxed atmosphere.

The North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro is the nation’s largest walk-through, natural-habitat zoo. In nearby Seagrove, where the earth is natural red clay, some of the world’s best potters ply their craft, as they have for more than 200 years.

While charming small towns beckon you to stay, higher reaches call you westward where the mountains rise to meet the sky.

The Blue Ridge Parkway winds its way past scenic overlooks, state parks, national forests, picnic areas, campgrounds and some of North Carolina’s most spectacular hiking trails. Fishing, canoeing, white-water rafting and camping are perfect ways to enjoy natural mountain wonders.

Spring and summer festivals provide an opportunity to enjoy foot-tapping mountain music, regional cuisine and, of course, famous North Carolina handmade crafts. Asheville is city-center to mountain activity and boasts numerous arts and crafts shops, galleries and museums. Two of the most interesting homes in America – George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate, a 250-room French chateau, and Carl Sandburg’s Connemara, where the renowned author published one third of his works – are located in the Asheville region.

From enchanting mountain courses to ocean-view fairways, golf in North Carolina can be played year round. Pinehurst Resort hosted the U.S. Open for the second time in 2005 and will host it again in 2014, and just down the road, Pine Needles recently hosted the U.S. Women’s Open for the third time.

Along with great golf, visitors can find great barbecue throughout North Carolina. It comes sliced, chopped or pulled and served up with Southern sides like hushpuppies, coleslaw, baked beans and sweet tea. From beaches to mountains, North Carolina has something for every taste.

Georgia & The Carolinas Travel Guide

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Gorgeous Georgia

Atlanta, Macon & Savannah

Charlotte, Asheville & Myrtle

Georgia

Savannah

Savannah, a coastal Georgia city, is separated from South Carolina by the Savannah River. It’s known for its manicured parks, horse-drawn carriages and ornate antebellum architecture.

South Carolina

North Carolina

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