Atlanta City Pass a Must!

I love to travel, but what I love more than traveling is getting great deals.  This summer one of our destinations was Atlanta, Georgia.  I knew from the start that The Georgia Aquarium was a must see, as well as The World of Coca-Cola.  But when researching other attractions in the Atlanta Area, I discover the Atlanta City Pass.

For just $69.00 dollars, an adult can get into 5 attractions -- The Georgia Aquarium, The World of Coca-Cola, the CNN tour, and two choices -- (1) Zoo Atlanta or the Atlanta History Center and (2) High Musuem of Art or Fernbank Musuem of Natural History.  Children can do five attractions for only $49.00. 

Our first attraction was the Atlanta Zoo.  It is a small zoo as compared to the St. Louis Zoo, but you can walk through a beautiful park to get to the main zoo entrance.  Also another calling card for me was the pandas.  We do not have pandas here in St. Louis.  Another interesting activity some may enjoy is the feeding of the giraffes.  We did not do that here, but we have feed giraffes in Colorado. For the most part, you have very good views of the animals, and animal feedings are fequently schedule which allows for some very good sightings of some of the more elusive animals.   You can see the whole zoo in three hours.

We choose to do the World of Coke on our first night in Atlanta.  What was really nice about the city pass was we got to circumvent a huge line that needed to buy tickets.  It was Memorial Day and lines were extra long.  We did choose to skip the Secret Formula Vault to go to the 4-D movie.  We did spend some time in the tasting room.   You can easily see the whole attraction in three to three and half hours.

A word of caution:  Apparently are tastes in America and those around the world are vastly different.  Some of those were absolutely ghastly.

The next morning we were off to do the CNN tour.  Some advice:  If you want to be one of the first tours, call ahead and reserve a slot or arrive very early.  They are also very particular about pictures with flashes.  Make sure that you know how to operate your camera properly.  But the tour is very interesting for adults.  I do not think that my 10 year old daughter got a whole lot out of the experience.  The tour lasted a little over an hour.

Also if you are looking for fast food, this is the place to get it.  They have many chains located in the food plaza and lots of seating.  There is also the CNN and Turner Broadcasting Gift shop.  They have many items that we just loved, like shirts from our favorite show, Big Bang Theory.

One Fun Fact:  If you go on this tour, you will be riding the world's largest escalator.  Check that off the Bucket List!

Within walking distance to CNN is the Georgia Aquarium, which just made the list for being one of the world'd best aquariums.  When you get there, head right over to the customer service desk to get your tickets for Dolphin Tales, which is included in the price of the City Pass.  Then enjoy the rest of the aquarium.  Plan on spending time in the large aquarium Ocean Voyager gallery.  The larger Manta rays will do backflips, and of course, the other fish are equally as mesmerizing.  I could have sat their for hours.  Just so peaceful!    There is also a 4D theater show great for children.  I will admit the Dolphin Tales show was a little hokey.

Sadly, we ran out of time and did not make it to our final attraction, which would have been the Fernbank Natural History Museum, but I still feel with those four attractions we got our money's worth. 

What would I do differently if I could?  I would probably skip the zoo and choose the other option, the Atlanta History Center.  I know we missed out on the history of the south and Atlanta.  This place includes the Centennial Olympic Games Museum and the Margaret Mitchell house (She wrote Gone with the Wind for you non-literary types). 

Another aspect of this trip that I enjoyed was our hotel, Courtyard by Marriot Downtown was located on Carnegie, which was between Peachtree Street (many dining choices) and the attractions.  We parked the car and walk everywhere we wanted to go.  Everynight we walked through Centennial Park, which is absolutely beautiful.  If I had the time I would have walked around the whole park, but we were a little pressed for time.   I don't know if the park is always as busy as it was on Memorial Day weekend, but there seemed to be many events taking place in the park.