Atlanta is the capital of the US state of Georgia and its most populous city. As of 2010, Atlanta is the seventh-most visited city in the United States, with over 35 million visitors per year.

The city is a beautiful combination of shopping, fine dining and rich history. The charming Southern city is filled with attractions and world-class sophistication.

Many visit it because it is home to professional franchises for three major team sports: The Major League Baseball, Atlanta Braves, The Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association and the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League.

Others spend their time visiting different attractions, some of which are as follows:

The Georgia Aquarium: It is the perfect place for family visits. It is entertaining, an educational experience, intriguing and beyond fun. The aquarium promotes a fun and enjoyable learning experience. To this date, Georgia Aquarium has attracted more than six million visitors and employs more than 220 employees and a dedicated core of more than 1,000 volunteers. The aquarium utilizes innovative technologies as well as interactive and interdisciplinary techniques to ensure that students have an enjoyable academic experience.

Atlanta Zoo: There’s always something fun to do during your visit to the zoo! Animal keeper talks, training demonstrations, fun shows, animal encounters and more! The zoo strives to inspire the citizens of Atlanta and Georgia and all visitors to value wildlife on Earth and to help safeguard existing species through conservation. Animal keepers are always fun to hang out with. You will have a good time when you listen to their talks, witness their training demonstrations, see their fun shows and animal encounters. The zoo aspires people to value wildlife on Earth and to help safeguard existing species through conservation.

World of Coca-Cola: It is the only place where you can explore the complete story — past, present and future — of the world’s best-known soda brand. You get the chance to taste over 60 different products from around the world just by visiting the location. You can also experience their exciting 4-D Theater by watching a 3D movie with moving seats and enjoy a fully-functioning bottling line and be able to take home a free 8-ounce bottle of the Coca-Cola itself. The kids will love the 7-foot-tall Coca-Cola Polar Bear who they can take pictures with and give him a big hug. At World Coca-Cola you can see the world’s largest collection of Coke memorabilia, view works by artists such as Haddon Sundblom, Howard Finster and Steve Penley in their inhouse Pop Culture Gallery.

Atlanta has played a major role in the development of various genres of American music at different points in the city’s history. This makes Fox Theater well worth your time. The tour guide will take you through film history starting from the twenties with such foresight to the future: from the air-cooling system to the vacuum cleaning system. Be adventurous and become (just for the moment) an elevator operator of this antique theater. The artwork and furnishings will capture your attention and imagination. There are several shows and films screened here and tickets could be booked online.

This historic landmark has an amazing architecture with Islamic and Egyptian influence. Many concerts and performances continue to be held at this historical theater.

Highly recommend are the guided tours. Learning the on and offstage secrets is entertaining and educational. In the 1970s we almost lost The Fox to Bellsouth. Their desire to raze the building generated outrage and inspired a powerful volunteer organization named Save the Fox. The Fox was rescued from unscrupulous developers and now operates as a profitable showplace. One drawback — because the building was designed as a movie palace, seeing live shows on The Fox stage is a mixed blessing. Unless you have tickets for down front you may have difficulty hearing the show. And if you are watching an intimate show designed for a small theater the production can fall flat because the enormity of The Fox dwarfs the performers.

Atlanta is one of few United States cities with permanent, professional, resident companies in all major performing arts disciplines such as opera Atlanta Opera, Atlanta Ballet, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Alliance Theater.

Atlanta is also a national center for the arts; it is home to important art museums and institutions, such as the famous High Museum of Art, which is perhaps the South’s leading art museum and among the most visited art museums in the world. The Museum of Design Atlanta, MODA, is the only design museum in the Southeast. Contemporary Art Museums are a big attraction such as the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. Institutions of higher education also contribute to Atlanta’s art scene, with the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Atlanta campus providing the city’s arts community with a steady stream of curators, and Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum containing the largest collection of ancient art in the Southeast.

Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park boasts an anticipated three million visitors every year. The 21-acre park features family fun and live music all days of the week. It is the remaining legacy of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. It was built to celebrate the Olympics visit to Georgia as well as to revitalize an area of a town that had long been forgotten. It is also anchored by the Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, CNN Center, Center for Civil and Human Rights Museum and the future site of the College Football Hall of Fame. Tourists can take a self-guided audio tour through the Centennial Park to learn more about its history, architecture and original music. Finally, the Fountain of the Olympic Rings show displays a dancing water show harmonized with pop music, lights and sound effects.

The famous Atlanta History Center was founded in 1926. This 32-acre destination is one of the Southeast’s largest history museums that includes two historic houses, the 1928 Swan House and the Smith Family Farm, the Centennial Olympic Games Museum, the Kenan Research Center, the Grand Overlook event space, the Coca-Cola Cafe, a museum gift shop, and acres of historic gardens and woodland trails. The center features 32 acres of gardens, wildlife trails and woodland areas. Throughout the year, the museum brings history to life through living history programs, lectures with award-winning authors, toddler programs, homeschool days, school tours, summer camps, music series, annual festivals such as Sheep to Shawl, and much more. The Swan House at the Atlanta History Center was one of many Georgia set locations used during the filming of the movie ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’. The Capitol Tour experience includes a guided tour through Swan House showcasing the rooms that were used during filming. The Atlanta History Center offers exhibitions on the Civil War, African-American heritage, and Southern folk art, with a wing dedicated to the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games.

The Georgia Aquarium is located in downtown Atlanta. It allows you to discover more than 10 million gallons of water and is home to more animals than any other aquarium. The aquarium features a number of exhibits that are sure to reel you in such as Cold Water Quest, Ocean Voyager, River Scout, Aquanaut Adventure and Tropical Diver. The aquarium is home to tens of thousands of animals including 500 species from around the world and more than 60 habitats. The largest exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium measures 284 feet long x 126 feet wide x 30 feet deep at the maximum depth. It holds 6.3 million gallons of water. The second largest exhibit holds 800,000 gallons of water and is home to four beluga whales.

Tourists would not want to miss the famous dolphins exhibit and the dolphins show featuring the underwater dolphin viewing window and a spectacular musical theatrical performance that highlights the emotional bond shared between dolphins and humans. Do not miss the Jellyfish in 3D, along with 4D tingling sensations on your arms as the jellies swim by.

The CNN news tour is a favorite with many Atlanta tourists. It offers a behind the scenes tour in their center, which is based right in Atlanta. It is a 50-minute guided walking tour that offers a peek into the newsroom, control room and much more. Be sure to keep your eyes wide open; there’s no telling who you might bump into while walking the halls. The tour begins on a long ride up the world’s largest freestanding escalator (which, before CNN, used to take visitors up to “The World of Sid and Marty Krofft,” an indoor amusement park). In fact, during the Sid and Marty Krofft days, the space that is now CNN’s main newsroom was a human pinball machine. The escalator is 196-feet long and eight stories high.

Stone Mountain Park is known as Georgia’s most-visited attraction. This beautiful 3,200 acre land is where the fun never ends, it is where outdoor family activities take place during every season. The park is built around the world’s largest piece of exposed granite (that’d be the Stone Mountain).

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