Atlanta
Detailed information about Atlanta can be found here: www.visit-usa.at/georgia-atlanta
Savannah
The French newspaper le Monde has declared Savannah the most beautiful city in the USA. No wonder. Just under 30 km from the sea, lush landscaped parks and elegant stately homes make the town, which was founded in 1733 on the river of Oglethorpe, a cultural highlight. What is special about the entire city planning are the straight streets, which are broken up by small squares. The idea behind this architecture was to deter any invaders. Today, beautifully designed fountains stand in the center of these squares. If you want to see the most beautiful ones, you can do this on a carriage ride. The best way to explore the old town is on foot.
In the River Street – the central entertainment and nightlife district – there are numerous restaurants, pubs and souvenir shops, most of which are housed in the old warehouses. From here you can take a water taxi to the modern Convention Center ( www.savtcc.com ) on Hutchinson Island.
Up the hill on the cliff edge is Factors Walk and Factors Row – the former center of the cotton trade where traders and brokers negotiated prices. The entrances to the old buildings on two levels are interesting. Also worth seeing is the City Market with its old buildings, which is now an arts and entertainment district.
According to collegesanduniversitiesinusa, museums or other cultural institutions are now housed in numerous old buildings. The most beautiful houses include the Davenport House on Columbia Square ( www.davenporthousemuseum.org ) and the Owens Thomas House (part of the Telfair Museum) on Oglethorpe Square, built in 1816.
Incidentally, in spring there is a unique opportunity to get into many of the otherwise closed historic buildings. The annual Homes and Garden Tour leads through numerous houses. Tickets will be available online beginning December at www.savannahtourofhomes.org (office address: 2020 Bull St, Savannah, GA 31401). Savannah has a good selection of excellent museums. At the Telfair Museum of Art, which occupies three buildings in the Old Town (see also Owens Thomas House) and the Jepson Center for the Arts (on West York Street), 19th-century furniture and crafts and 19th-century paintings are on display. and 20th century shown. (The parent company, Telfair Academy is located at 121 Barnard St, Savannah. All information is available on the website www.telfair.org )
The Sea Maritime Museum in the palatial Scarborough House features ship models, ship paintings and other maritime artifacts (41 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., Savannah, GA 31401, www.shipsoftthesea.org ). Just outside of the old town is the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, which deals with the history of the African-American population and the development of basic and civil rights. (460 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., Savannah, GA 31401, Tue-Sat 10am-4pm, www.rmgilbertcivilrightsmuseum.com )
For more information about Savannah
MLK Visitor Information Center, 301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Savannah, GA 31401, Monday through Sunday 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., www.visitsavannah.com. The website www.visit-historic-savannah.com also provides a nice overview
Tybee Island Recreation Area is located 30 km east of downtown Savannah on Highway 80 (Tybee Island Visitor Center Information, 802 1st Street, Tybee Island, GA 31328, www.visittybee.com and www.tybeeisland.com ). The way there leads past the legendary Bonaventure Cemetery, which appears as the setting in the famous novel “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”. Also in the Clint Eastwood –The film adaptation of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” occurs in the cemetery near the city of Savannah. The cover of the book and film is a stone statue of a young girl who has remained unnoticed in the cemetery for nearly 50 years and is now on display as the “Bird Girl” at the Telfair Museum/Jepson Center for the Arts. (330 Bonaventure Rd, Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, 31404, www.findagrave.com )
Also en route is the massive brick Fort Pulaski National Monument, which sits like a medieval castle at the mouth of the Savannah River. The fort, which was built from 1828 and was not completed until 1847, bears its name after the Polish-born officer Kazimierz Pulaski, who fought under George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. (US-80, Savannah, GA 31410 www.nps.gov/fopu )
Golden Isles
The Spanish gave this evocative name to the islands on Georgia’s southern coast. Whether it has to do with the golden hue of the marshland in autumn or whether it was the search for promising gold treasures is not entirely clear today. What is certain, however, is that the tourism industry is doing everything it can to keep this name. Anyone who has ever visited the islands knows that there are not only first-class beaches, but also all kinds of history.
Augusta
The second largest city in Georgia, with a population of around 200,000, is well known among golfers because it hosts the Masters tournament in April. Founded by Oglethorpe in 1736 and named after Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, fiancée of the heir to the British throne Friedrich Ludwig von Hanover, the otherwise relatively quiet town was once the center of the vast tobacco and cotton-growing region. Remarkable are the buildings in Old Town on the Savannah River, which still carry a little of the flair of the old southern states. This is especially true for the River Walk and, for example, the Historic Cotton Exchange. (32 8th St, Augusta, GA 30901).
The Morris Museum of Art features an impressive collection of works by Southern painters. (1 Tenth Street, Augusta, Georgia 30901, Tues–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 12pm–5pm; www.themorris.org ). For more information: Augusta Convention & Visitors Bureau (1010 Broad Street, Augusta, Georgia 30901, www.visitaugusta.com ). Information about historic Augusta is also available on the website www.historicaugusta.org
