Atlanta Things To Do

The world’s largest aquarium boasts more than 100,000 animals (including five beluga whales) from 500 species in eight million gallons of fresh and marine water.

This multi-building complex in Sweet Auburn encompasses King’s boyhood home and Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he and his father pastored.

Take a 55-minute behind-the-scenes tour of the news giant, then present the day’s top news stories on your own video at the Turner Store’s Interactive Area.

Thanks to an unprecedented partnership with Paris’ Musée du Louvre, this Richard Meier/Renzo Piano-designed museum’s “Louvre Atlanta” exhibition plays host to hundreds of the French institution’s works through 2009.

Opened in 2007, this totally modernized incarnation of the popular attraction presents a bubbly array of Coke-related artifacts, a 4D theatre, a Pop Art gallery, and global drink samples.

Covering 30 acres in Midtown’s Piedmont Park, this unique garden showcases both indoor and outdoor botanical wonders, including – rather unexpectedly – flora from tropical and desert climes.

Zoo Atlanta sprawls over 40 acres inside historic Grant Park. Large and natural feeling habitats showcase more than 200 species of animals from giraffes to warthogs. In September 2006, Zoo Atlanta welcomed its most popular exhibit with the birth of baby panda Mai Lan.

Located 12 miles west of downtown Atlanta, this 230 acre amusement park offers rides for thrill seekers and young families alike. Batman and Superman rides are heart-pumping fun, but there are also over 20 rides for little kids, including a new Thomas the Train themed area.

This storefront establishment is less a museum than a cultural oddity, but it’s worth a visit to see Dr. Kenneth Willhoite’s collection of foods made or marketed by black Americans. Willhoite leads a 45-minute tour of the collection, which includes everything from an antique icebox to Aunt Jemima pancake mix to Crunk! energy drink. No reservations necessary.