HELP - Planning a Trip to Atlanta/Athens and I know NOTHING - Page 2

PHX31 · #21 Posted **Sep 18, 2009, 9:08 PM**

We bought ASU alumni tickets, with an associated tailgate for Sun Devils fans... however, the "tailgate" is at the Classic Center, where ever that is. I'm sure we'll get to Athens as soon as possible on Saturday. The best part of the trip so far is when they announced game time would be 7:00pm ET.

Pompuss · #22 Posted **Sep 18, 2009, 9:21 PM**

PHX31,
Yeah bud, have a great time and make sure you get a little taste of Athens nightlife. Don't worry, they're not going to treat you bad being from the Pac-10. If you were Auburn or SC fans, etc. it might be different. It should actually be a good game and it's great to hear about that deal you got at the doubletree in buckhead. Should be a fun weekend.

(four 0 four) · #23 Posted **Sep 18, 2009, 10:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by shanthemanatl

And PLEASE, if you decide to tailgate, properly dispose of your trash. It was absolutely RIDICULOUS the garbage some people left lying around after last weekend's game.

70 TONS of trash to be exact...the South Carolina fans should be ashamed of themselves!

PHX31 · #24 Posted **Sep 19, 2009, 7:10 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pompuss

PHX31,
Yeah bud, have a great time and make sure you get a little taste of Athens nightlife. Don't worry, they're not going to treat you bad being from the Pac-10. If you were Auburn or SC fans, etc. it might be different. It should actually be a good game and it's great to hear about that deal you got at the doubletree in buckhead. Should be a fun weekend.

Oh we will definitely be going out after the game somewhere. We'll probably just head to downtown Athens where everyone is going and find something that looks fun. Georgia fans last year in Tempe were pretty cool. Georgia was much more highly ranked early last year, so the "dawgs" fans were pretty arrogant, but in a nice way. I'm definitely looking forward to my first trip to Georgia, and my first game experience outside of the Pac-10 (in the SEC between the hedges no less).

PHX31 · #25 Posted **Sep 23, 2009, 10:09 PM**

I have a few final random questions before I fly out on Friday.

1. The hotel we are staying at in buckhead (doubletree-buckhead) has a $20/night parking fee. Does anyone know how to get around this, or if there is free parking somewhere near the hotel?

2. We might have very limited time in Atlanta. If I can't make it to midtown or little 5 points, or even on that driving tour shivtim posted, can you tell me a single street in the city (or closeby) that would have some huge historic southern mansions and huge trees? Maybe even plantation style?

3. How late are the bars open until in Athens, and do they have cab service in Athens that late?

4. What's the best bar in Athens?

5. What's the flooding like in central atlanta and points eastward towards Athens? From the news, it seems like most of it is in western areas of Atlanta... but will i have trouble driving from the airport to Buckhead (assuming there isn't a ton more rain)?

Thanks for all the help, and I can't wait to get out there (and watch the Devils win, j/k).

Pompuss · #26 Posted **Sep 23, 2009, 10:23 PM**

1. The hotel we are staying at in buckhead (doubletree-buckhead) has a $20/night parking fee. Does anyone know how to get around this, or if there is free parking somewhere near the hotel?

The only thing I can immediately think of is to park it in the deck at Lenox mall accross the street, which would be free. Or you could park it in long-term parking at the Lenox square MARTA station a couple of blocks away which is I think $4/day.

2. We might have very limited time in Atlanta. If I can't make it to midtown or little 5 points, or even on that driving tour shivtim posted, can you tell me a single street in the city (or closeby) that would have some huge historic southern mansions and huge trees? Maybe even plantation style?

You're just up peachtree road from the old Buckhead houses. Look on a map for Peachtree Battle Rd., Tuxedo Road, Paces Ferry Rd, etc.

3. How late are the bars open until in Athens, and do they have cab service in Athens that late?

99% sure 2:00am and there will be cab service.

4. What's the best bar in Athens?

?

5. What's the flooding like in central atlanta and points eastward towards Athens? From the news, it seems like most of it is in western areas of Atlanta... but will i have trouble driving from the airport to Buckhead (assuming there isn't a ton more rain)?

The weather and flooding should be fine where you'll be.

PHX31 · #27 Posted **Sep 23, 2009, 11:04 PM**

/\

reet · #28 Posted **Sep 24, 2009, 3:47 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by PHX31

4. What's the best bar in Athens?

My favorite place to drink in Athens is Trapeze -- a gastropub-ish kinda spot with an incredible beer selection. It might be a little sedate for some tastes, but it suits me and it's definitely worth a look see.
http://trappezepub.com

shanthemanatl · #29 Posted **Sep 24, 2009, 12:16 PM**

Be sure to bring a rain pancho, PHX. Sanford Stadium does not allow umbrellas and the forecast is calling for rain.

atlantaguy · #30 Posted **Sep 24, 2009, 3:12 PM**

PHX31 - Please don't park in the Lenox decks. They WILL tow or boot you. Wish I had a suggestion to avoid the parking fee, but I don't. The walk from the Lenox MARTA station is a pretty good hike (just under a mile).

For a quick spin through mansion country, head towards town on Peachtree from your hotel. Take a right on West Paces Ferry. Follow it a couple of miles, until you reach Northside Dr. Turn left, and follow to Peachtree Battle, turning left there. Follow to dead end on Peachtree. This will put you out in South Buckhead, just above Midtown. This is a basic "dime tour" of some of the old money area. Sorry though, more Tudor and faux-chateau than Plantation in this area (with the exception of the underwhelming Governor's Mansion).

Have fun!

shivtim · #31 Posted **Sep 24, 2009, 3:18 PM**

I give another vote to the trappeze in Athens - it's fantastic. It at least makes a great starting point if you plan on later moving on to a wilder college bar.

The streets to both the Northwest and Southwest of Chastain Park, around Powers Ferry, Paces Ferry and Mt. Paran roads have a lot of big mansions. I think Blackland Road had some particularly huge houses. Not really old plantation style houses, but there are huge trees and nice hilly landscapes in that area. I hope you get a GPS or have an iPhone though, because streets in that area are a tangled mess.
But, if you're just looking for one street to drive because you're on limited time, drive down Peachtree. It's the main street of Georgia, with a nice urban tour of Buckhead, Midtown, and Downtown. An easy enough thing to do would be just to take Peachtree to your hotel from the airport. When you're coming North from the airport on I-85, take exit 246 (Fulton St / Central Ave / Downtown). You'll see Turner Field on the right. Stick to the left on the ramp, and you'll cross the highway and be put on Central Ave heading North (in a slightly sketchy area). Shortly after passing over I-20, take a left on Trinity, then after two blocks take a right on Peachtree. Follow it all the way to your hotel!

Flooding won't be an issue, The vast majority of roads/highways are open, and the only remaining badly flooded areas are to the west of the city.

I believe the residential neighborhood to the SE of the hotel has open parking, on highland dr and park circle dr.

L41A · #32 Posted **Sep 25, 2009, 3:44 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by PHX31

I have a few final random questions before I fly out on Friday.

2. We might have very limited time in Atlanta. If I can't make it to midtown or little 5 points, or even on that driving tour shivtim posted, can you tell me a single street in the city (or closeby) that would have some huge historic southern mansions and huge trees? Maybe even plantation style?

While you should have no problem seeing huge trees in Metro Atlanta and North Georgia, you may find difficulty finding “historic southern mansions” or “plantation style”. The huge trees should amaze you especially coming from Arizona. Well, they amaze me but I love trees/topography. Atlanta has a rather interesting forested setting.

Atlanta is a young city, only incorporated in the mid 1800s so its ante-bellum history is minimal. Its founding was mostly based on transportation and not agricultural. In fact, North Georgia is hilly and row-crop type agriculture is not very conducive thus plantations in the historic sense were not common. It has been stated that Atlanta is more like the frontier towns of the Old West than the mint julep and magnolia cities of the Old South.

While you may easily find big mansions in Buckhead and other areas of the Metro, they most likely will not be in the “historic southern mansion” type that your post implies. These type structures are more common in the coastal plain region of the state which is about 100 or so miles south of Atlanta.

Nonetheless, someone has already stated, but drive Peachtree Street.

Go Jackets!

PHX31 · #33 Posted **Sep 25, 2009, 5:23 PM**

I've noted all of your posts. The Trappeze sounds like my type of place, at least for a beer or two. I'll at least check out the mansions/older homes around buckhead, but likely I'll be able to drive Peachtree St as well. I'm off to the airport... thanks again for the help everyone.

Pompuss · #34 Posted **Sep 26, 2009, 11:50 PM**

PHX31,
As I type this now Georgia is up on ASU 14-3 amid a ton of rain. All things considered I hope you're having a blast and I want details when you get back west, including hopefully some pictures and your thoughts on your first trip to Georgia.

atl2phx · #35 Posted **Sep 27, 2009, 4:44 AM**

phx31, hope you enjoyed the game and your time in athens.

i hate to say it, but in many ways, ASU outplayed UGA, and yet we came away with the win.

good, bad or ugly, i'll take the win.

by the way, #31/nance is a friggin horse.

PHX31 · #36 Posted **Sep 27, 2009, 5:18 PM**

What a game... can't complain about much, I'm mostly just happy ASU gave Georgia a good game... however, those refs were brutal. SEC refs for sure (I hate it too when people complain about the calls in a game, sorry). I knew we'd lose when we had to trust our walk-on true freshman kicker (our normal kicker is injured). Nance is decent, that was one of his best games ever, our D makes our team, anyone see or did they talk about our LB Burfict? He's a true freshman. Our future looks bright. Can't say enough about A.J. green, what an amazing game he had.

I'm sitting at Pauley's in DT Athens having lunch right now. Athens is the shit! Yesterday was one of the best times I've ever had, definitely made up for the game. Almost everyone we've met has been really cool and nice. Only two people came up to us and barked in our face. I was expecting harsher treatment. We went to Cutter pub and several other places I can't really remember. The people have been nice enough to buy us several drinks which was cool, and the bartender girls at Cutter were sweet and bought us 3 or 4 rounds of shots themselves.... love that royal flush shot. They even "had our back" when a Bulldog fan started yelling (barking/screaming "bulldogs!") at us... they kicked him out (hahahha). Athens is a kick ass town, seriously one of the coolest places I've ever been.

I don't have much to say about Atlanta because we haven't done much there. We stayed in Buckhead and went to a couple restaurants. Nothing really that great. Buckhead is like Phoenix's biltmore/camelback corridor on steroids. Almost the exact same look and feel just much bigger buildings. The buildings and architecture (talking about the new stuff) are really nice and impressive in downtown/midtown and Buckhead.

Overall, my impression of Georgia and especially Athens and the people is 1000000% positive. That rain last night was crazy! I've never seen anything like that for so long.

LARuga · #37 Posted **Sep 28, 2009, 5:02 AM**

Wish I would have gotten to this thread and commented on it earlier. I get on this site a lot but never seem to comment. I'm a senior here at UGA and am glad you enjoyed Athens. I believe it has its own, eclectic feel that you really can't find anywhere else.

The game was crazy; in four years I've never been to a game when it's rained, but I normally don't remember the games anyways.. Pauley's crepes are amazing. I hope you at least ventured into Allgood's because that's the best bar in Athens. I saw a lot of ASU fans crowded in Cutter's Pub and on the first quad on the first half of north campus. Ever get there?

Come back and visit!

shanthemanatl · #38 Posted **Sep 28, 2009, 2:13 PM**

Glad you enjoyed your visit, PHX. I had a chance to chat with some very nice and friendly ASU fans at the game. You guys brought a nice, spirited contingent.

That Burfict kid is sick---you've got a future All-American on your hands!

PHX31 · #39 Posted **Sep 28, 2009, 4:33 PM**

There were several bars that seemed to attract the ASU fans. I might have gone into Allgood's, but i don't remember. We were on our way to the game when it started pouring and decided to stop into another bar and wait a bit because they said the game was going to be delayed, it might have been Allgood's. We did go on campus for a while earlier in the day into those two large quads where there was a ton of tailgating. All the UGA people said it was a slow day because of the weather, but to me, it was crazy! That was some serious tailgaiting and I couldn't believe they allow that smack dab in the middle of campus, even on the steps of some of the school buildings... they don't allow that at ASU. We played some cornhole with some Georgia fans/students, they were cool. I did go to the large ASU tailgating area just off of Broad St. Those guys were the mustache nation, they go to one big away game per year. In case anyone was wondering about their shirts that said "Salad Bowl '51" on the back, at Sun Devil Stadium they list all of the bowl games ASU has gone to in the past, and along with the normal Rose, Fiesta, Holiday, Sun Bowl, etc... one of them is the Salad Bowl from 1951. It's a bit of an inside joke.

My friend and I want to go back to Athens, we wish we could go this weekend to see the big LSU/UGA game. Even though we lost this weekend, we're going to be watching this week and rooting for the Dawgs!

On the way back to Atlanta to the airport, we got off the 85 somewhere north of midtown and drove Peachtree Street all the way down a few blocks south of Turner Field. That was a cool street with a ton of beautiful old churches and of course all the towers. I wish we could have stopped to get some lunch or walk around a bit, but we didn't have time. I think I saw little 5 points and some other things. Atlanta is a beautiful city, much different than I'm used to.

I have a few pics of ATL (from the car, probably nothing special of views that everyone has already seen), and more of Athens (mostly of my friend and I in front of buildings and the hedges and we also got our picture taken next to Uga at halftime.) I'll post some if anyone wants to see them, but they're not that great.

Again, thanks for the help and thanks Georgia, it was awesome!

john3eblover · #40 Posted **Dec 19, 2009, 2:40 AM**

Glad to hear you had a good time!