Georgia

Seeking out Atlanta’s best international offerings is a treasure hunt, one that requires a full tank of gas and a trusty navigation app. Consider our guide a jumping-off point, whether you’re looking to expand your horizons or get a taste of home.

For the last quarter century, Brannen Veal has been a staff member at Sea Island, a Forbes Five-Star resort in Georgia’s Golden Isles. Hired as a golf pro in 1996, the Macon native worked his way up to the head pro job before becoming director of golf in 2005.

“Every year, I get a little uglier—but my plants get more beautiful.” So says Jim Gibbs, founder of Gibbs Gardens, where 20 million yellow, orange, and white blooms paint its 336 acres and inspire daffodil lovers from across the region to make the springtime pilgrimage.

I stumbled onto Jekyll Island’s Driftwood Beach for the first time nearly a decade ago. This was, not coincidentally, the same week that a spider wrote me a note.

I am in a cage with my 12-year-old daughter, lowering, ever so slowly, into a tank full of sharks at the Georgia Aquarium. Ice-cold water meets my ankles and begins streaming inside my wetsuit boots.

"I rarely take vacations because I work so much, but I learned a long time ago that a lovely way to travel is on somebody else’s dime—even if you have to act for the camera a little."

As much as we love the South's quintessential clapboard churches and stately mansions, our appreciation of Southern architecture extends beyond the classics. We‘ve combed the region for noteworthy structures, from historical masterpieces like Thomas Jefferson‘s Palladian Monticello to modern marvels like the breezy, zero-energy McDonald‘s Florida flagship (yes, McDonald’s).

Though it’s home to the University of Georgia, the first state-chartered university in the country, Athens is more than a college town.