Tag: Georgia

“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.

With a metro population of less than half a million, Savannah is hardly a big city. But on a recent Saturday night on River Street, it felt like one.

"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."

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.

Since Southbound debuted in 2013, our staff and contributors have logged thousands of miles, consumed millions of calories, and taken countless notes and photos to showcase the very best destinations around the region. Although every place we’ve covered is special, some left a particularly powerful impression. Here, we give you the best of the very best, our favorite spots in the South.

For nearly 30 years, Georgia and two of its neighbors have fought in court over how water from Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona gets divvied up among the three states. Tensions remain at a rolling boil.

Governor Brian Kemp issued a statewide shelter in place for Georgia on April 3. It's not too different from previous shelter in place orders in metro Atlanta.

In the South, there’s plenty of shoreline to satisfy that deep yearning, but some Southern beaches are more tucked-away than others. In fact, that’s part of their charm. We’ve tracked down some of these hidden gems, and we think you’ll agree they were well worth the search.

In 1968, the tiny mountain town of Helen was dying. Over lunch, three local businessmen decided the town needed to add some street appeal if it hoped to capture the interests of passersby. By the time the leaves began to turn in 1969, Alpine Helen was born.

Pump the brakes for these larger-than-life Southern landmarks.