Tag: Georgia

One of the South’s most-visited attractions, Rock City in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, draws about half a million visitors annually. They come to wind through its famous rock formations, wander its gnome-filled gardens, and enjoy views of seven states from Lover’s Leap.

On Jekyll Island, history runs deep beneath the driftwood-littered sand. Native American pottery fragments hail from the late Archaic period.

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

Thanks to its next-to-nonexistent level of light pollution, this remote park at the entrance of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is one of the best places in the country to stargaze.

“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.