Tag: weekend getaway

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

Nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, Charlottesville, Virginia, is perhaps best known as the home of two former presidents (Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe) and the University of Virginia. But beyond its presidential pedigree and handsome neoclassical campus, the city is an ideal location for a few days away.

Although it’s the largest city by area in the continental United States (840 square miles), Jacksonville manages to feel small. Venture beyond the urban core, and you’ll discover a patchwork of historic neighborhoods.

Getaway is a national chain offering remote forest retreats in the Chattahoochee National Forest near Suches. The 57-acre Georgia outpost hosts Scandinavian-chic “cabins."

There’s a street in Montgomery that locals say is one of the most historic in America. A large fountain sits at the western end, the site of the city’s once-booming slave market. At the eastern end is the Alabama State Capitol, where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederacy. In between is Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as pastor in the late 1950s.

It may seem odd to call a town of 23,000 a cultural destination. But Oxford, Mississippi, is indeed a place of deep and enduring culture. Square Books, which opened on the historic courthouse square in 1979, is one of the nation’s top booksellers. Vishwesh Bhatt, an Indian immigrant at the helm of Oxford’s Snackbar, was a 2018 James Beard finalist for Best Chef in the South.

When people speak of Jackson, Mississippi, the conversation often turns to the past—the complicated civil rights history that has both shamed and shaped the city. But increasingly, they also talk about momentum.

As Baton Rouge turns 200, people are coming into downtown again—and not necessarily because they have business in the capitol or at nearby Louisiana State University.

Knoxville’s population—approximately 185,000—is about one-third that of Memphis and Nashville. And while Memphis claims Elvis and Nashville the Grand Ole Opry, Knoxville boasts an unlikely pair of native sons: country singer Kenny Chesney and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

While the city has mandatory tourist stops (the famed Bellingrath Gardens, the battleship USS Alabama, and the new-and-spectacular GulfQuest museum), to understand the city, you must visit its neighborhoods.