See Atlanta the Easy Way: APA-Sponsored Tours

APA members and guests attending the annual meeting in May will be able to choose among five different tours designed to give them an intimate look at the Gateway City to the South.

All tours include expert guides and comfortable motorcoach transportation, and all depart from the Georgia World Congress Center. Early registration is encouraged, and reservations can be made using the form provided in the advance registration materials that have been mailed to all APA members. The deadline for advance tour reservations is April 29.

• Atlanta “Up Close”: This four-hour tour will follow the trail of Atlanta's history from the ashes of the Civil War to its contemporary resurgence as an exemplar of the “New South.” The tour will travel down Peachtree Street, one of the most famous thoroughfares in the South, and stop at the Fox Theater, High Museum of Art, and Margaret Mitchell House. Other features of the tour include the CNN Center, Phillips Arena, Georgia's gold-domed state capitol, Turner Field, Olympic Village, Centennial Park, and Peachtree Center.

The tour will also visit the exclusive Buckhead neighborhood, where some of the most elegant mansions in the South can be found. Landmarks include the Coca-Cola Mansion, Georgia's Governor's Mansion, and the Swan House.

Finally, participants will tour the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic District, where they will visit King's burial site, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he preached, and his birth home.

• CNN and Coca-Cola: Two of the world's most recognized names were born and bred in Atlanta. Participants on this four-hour tour will visit the World of Coca-Cola, an interactive museum all about the ubiquitous soft drink founded by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton in 1886.

Participants will also tour the studios of Cable News Network and learn how founder Ted Turner developed a worldwide communications empire from a small UHF television station he purchased in the early 1970s.

• Atlanta “City of Leaders”: This four-hour tour is dedicated to Atlanta's two Nobel Peace Prize Award winners, Martin Luther King Jr. and former President Jimmy Carter.

Participants will tour the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic District, visiting the slain civil-rights leader's tomb and birthplace, as well as the Ebenezer Baptist Church. From there the tour will go to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, where participants can follow the life of the peanut farmer from Plains who became a world leader.

• Stone Mountain Park: Stone Mountain towers more than 800 feet over 3,200 acres of Georgia woodlands. It is the largest piece of exposed granite in the world and is estimated to be more than 1 million years old.

The tour of Stone Mountain Park takes six hours. Participants can ride a cable car to the top of the mountain, a train around the base of the mountain, and a paddlewheel boat on Stone Mountain Lake. Participants may also visit Crossroads, a 19th-century Georgia town with gristmill, bakery, blown-glass shop, candle shop, blacksmith, and general store. Twenty-first century fun is available at the Great Barn and 3-D Theater.

• Civil War Atlanta: The Civil War and its aftermath are a central part of the history that shaped Atlanta, and its destiny—like that of the South itself—was forever changed by the War Between the States. The Battle of Atlanta, on July 22, 1864, was one of the most significant in the closing days of the war. Participants in this five-hour tour will relive some of Civil War Atlanta by visiting the Atlanta Cyclorama and the Margaret Mitchell House.

The Cyclorama is an enormous painting in the round on a three-dimensional diorama. Viewed from a revolving platform, the painting will make the Battle of Atlanta come alive.

The Margaret Mitchell House is one of the most visited sites in Atlanta, and the Battle of Atlanta figures heavily in Mitchell's world-famous Gone With the Wind. Participants can tour the turn-of-the-century home where Mitchell wrote her epic and browse through the museum and gift shop.

The tour is offered on Monday, May 23, and Wednesday, May 25, at 9 a.m. ▪