Visiting Atlanta (Duluth, Decatur, Buford: best neighborhoods, house, neighborhoods)

[Forhall]

You must have spent your whole trip in midtown and NE Atlanta (druid hills, Virginia Highland, inman park, etc). I don't blame you. I live here and never leave these areas either.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

Just spent the past two days in Atlanta and I have to say My girl friend and I were VERY impressed!

I've lived in couple cities in Alaska, a few cities in Florida as well as Seattle, San Francisco, (Gold Coast) Australia and I travel often including overseas. My girl friend is also well traveled and has lived in Hong Kong, San Francisco and now in Orlando with me.

With that being said, Atlanta blew past our expectations. It felt very clean, well-maintained, gorgeous trees & buildings... It felt like a wealthy city and I don't mean in terms of the population, but the quality of the streets, buildings, parks, cleanliness etc. In regards to the people we encountered, we found them to be quite friendly as long as we initiated, which is similar to most cities.

I just wanted to let you all know that you have a beautiful city and we will visit again for sure.

Thanks that great here! Come back and see us soon!

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by Forhall

You must have spent your whole trip in midtown and NE Atlanta (druid hills, Virginia Highland, inman park, etc). I don't blame you. I live here and never leave these areas either.

Always a negative nancy somewhere.

[Othello Is Here]

Originally Posted by Forhall

You must have spent your whole trip in midtown and NE Atlanta (druid hills, Virginia Highland, inman park, etc). I don't blame you. I live here and never leave these areas either.

So you never spend time in Cabbagetown,Castleberry Hill,East Atlanta Village,Downtown Decatur,and so many areas in the metro that are nice interesting hang outs?

[ATLTJL]

You lived in Gold Coast and are impressed by Atlanta?

Wow!!!! That's great.

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by Hokiehaven

Where did you go? Just curious what specific things about ATL impressed you.

First Day:

We rented a place through Airbnb in Atlantic Station. When we got off the highway we immediately thought, "wow this looks so nice" as we saw the beautiful Wells Fargo, BB&T and misc condo buildings. We thought Atlantic Station was cute too, but also knew it was basically an outdoor mall nonetheless it was still a cute design to make it feel like a mini-downtown area. We were traveling with our dogs, so the first thing we did was walk them to a dog park in Foundry Park. We loved the beautiful archway by the park and were blown away by how clean everything was. The first thing we said was, "wow this is like a nicer clean version of San Francisco, why the hell are people fighting to live in San Francisco when you can live here instead." We knew we were thinking prematurely since we just arrived, but anyways, we got to the dog park and had a nice chat with one of the locals and then a couple other locals joined our conversation about how they liked living in Atlanta. We were telling them we just got here, but were blown away by the drive in and just from what we saw from our short walk here. We weren't expecting a city this size to be so clean and well-kept. Everyone there were very pleasant and the views from the park were such a nice mix of city meets nature. The park was so clean, the streets were so clean, it wasn't taken over by homeless people like it would have in San Francisco. The surrounding condos, townhomes and commercial buildings looked nice and beautiful. We then drove to Midtown to grab dinner and get some baked goods from Sweet Hut. We parked outside of South City Market (I think that was its name), but they were booked until 9PM, so we just started walking around. I found a nearby restaurant on Yelp, so we walked there and had some of the best ravioli entrees ever. After dinner we started walking toward Sweet Hut and once again we were completely blown away by how clean, well-kept, and modern everything was, some of the nicest condo buildings I've seen anywhere. We knew Midtown was one of the nicest parts of the city, but even in San Francisco, the nice parts of the city still have trash on the street and homeless people. We saw another dog park, which was nice to see that the city seems to be dog friendly. The buildings in this area are so beautiful and once again the mix of buildings and nature was gorgeous as well.

Second Day:

We wanted to have dim sum for lunch because we missed it from San Francisco (recently moved to Orlando). We found a place in Chamblee (Buford HWY) and it was pretty good. It wasn't on the same level as San Francisco, but it was miles above what we've found in Orlando. As we drove off, we past by places like Paris Baguette, one of my favorite bakeries in South Korea. We wanted to check out Buckhead and Lennox Square, but we ended up checking our Super H Mart along the way, which was heaven to me! It was a legitimate, super nice and big Korean / Asian grocery store, even nicer than anything in the San Francisco Bay Area. Once we got to Lennox Square we thought it was okay, just another big mall, but the surrounding area was so beautiful and was surprised to see more tall buildings. Atlanta was much bigger than we expected. I was expecting tall buildings around the downtown area followed by single storied suburban sprawl everywhere else, but we did see pockets of tall buildings here and there. I'd also say we found just driving on the highway to be very enjoyable because of the trees around Atlanta are so big and "poofy" not sure what word to use lol, but all the trees blocking the view of buildings from the freeway, combined with the rolling hills was really lovely, you wouldn't think you were in the middle of a major city. The roads are in very good shape compared to what we are used to as well. After driving around Buckhead, we went back home to take our dogs to the park again and then grabbed an Uber to Piedmont Park. We used UberPool because it's cheaper and ended up having a nice chat with the driver and another passenger (both locals that seem to have a lot of pride about Atlanta, which was very nice). Anways, we got to the park and thought it was so beautiful, we loved it! I wish we had more time to spend there, but we wanted to walk the beltline from Park Tavern to Krog Street Market. We got some nice smoothies at Park Tavern and started walking. We loved all the local artwork along the beltline. We loved seeing so many people biking, jogging and walking. We stopped at Ponce City Market and got some biltong, coffee and got a leather wallet from one of the local stores inside. The trees, artwork, buildings along the entire beltline were so nice and interesting. The area around Krog Street Market felt like a charming village in a forest. We loved the atmosphere in Atlanta. The mixture of nature and city are blended so well together here. After taking a quick look through Krog Street Market, we got an Uber back to our place and then drove to Duluth for some of the best Korean BBQ I've had in awhile. I was surprised by how much Korean businesses were in Duluth, it was so interesting.

The next day we had to drive back, so we ended up driving through the actual downtown of Atlanta and thought it was still very nice. It's not the same as Midtown, but once again, it was so much cleaner than we expected. We even drove through a seedy looking part that compared to San Francisco, wasn't bad looking at all. On our way out, we visited a dog breeder to see the living conditions (possibly getting another dog next year), we just want to make sure we can meet the parents, see where and how their dogs live etc first before putting a deposit. We drove quite a bit through the countryside and found it to be so beautiful and quaint unlike many of the small rural towns we past driving from San Francisco to Orlando.

We can't wait to go back and check out the areas we didn't get to see. We are thinking next time we'll try getting an airbnb in a house somewhere in the suburbs of Atlanta to get a different prospective. While we enjoy tourist things, we find it more interesting to experience things locals do for fun or see.

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

You lived in Gold Coast and are impressed by Atlanta?

Wow!!!! That's great.

Yep, we had a house on a saltwater canal in Burliegh Waters... 5 minute bike ride to the beach. We recently moved from San Francisco to Orlando and we've really loved Orlando so far, but this short trip to Atlanta really got us asking ourselves... whether we should consider moving here in a year or two from now lol.

[wasel]

Next time you visit be sure to stop at the Buford Highway Farmers Market....it blows Super H away.

It sounds like you ate at Pasta de Pucinella...a place near and dear to my heart.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

Always a negative nancy somewhere.

I didn't interpret his remarks as negative...

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

I didn't interpret his remarks as negative...

They aren't. I'm pointing out that Atlanta is pretty great as long as you stay out of the SW portion and anything south of i20 towards the airport except for grant park.