Atlanta, GA – First Week of March 2016

April 25, 2016 · by mayne · in United States, World Trip

It’s fair to say that we have a love hate relationship with Atlanta. We like ‘mama bear’ sized cities (those big enough to have a variety of restaurants and a good sized airport) so the grind of visiting a big city means we would probably never choose to live in one. However, we’ve visited countless times and will continue to visit for many reasons.

Things we love:
• Family and friends – many friends and family have moved to Atlanta over time for the work opportunities, so it is always great catchup with everyone.
• Great restaurants – definitely the best quality Asian restaurants south of New York and east of the Mississippi.
• Tons of shopping – we shop for work now and could spend weeks shopping all day in Atlanta and not hit all of our favorite sources.

Things we hate:
• The traffic, noise and pollution that come as part of many large cities.
• Hipster prices – Atlanta seems to have more than its fair share of healthy, vintage, trendy and chic.
• Lack of greenspace – while Atlanta has a fair number of parks, there aren’t as many as similar sized cities.

This time we stayed for a full week since we are officially free to make our own schedules! We stayed at the Hotel Indigo by the airport which turns out is a horrible location for walking and commuting, but was otherwise a perfect choice. There was plenty of room to work, the dog fee was reasonable, and the price was only 5k IHG points a night since it was on the 2016 IHG Pointsbreak list. To put that 5k points in perspective, the average free night for an IHG property is 20k points/night. The credit card signup bonus is usually 70k points, so we could have gotten two weeks free at this hotel just for the signup alone.

Favorite activities:
• Walking the belt-line – we have only hit it in a few places but the concept of a ring of trails all around the city is fantastic and a great afternoon out.
• Piedmont park – great place to jog and frequent festivals make it a center of the city. We discovered the dog park this past visit with Nick and Nora and it was a great time for all! (sooo many dogs..)
• Dekalb farmers market – near the small incorporated town of Decatur which is worth a visit alone, the Dekalb market is probably the single best market we have been to in the states. The seafood selection alone is phenomenal.
• Buford highway farmers market – amazing international supermarket. Less fresh food but great variety of food cultures represented.

We found out about Chai Pani indian food in Decatur which was cheap and delicious! The spice and taste was legit and it’s definitely on our repeat list.

The Dekalb market has the best selection of produce and seafood that we can find in Atlanta (or darn near anywhere in the states in one market!)

Sample selection of fish. Tonnage.

Super H Mart rocks! Elisa is in love with the korean pickle aisle!

It was great to see everyone who we got to visit! Traveling full time is fun but it means that we have to work extra hard to keep up with the friends that we have. We hope to visit Atlanta again before too long. We would like to stay at least two weeks next time we come through – maybe in Decatur or somewhere in the northeast part of town closer to all the things that we enjoy. We got a lot of rain this visit, which was a bummer, so I think next time we’ll come in the fall in the hopes of better weather.