Playing Tourist for a Day in the A

Brian and I are often asked to attend events for his job that take place after work hours. Most of the time, these are dinners or nights out, so we are happy to oblige! However, recently Brian was asked to attend a daytime event, on a Saturday. Usually we evaluate whether we want to give up our precious weekend days for a work event, but they needed a decision ASAP, and after a quick check-in with me, Brian signed us up, not really knowing much about it.

A couple days before the event, he breaks the news to me. “I think we’re going on a Segway tour of downtown Atlanta….we can back out if you don’t want to go.” Usually, I would be like da** right I don’t want to be seen on a Segway acting like a tourist in my own city. I un-RSVP! But, they really needed people to go, and maybe it would be good for the blog? Hmm….after a pow-wow with Meg, probably notsomuch.

We stuck to our commitment and were out the door relatively early (for us) last Saturday morning to join our group for the tour. As it turned out we were spared the tourist-trap-of-a-Segway-tour and instead were treated to a tour in an electric car, otherwise known as a really long golf cart fitting 5 passengers plus driver and pushing 27 mph – woo-hoo! This was OBVI better than the Segway, but I was still VERY skeptical of how this was all going to play out, and mortified that I would see someone I know on this thing. Thankfully most of our friends don’t frequent downtown Atlanta on Saturdays 🙂

Our wheels for the day

After a quick overview from the folks at ATL-Cruzers explaining that we would spend the next couple of hours exploring some Atlanta neighborhoods and grabbing a snack or drink at each place – we were off! If you follow us on Instagram (as you should!), you saw me blowing up your feed with all the posts from the tour. If not, here is a recap of our stops:

• We left the downtown meeting spot to head to Municipal Market/Sweet Auburn Curb Market where we enjoyed arepas and guava juice from Arepa Mia and popcorn from Miss D’s Pralines.

Municipal Market

Arepa Mia

• We took a ride through MLK’s birth place and memorial zone and arrived at Lotta Frutta for a visit with Chi Chi and some fruit with the famous coconut milk whipped topping.

Lotta Frutta

• We toured through historic Inman Park and Little Five Points to end up at Wrecking Bar Brew Pub for a beer tasting (the saison was my fave!) and some tasty French fries and dipping sauces (I’m ALL about the dipping sauces).

Wrecking Bar

• We jumped back in the cars to drive through Old Fourth Ward and Inman Park and on into Midtown for a stop at South City Kitchen for a solid helping of their famous shrimp and grits and fried green tomatoes.

South City Kitchen

• We cut through midtown to the Westside to end the day with ice cream from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. I am embarrassed to say it was my first time at Jeni’s, but we will definitely be repeat customers 🙂

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams: Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk & Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet

We were part of a private group tour, but apparently these stops are pretty standard for a tour. If you have dietary restrictions they will work around that and if there are specific places you want to go, they can usually try to arrange that in advance.

We met at 10, and finished up a little before 2, so it took about 3-4 hours total. The drivers are all knowledgeable in the history of the neighborhoods and give you little fun facts along the way. I actually learned a ton of things that I never knew before! For example, the skinny black gas lamps found around historic Inman Park used to be single-person jail cells when citizen’s arrest were legal – who knew?! If you have guests in town and want to try something a little different, I would recommend this tour for sure! You get to hit up some great local spots in just a couple of hours without having to dedicate a full meal.

All in all, we had a great time on the tour and while we did feel super-touristy, we are glad that we went and left feeling very full from some of our favorite Atl treats 🙂

We weren’t compensated for this post – just supporting a local business we consider #PeachtreeRoadiesApproved.