Friends have said good things about Atlanta, Georgia, and with Stone Mountain snow tubing on the list, we paid a visit to the state of Georgia. Despite government shut down during the winter break and my poor baby didi with stomach virus, we managed to explore Atlanta and brought back travel memories.
What are some highlights of things to do with kids in Atlanta Georgia? We’ll cover few places that we visited in this post.
CNN Studio Tours
Home of CNN headquarter, we paid a visit to the CNN center for a brief walking tour of the facility. It costs $15 per adult and $12 for kids. We bought the tickets through Chase Ultimate Rewards portal to take advantage of the 1.5x points value. It is interesting to see and to learn behind the scene broadcast in person and how it gets to our live TV in seconds.
Did you know that the CNN escalator at the beginning of the tour is the longest freestanding escalator in the world?! It is 196 feet long and 8 stories high! They will only tell you that at the end of the tour to avoid any unnecessary anxiety.
Federal Reserve Money Museum of Atlanta (FREE)
Have interest in seeing how money gets printed? This place has it. No Camera allowed inside the museum; for that, no pictures to show. It’s interesting to learn how money originates from printing, packing, to shredding.
Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945 (FREE)
Ever read the Diary of Anne Frank? This free museum has a small replica of the annex and room where Anne Frank hid during World War 2. There is also a 30-40 minutes documentary short film as well.
Martin Luther King Jr. Birth Home
Due to government shut-down, we were unable to gain access to the National Park/Museum; for that, we were only able to capture the actual birth home of the King. The house is few blocks away from the museum.
Fernbank Science Center (FREE)
This small little science museum has some exhibitions and some cool stuff. We were interested in the planetarium and observatory but unfortunately they were closed during our visit.
Georgia Aquarium
Next to the World of Coca Cola is the Georgia Aquarium, claimed to be one of the world largest aquarium. Ticket is not cheap, a family of 4 runs over $100 with kids as young as 3 needs a ticket for entrance.
As many aquariums as we have visited, this one is like no other. It runs like ( better than) a Sea World with various shows throughout the day from dolphin, sea lion, beluga whale, to Polar Express 4D (during the holiday seasons). We spent about 4 hours inside and it was packed! All entertainment and shows are indoor. Imagine how huge is this place.
String ray, devil ray, manta ray! The first thing came to daddy's mind from looking at this scene was the Zergs are coming!! Ok Starcraft fan. But holy cow, these things are YUGE..
Stone Mountain Park
Last, but not least, the Stone Mountain Park, a man-made snow tubing park. One of the most expensive snow tubing attraction for a family of four.
We paid about $150 admission plus $20 parking for a two hours parking. In my opinion, not worth it. In terms of clothing, mommy was well prepared with all the snow bib and the good stuff. From the experience, you really do not need to prepare snow gears as your chance of getting wet is slim.
There are three types of tube experiences; single seat tube, double seats tube and a family sized tube that can fit 4 or more people. For the tubing experience, you literally have to carry your own tube up the hill, albeit with running belt (walkway). Those tubes are heavy and it will exhaust you. They do have the avalanche hills for the family sized tube that you don’t have to carry yourself. Just a word of caution, this 'family' sized tube slide is a little steep for the little kids. But overall, the kids love the single and double seats tube.
Beside the main tubing attraction, they have a smaller area at the back for younger kids to play with -mini tubing hill.
Kids and adults played around the 'snow' machine. It is not snow, more like ice. It hurts if you got hit. But nonetheless, everyone have fun.
Food must eat in Atlanta
One of the most time consuming things to do while on vacation is finding where to eat. Need some recommendation on food? Try Mushi Ni Bao inside Suki Suki. You will find reasonable price Asian food here.
The bao was pretty good. This place runs like a mom and pop cafeteria with different ethnicity food. Give it a try.
Transportation
Downtown Atlanta traffic could be pretty bad. Finding parking could be very time consuming and very expensive. Here is our tip. Park you car free at a designated train station out of downtown, and take the train into downtown with reasonably cheap train tickets. And don't forget to validate your parking ticket at the station!
From the map, Lindbergh center transit station is the closest station with designated parking to downtown from the north.
That's what we did exactly. There was a game when we visited CNN center. We could very possibly missed our scheduled tour to be trapped in traffic and couldn't find a parking.
Minute Suite
Priority pass has other perks beside the standard lounge. We used it to rest our feet while waiting to board our flight. It covers the first hour and thereafter, there’s a charge.
So long Atlanta!
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