When we first started A Friend Afar, “research” took us on day trips from Atlanta to North Georgia to go vineyard hopping and share with you in this post. We’ve since returned to the North Georgia mountains again and again to discover new places to taste wine. It’s the perfect way to spend a Saturday with the girls, a date, a family outing, and celebrate special occasions. Actually, any reason will do! Here are five more of our favorite North Georgia wineries to visit from Atlanta!
For the first trip of my #Take12Trips Challenge, my husband Ryan and I wanted an easy getaway from Atlanta. As is most often the case with us, we decided to head to the mountains and check out some vineyards. This time, we made our way up to Clayton, Georgia to try out Tiger Mountain Vineyards and Stonewall Creek Vineyards. Wineries? In Georgia? Yes, and you can check out reviews for the other vineyards we’ve visited here. The vineyards were great, but our favorite part of our weekend ended up being where we stayed – The Beechwood Inn, a luxurious Georgia mountain bed & breakfast with the most amazing chefs!
Stephanie and I love living in Atlanta for many reasons. We have so many great opportunities for activities in town, from art museums to historic sites, and there’s always a new international restaurant to try. We’re also close to so many great places in the outheast that we have a huge variety of day trip and long weekend options. This time of year, we love taking as many trips as possible to the mountains in Northeast Georgia to see the changing leaves. While we’re up there we always stop by some of the vineyards and orchards. October is the perfect time for apple picking, and we can never get enough apple goodies!
Mercier Orchards is one of the best orchards for apple picking that we’ve ever been to! In fact, we’ve visited year round for strawberry and blueberry picking. It’s located in Blue Ridge just an hour and a half north of Atlanta, and visiting in the fall has become a tradition for us. They have almost forty different apple varieties. Their bakery and shop is just as impressive as their expansive orchard. We always come home with a gallon or two of their fresh cider and at least a dozen of their fried pies. Try their blackberry and pecan pies as well as the classic apple pies!
Mercier Orchard is really, really busy on the weekend, so you might want to get there early. I love pulling up to their orchard in the morning when the fog is still lifting and the sun is starting to shine on the farm. It’s especially magical once the leaves start to change!
Stephanie’s family recently visited BJ Reece Orchard in Elijay, just a little closer to Atlanta. Here’s what her oldest sister, Melissa, had to say about their gorgeous fall day of apple picking.
“BJ Reece Orchard has ‘pick your own apples’ during the week. Carey [Stephanie’s niece] said Reece had the best petting zoo she has ever been to. It had baby cows, lots of goats, kittens, puppies, rabbits, and pigs. It was $3 for the petting zoo and $2 for the apple picking, plus whatever you picked. You can do the activities a la carte or the have packages, too. We really liked walking through the orchard and picking the apples knowing they were fresh. They had jams, jellies, cider, apple pastries, veggies, pumpkins and of course apples at the store.”
They also visited Hillcrest Orchard in Elijay. It was similar to the first two in many ways, but it also had amazing apple slushies!
There are so many great destinations for day trips out of Atlanta, and picking apples is so quintessentially fall. Have you been apple picking? What are some of your favorite orchards to visit? What do you make with the apples you get?
When the weather starts to cool down, which could be a while from now in Atlanta, I’m always looking for new, outdoor fall activities and places to visit. I always make a few day trips up to the North Georgia mountains to see the leaves change, try some of the vineyards’ offerings, and pick apples. As for locations in the Atlanta area, I have a great idea for you! If you haven’t been to Historic Oakland Cemetery, take a weekend morning this fall to walk along the 48 acres of Victorian gardens and statues with a cup of coffee in hand. It’s a peaceful refuge in the busy city, and a perfect addition to any “staycation!” Here are the Top 5 reasons you should check it out.
With all of the things to do in the fall that cost money – weekends in the mountains, football, apple picking, pumpkin picking, and drinking as much cider as possible, a free place to spend your time is a great find!
While everyone else is headed to Piedmont Park and the Beltline, Historic Oakland Cemetery is never crowded. Take a picnic or jog along the paths, stopping to check out the dates and names on the headstones. With 48 acres of gardens, green space, and benches, you’re sure to find a serene spot all to yourself.
Oakland Cemetery was started in 1850, and during the war, land was added to bury soldiers who died in local hospitals. It was designated a rural garden cemetery, and families often took carriage rides and picnics when tending to the graves of their loved ones in the late 19th century. Keeping with the garden theme, Oakland was also home to Atlanta’s first greenhouse, which was built in 1870.
Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind, is buried here.
There are numerous famous Atlantans buried here, including Margaret Mitchell, Bobby Jones, Maynard Jackson, and Ivan Allen Jr. There are signs along the walkways pointing you to historic graves, and you can also take a guided tour to learn more about those buried here and how they shaped the city of Atlanta to what it is now.
It’s a tradition for golfers to leave a golf ball on Bobby Jones’ grave.
Grab coffee at Octane Coffee Bar across the street before your walk through the gardens, or plan for brunch at Ria’s Bluebird; both are local favorites. Bars like Six Feet Under and The Republic Social House have great views from their rooftop patios, and Mi Barrio serves up some wonderful Mexican food. If you don’t live in the Grant Park area, this is a great chance to try some new restaurants.
Sipping tea in Historic Oakland Cemetery on a beautiful October morning
Speaking of guided tours, the Spirit of Oakland Halloween Tour is an exciting annual event at the end of October. Docents in Victorian costumes guide you through the cemetery. Tickets sell out fast, and you can buy them here.
Have you been to Atlanta’s Historic Oakland Cemetery, or do you have a similar historic cemetery in your city that has become a wonderful park to explore? Tell us about it in the comments!
Have you ever just really, really needed a vacation, but traveling to a far-flung place, or even just a few hours away, was just not in the budget? Wanderlust always gets the best of me, but more often than not, a “quick weekend away” can really, really add up! Last fall, my husband and I planned the “ultimate staycation” in Atlanta. We took a Thursday and Friday off of work with relaxation and exploration in mind. Since we knew that we’d end up napping on the couch all weekend if we didn’t have a plan, we set up some ground rules, and they made our long weekend incredibly exciting! We saw our city of over a decade with entirely new eyes! How’s that for wanderlust?
1. No cooking! We set this rule so that we’d feel pampered all weekend and try out new restaurants. This was especially fun for breakfast! We tried new breakfast restaurants, new doughnut shops, and new coffee shops all around our neighborhood! [Ok… If you love to cook, set a rule to try new recipes. We just didn’t want to clean the kitchen…]
2. Eat at new restaurants! We didn’t eat at any restaurants that we had been to before. Atlanta is a huge city with an amazing culinary scene, and we had so many restaurants that we’d been wanting to try. We knew it’d be way too easy to just go to our tried and true spots, so we cut those out entirely.
3. Have a Progressive Dinner! Have you had a “Progressive Dinner” before? If not, it’s typically where you visit multiple people’s homes for different parts of a meal during the holidays. We changed it up to restaurants for our staycation, and it made Rule # 2 even more exciting! Be sure to add it to your plans!
First, pick a restaurant with great cocktails and small plates for your appetizer course. We headed to H. Harper Station, which we’d heard so much about, and noshed on their bacon caramel popcorn while enjoying an old fashioned. Then, head to another new place for your next course! We tried out The Pinewood in Decatur for dinner, and their fried chicken with cheddar and herb waffles changed our southern-food-loving lives! If you still have room, head somewhere with exciting desserts next! It was off to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream for our first taste of their amazing ice cream flavors. We hit up 3 new restaurants, had a much longer date night than normal, and had an amazing time!
4. Go where you haven’t been! We are rarely tourists in our own cities, which means that there are so many neat places that we never explore. We checked out historic sites like Oakland Cemetery. We did a tour of the Braves stadium and clubhouse. We found some new shopping destinations, and some great outdoor areas like the Chattahoochee Nature Center and new sections of the Beltline.
5. Don’t forget to rest a little, too! It is a vacation, after all!
