Spring has sprung, and it’s time to get outside and explore on the weekends! We love living in Atlanta because Georgia just has so much to offer! Head north, and you’ll reach the Blue Ridge Mountains. Head southeast, and you’ll hit beautiful beaches and barrier islands. There’s something for everyone! Here are a few of our favorite Georgia getaways along with our favorite places to stay and things to do.
Wow we can’t believe we’re already a quarter of the way through 2016! We thought it would be fun to provide an update on our 12 trips in 12 months effort so far and our plans going forward. We’d also love to hear from those of you joining us in the challenge on where you’ve been and where you’re planning to go.
If you missed our original #Take12Trips post, be sure to check it out. Our New Year’s Resolution is to travel more often and travel differently, and it’s working!
Stephanie started off the year in Florida visiting the Florida Keys and Everglades National Park. Later in January she also took an overnight trip to the Chattanooga area with a fantastic stay at the Chanticleer Inn.
Meagan’s January trip took her to the beautiful and delicious Beechwood Inn in Clayton, Georgia.
We took a fun girls trip to coastal Georgia! First we went to St. Marys where we stayed at the lovely Spencer House Inn. Then we hopped over to Cumberland Island for a night at the stunning Greyfield Inn.
March took Stephanie on a brief trip to Phoenix to catch a spring training game with her husband Ed. Meagan & Ryan did a weekend trip to Macon to stay at the 1842 Inn!
We both went to Irvine, California for the Women in Travel Summit (WITS) 2016! Read a little about our experience there on our new friend Lindsay’s blog I’ve Been Bit. The night before we flew back home we went whale watching with Captain Dave’s and saw 5 grey whales. It was pretty exciting!
Meagan is more than a little in love with her day job. The Carter Center just held a staff retreat in Plains, Georgia, home of President and Mrs. Carter, and Meagan and her husband went to check out the small town. It’s the perfect example of a tiny southern town. The shops that you see above are all that make up downtown Plains, and that’s incredibly charming. Naturally, there’s a lot of President Carter pride there.
Stephanie is headed to Dubai and Durham, North Carolina for work in April! She’s hoping to have a bit of time to explore both.
[Photo credit: Ulrich Latzenhofer]
Meagan and her husband are heading to Istanbul for the first leg of their trip and will be there on their 5th wedding anniversary. They’ll be spending nights on both the Asian side of the Bosphorus in Kadikoy and the European side in Sultanahmet.
[Photo Credit: Kasbah du Toubkal]
Stephanie is dreaming about a domestic National Park visit for June but doesn’t have definite plans yet.
Stephanie is in the early stages of planning an epic Sound of Music tour of Austria, visiting WWII sites in Germany and maybe a visit to Prague in the Czech Republic.
Meagan has too many ideas, but none of them are concrete. Does anyone have a ticket to Hamilton that they’d like to share?
We’re both headed to Ireland with our husbands for the Georgia Tech versus Boston College American football game in Dublin! We can’t wait to explore the city and also see some of the iconic Irish countryside. If you’ve been, please give us your tips below since we’re still planning our trip!
At this point we just have ideas but nothing firm planned! Stephanie is dreaming about celebrating her three year wedding anniversary at Big Bend National Park in October. She also wants to visit Biltmore Estates in Asheville in December to see it all decorated for Christmas!
Meagan wants to take the Blue Ridge Scenic Railroad through the North Georgia Mountains and is also looking at a trip with Georgia Conservancy.
Where have you been so far this year? Do you have any exciting trips on your calendar? We’d love to hear all about them in the comments below.
If you have tips for any of our upcoming destinations, we’re all ears!
We’ve been on a mission lately to find great weekend getaways from Atlanta for you. Recently, we visited the Beechwood Inn in the North Georgia Mountains, the Chanticleer Inn in Lookout Mountain, the Historic Spencer House Inn in St. Marys, and the Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island. We traveled from the mountains to the sea, just one of the reasons we love Georgia, and now we’re taking you just two hours south of Atlanta to the 1842 Inn for a historic Macon Bed & Breakfast.
For our February trip of our Take 12 Trips Challenge, we began our weekend away at the Historic Spencer House Inn in St. Marys, Georgia. St. Marys is the perfect coastal town to use as a base for not only exploring Cumberland Island National Seashore (since the park ferry departs from the port) but also other surrounding areas including Savannah, the Golden Isles, Fernandina Beach, Jacksonville and even St. Augustine. At a little over a 5-hour drive from Atlanta, an hour and 45 minutes from Savannah, and 45 minutes from Jacksonville, it’s a great long weekend destination.
The Spencer House Inn was built in 1872 and was known as one of the finest hotels in all of southeast Georgia. It operated as a hotel until 1942 when it changed ownership and was run as a rooming house. In the 1980s it was renovated and used as a professional building until 1990 when it was restored again and preserved as the Historic Spencer House Inn. The current owners, Mary and Mike Neff, took over in 1995!
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!
After hitting Miami, one of the highlights of our most recent trip was visiting two national parks in Florida! We went to Dry Tortguas National Park as a day trip from Key West, and it was easily our favorite excursion of the entire vacation. Then we also explored part of the Everglades, another amazing national park in Florida. Everglades is a vast park so we were already talking about our next visit via another entrance.
Our New Year’s Resolution is to travel more often and travel differently. When we first read about Clare’s 12 Trips in 12 Months challenge on Need Another Holiday, we knew immediately that this challenge is exactly what we need in the upcoming year. It’s brilliant and inspiring, and we’re ready for the challenge! (And if you’re not already familiar with Clare, go check her out. Like us, she’s a part-time traveler and full-time travel day-dreamer, so we can all relate to her travel style.)
