Downtown Atlanta packs more into a few blocks than most of the city does in a few miles. An aquarium, a park built for the Olympics, an arena, a stadium, museums, and the convention halls all sit close enough together that one parking spot can cover the whole day.
The part that trips people up is not what to do. It is where to eat in between, when the group is tired, the clock is running, and nobody wants the same thing.
This guide covers both. We run CTR Food Works, the food hall inside the reimagined former CNN Center at 190 Marietta Street NW, right at the corner of Centennial Olympic Park. Eleven chef-driven kitchens, 500 seats, and the largest bar in Georgia. So we have a strong opinion about the eating part, and a front-row view of everything else on this list.
Start at Centennial Olympic Park
If you only do one thing downtown, walk the park. Centennial Olympic Park is the green center of this part of the city, built for the 1996 Summer Games and still the easiest way to get your bearings. Most of the big attractions face onto it, so crossing it once shows you where everything is.
It is also about three minutes from our front door. That makes the park the natural place to start a downtown day and the natural place to end one, with a meal in between. Kids run off energy on the lawns, adults get a view of the skyline, and nobody has spent a dollar yet.
The Georgia Aquarium
The aquarium is the anchor of most downtown family days, and it sits on the north side of the same park. Plan on a few hours inside. Timed tickets help you skip the worst of the crowd, and a morning slot leaves the afternoon open.
From the aquarium doors to the hall is roughly a ten minute walk across the park. We wrote a full plan for that loop, including when to eat around a timed ticket, in our guide to restaurants near the Georgia Aquarium.
World of Coca-Cola
Right next door to the aquarium, World of Coca-Cola is the other half of the classic downtown pairing. The two work best as a morning and an afternoon, with lunch in the middle. Try to do both back to back without eating and you will learn exactly how long a seven year old can go between meals.
Our suggestion: aquarium first, walk across the park for lunch, then World of Coca-Cola once everyone is fed and in a better mood.
Museums around the park
The blocks around Centennial Olympic Park hold more than the two big names. The National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the College Football Hall of Fame both sit on the edge of the park, and either one fills a morning or an afternoon.
They also suit different people in the same group. If half of you want a quieter, more reflective few hours and the other half want to talk football, split up for the afternoon and meet back at the bar in the middle of our atrium. You do not need to send directions. You say "the bar," and everyone finds it.
A game or a show at State Farm Arena
State Farm Arena is about a five minute walk from the hall, which makes it the easiest big event downtown to build a night around. Hawks games carry the winter, and concerts and family shows fill the rest of the year.
The trick on any arena night is eating before the doors, not inside them. For a 7:30 start, arrive at 5:30, eat at 6, and walk over at 7. Our State Farm Arena guide lays out the timing in detail.
Football and more at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a little farther, roughly ten minutes on foot, and it runs the fall. Falcons Sundays, Atlanta United matches, and stadium concerts all follow the same rule: eat a real meal first, walk over with time to spare, and skip the concourse lines.
For a 1 PM kickoff, the hall opens at 11, which gives you a full brunch or early lunch and a drink before you head to the gates. The complete game day schedule is in our Mercedes-Benz Stadium guide.
The building itself
The former CNN Center is one of the most recognized addresses in the city, and plenty of visitors come downtown knowing the name before they know anything else. Walk in and you are standing in a 14-story atrium that now holds eleven kitchens around the largest bar in Georgia.
It is worth a stop even if you are not hungry yet. It turns into the answer the moment you are.
Then come eat
This is the part we know best. Every downtown day hits the same wall around 1 PM or 6 PM, and a food hall is built for that moment. Everyone orders from a different counter, food comes out in minutes, and the whole group still sits down together. No reservation, no waitlist, no compromise dish nobody wanted.
A few ways to use the room after a day on your feet:
After the aquarium, with kids. Flora D'Italia fires Neapolitan-style pizza over wood, so a plain Margherita covers the picky eater while the adults order chicken Parmesan or spaghetti and meatballs from the same counter. At Southern Belle Chicken Co., chef Joey Ward's fried chicken comes as sandwiches, strips, or salad, and you choose a flavor from around the world: classic Southern for the cautious, Jamaican jerk or gochujang hot honey for everyone else.
After a museum, when you want to sit and talk. The Sparrow brings Szechuan dumplings and wok-fired noodles made for sharing. Fuzzy's works the cold side of the hall with fresh oysters, ceviche, and lobster rolls. La Tropical covers mofongo, ropa vieja, and pressed Cuban sandwiches from Chef Minelly Amador.
Before a game. Rivalry Beef settles the Philly cheesesteak against Chicago Italian beef; ask for the Wet Italian Beef by name. Patty & Frank's stacks the P&F Patty, two beef patties with American cheese and house Patty Sauce. MiMi Taqueria makes tacos you can hold in one hand, plus birria in a crispy cheese shell with consommé on the side.
For a late start. Eggflip × SushiFlip puts Korean-style egg sandwiches on milk bread on one side of the counter and sushi and poke on the other, which covers a group that cannot agree on what time of day it is.
The full roster, with details for every kitchen, is on the Food & Drinks page.
Save room for dessert
Dessert is the reward that gets a family through the last hour of any downtown itinerary, so promise it early. Morelli's has been making ice cream in Atlanta since 2008, and its flavor board changes by the day. Salted Caramel is a regular, and the rotation runs as far as Ube and Pecan Praline. The counter is cashless, so bring a card or your phone.
DessertBox, the bakery counter from chef Steven Ferdinand, covers the pastry end: gluten-free macarons, croissants, and a Chocolate Trilogy cake layered with dark, milk, and white chocolate mousse. Grab a box for the drive home.
A sample downtown day
Put it together and a full day looks like this:
- 11 AM: Park once, walk Centennial Olympic Park.
- Late morning: Georgia Aquarium or one of the museums around the park.
- 1 PM: Walk back across the park for lunch in the hall.
- Afternoon: World of Coca-Cola, or split up between the museums.
- Evening: A drink at the bar, then a short walk to State Farm Arena or Mercedes-Benz Stadium if you have tickets.
It works in reverse too. Start with an early lunch when the doors open at 11, beat the midday crowd at every attraction, and come back for dinner.
Hours and getting here
- Sunday through Wednesday: 11 AM – 9 PM
- Thursday through Saturday: 11 AM – 10 PM
Thursday through Saturday the hall runs through the evening, so a day downtown can roll straight into a night out. Sunday through Wednesday it closes at 9, which still leaves plenty of time for dinner after the attractions close.
The simplest parking is The Center Parking Garage, directly across the street, with the Omni deck and the decks around Centennial Olympic Park as backups on busy days. On MARTA, the CNN Center / GWCC station is two blocks east, which makes this one of the few full downtown days that does not need a car at all. Full directions and transit notes are on the Visit page.
Plan your downtown day
The best things to do in downtown Atlanta are all within a short walk of each other. The one thing most plans leave out is a meal that works for everyone, close enough that you never move the car.
Check the calendar to see what is happening in the hall this week, then get hours, parking, and directions and make 190 Marietta Street the middle of your day.