Most lists of things to do in Atlanta with kids send you all over the map. One stop in Midtown, one on the east side, one twenty minutes up the highway. Every stop means buckling everyone back into the car, finding parking again, and burning an hour you will not get back.
Downtown Atlanta is the exception. The biggest family attractions in the city sit around a single park, close enough that you park once and walk the whole day. The only real planning problem is lunch, and that is the part we can help with.
We run CTR Food Works, the food hall inside the reimagined former CNN Center at 190 Marietta Street NW, on the corner of Centennial Olympic Park. Eleven chef-driven kitchens, 500 seats, and a steady stream of families coming through the door at 1 PM with the same look on their faces. Here is the day we would plan for them.
Why downtown is the easy answer with kids
A day out with children has three weak points: the car, the wait, and the meal nobody agrees on. Downtown takes care of the first one on its own, because everything on this list is a short walk from everything else.
The walking is the kind kids can handle. Centennial Olympic Park is about three minutes from our front door. The Georgia Aquarium is roughly ten minutes away on the far side of that same park. Short legs can do that, and so can a grandparent.
The other two weak points are what a food hall is for. More on that below.
Morning: the Georgia Aquarium
Start here while everyone is fresh. The aquarium is the anchor of nearly every family day downtown, and it rewards an early arrival. A timed ticket for the morning gets you in ahead of the midday crowd and leaves the whole afternoon open.
Plan on a few hours inside. Small kids tend to go hard for the first two and fade fast in the third, so watch the youngest person in your group and leave while the mood is still good. Leaving ten minutes early is always cheaper than leaving ten minutes late.
If the aquarium is the main event of your trip, we wrote a separate guide to restaurants near the Georgia Aquarium with more detail on timing lunch around your ticket.
Midday: run the park, then eat
When you walk out of the aquarium, you are standing at the top of Centennial Olympic Park. Do not rush through it. The park was built for the 1996 Summer Games, and for a kid who has just spent three hours being told to use walking feet, the open lawns are the best exhibit of the day.
Let them run. The park costs nothing, and ten minutes of sprinting on the grass buys you a much calmer lunch table. Then keep walking to the southwest corner, where the hall sits at Marietta Street and Centennial Olympic Park Drive.
Lunch: every kid orders their own thing
Here is the problem with a regular restaurant on a family day. You wait for a table, you wait for a server, and then four people try to agree on one menu while a five year old announces that everything on it is gross.
A food hall skips all of that. Each person walks up to a different counter, food comes out in minutes, and the whole family still sits down at one table. There is no reservation and no waitlist. With 500 seats, a group with a stroller and two sets of grandparents can find room together.
A few counters that do well with kids:
- For the plain eater. Flora D'Italia fires Neapolitan-style pizza over wood, and a Margherita is about as safe as lunch gets. Spaghetti and meatballs is on the menu too, and the adults can order chicken Parmesan from the same counter.
- For the chicken strips kid. At Southern Belle Chicken Co., chef Joey Ward's fried chicken comes as sandwiches, strips, or salad. You pick a flavor, so the kids get classic Southern while you try the gochujang hot honey or Jamaican jerk.
- For the burger and hot dog crowd. Patty & Frank's serves burgers and beef franks with fries, tots, or onion rings on the side. The lemonade and iced tea are made in house.
- For the kid who will try anything. The Sparrow has dumplings and sesame chicken, MiMi Taqueria makes quesadillas and tacos, and Eggflip × SushiFlip puts egg sandwiches on toasted Korean milk bread next to sushi rolls, with tater tots on the side.
Parents are not stuck with the kids' menu either. Fuzzy's has fresh oysters and lobster rolls, La Tropical does ropa vieja and pressed Cuban sandwiches, and Rivalry Beef settles Philly cheesesteak against Chicago Italian beef. The bar in the middle of the atrium is the largest in Georgia, which is a fair reward for anyone who just steered three children through an aquarium.
Every kitchen is listed on the Food & Drinks page if you want to scout the options before you come.
Dessert is your bargaining chip
Announce dessert early and use it all day. It is the best tool a parent has between the last exhibit and the car.
Morelli's has been making ice cream in Atlanta since 2008, and the flavor board changes by the day. Salted Caramel is a regular, Cotton Candy shows up in the rotation, and there are non-dairy scoops along with milkshakes and sundaes. The counter is cashless, so bring a card or your phone.
DessertBox covers the bakery side with red velvet and key lime pie cupcakes, gluten-free macarons, and croissants. A box of macarons for the ride home has ended more than one back seat argument.
Afternoon: World of Coca-Cola or a museum
With everyone fed, you get a second wind. World of Coca-Cola sits right next to the aquarium, and the two make the classic downtown pairing: one in the morning, one in the afternoon, lunch in between.
The blocks around the park give you other options too. The Children's Museum of Atlanta is built for the youngest visitors, and the College Football Hall of Fame suits older kids who would rather throw a ball than look at one more display case. If your group spans a wide age range, split up for two hours and meet back at the bar in the atrium. Nobody needs directions to find it.
Our full rundown of the neighborhood, including what is worth doing without kids in tow, is in the guide to things to do in downtown Atlanta.
A sample schedule
- Morning: Park once, walk to the Georgia Aquarium for a timed morning ticket.
- 12:30 PM: Out of the aquarium and into Centennial Olympic Park. Let the kids run.
- 1 PM: Lunch in the hall. Everyone picks a counter, everyone meets at one table.
- 1:45 PM: Ice cream or a cupcake.
- 2:15 PM: World of Coca-Cola or a museum by the park.
- Late afternoon: Back to the hall for an early dinner, or straight to the car before rush hour.
With toddlers, cut the afternoon stop and call it a win after ice cream. With teenagers, flip the day: an early lunch when the doors open at 11, then the attractions, then dinner.
Hours, parking, and getting here
- Sunday through Wednesday: 11 AM – 9 PM
- Thursday through Saturday: 11 AM – 10 PM
The hall opens at 11 every day, so an early lunch before an afternoon ticket works just as well as a late one after a morning ticket.
For drivers, The Center Parking Garage is directly across the street, with the Omni deck and the decks around Centennial Olympic Park as backups on busy weekends. On MARTA, the CNN Center / GWCC station is two blocks east, and most kids count the train as an attraction of its own. Parking details and full directions are on the Visit page.
Planning something bigger, like a birthday or a school group built around the aquarium? The hall books spaces from a reserved section up to a full buyout. Start on the Private Events page.
Build your family day around one address
The best things to do in Atlanta with kids are all within a short walk of each other downtown. Park once, see the aquarium, run the park, and let every kid order their own lunch.
Check the calendar for what is happening in the hall this week, then get hours, parking, and directions and make 190 Marietta Street the middle of your day.