EXCITING CITIES
ATLANTA, USA
WHY NOW? Most frequent flyers in America have
changed planes in Atlanta at some point, but in recent
years more travellers have been leaving the confines
of its airport (the world’s busiest by passenger footfall)
to discover a city with a blossoming restaurant scene
and ever-fresh cultural offerings. The state capital of
Georgia is busy rounding out its unofficial title as
‘capital of the South’.
WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT? Home to the headquarters
of Coca-Cola, CNN and Delta Air Lines, Atlanta has
long had a corporate heft that’s unusual for a city in
the American South. But, outside its Downtown core,
it has kept its tree-lined streets and many fine houses
of the kind evoked in Gone With the Wind. As the
birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr, the city also hosts
many monuments from the civil rights struggle.
WHAT SHOULDN’T I MISS? One of the newest projects
in town is the Atlanta BeltLine: 22 miles of city-
encircling rail corridors that are being turned into
parks and multi-use trails (beltline.org). Among
its already-opened stretches, the Eastside Trail
connects the increasingly in-demand Inman Park
neighbourhood with Piedmont Park, home to the
city’s botanic gardens; it passes near Jimmy Carter’s
presidential library, with a replica of his 1977–81
Oval Office, and the Martin Luther King Jr National
Historic Site. Route your further wanderings to take in
the outdoor daubs of Living Walls; its 100-plus artists
are brightening up overlooked corners around town
(livingwallsatl.com). On the gastronomic front,
Southern standbys like BBQ pork at Fox Brothers
(half-pound for £6; foxbrosbbq.com) are being joined
by the likes of Kobe beef tartare among the tapas-style
dishes at hot-ticket Gunshow (dishes from £12;
gunshowatl.com). Sleep with one foot planted in
an older Atlanta at The Social Goat b&b; this Queen
Anne-style house is also a working farm within
the city, with chickens, turkeys and indeed goats
(from £115; thesocialgoatbandb.com).
HOW DO I GET THERE? The most direct route to
Atlanta from Singapore or Kuala Lumpur is via Doha
on Qatar Airways (from £788; qatarairways.com).The Atlanta skyline at dusk.
FROM TOP LEFT The Social
Goat b&b; one of Gunshow’s
frequently changing dishes;
Living Walls street artDIZZY HEIGHTS
If all that’s
missing from
your life is to
drink Scotch
at 800 feet,
head to
Bangkok’s
Lebua hotel.
It’s just opened
the world’s
highest
outdoor
whisky bar,
Alfresco 64
(lebua.com).Great catch
An old herring factory
in the Icelandic capital
has been reborn as a
new cultural space. The
Marshall House is now
home to two artist-run
galleries: Kling & Bang
(this.is/klingogbang) and
the Living Art Museum
(nylo.is). The building is
in the rapidly changing
harbourside district of
Grandi, one of the most
dynamic in Reykjavík.
A stash of new museums,
restaurants and shops
have opened here in
recent years.PHOTOGRAPHS: KELLEY KLEIN PHOTOGRAPHY, DAVID CRAWFORD, JOSHUA GWYN, RONALD ASHLEY LANEJR/500PX. ILLUSTRA-TIONS: OLGASEROVA/ISTOCK/GETTY, TOP VECTOR STUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK