World Flavor

Weather: 3 out of 10. Winters are mild; I was there in early January and it was in the 50s – pretty excellent. However, they don’t call it Hotlanta for nothing. From what I hear, summers are terrible, probably worse than in DC. Hot and humid – no good.

Food: 6 out of 10. We definitely found some delicious stuff, though it was almost exclusively American places, with a Southern cooking focus.

Walkability: 2 out of 10. There are sidewalks (in mostly good repair) but it will only be you and sort of sketchy people on them, except for a few touristy areas. Nobody walks around – I was walking and I did not feel safe in some places in mid-day.

Bikeability: 2 out of 10. No bike lanes that I saw, and no people on bikes either.

Public Transportation: 6 out of 10. The metro system, MARTA, will take you to many places in the city and there appeared to be a decent bus system. However, we were questioned about feeling safe on MARTA (which we did) so apparently there is a stereotype that it is unsafe.

Vegetarian-friendly: 4 out of 10. Happycow.net has quite a few listings for Atlanta veg places; however, none of them are in the downtown area – all in the burbs. There were veg options at some of the places we went.

Beauty: 3 out of 10. From what I saw, it was not that easy on the eyes.

Museums, Etc.: 5 out of 10. There are a number of museums, though they all cost money. The Georgia Aquarium is top notch. The World of Coke is cheesy, but fun for the tasting you can do.

Cool Shops: Downtown area: 0 out of 10. Little Five Points: 8 out of 10. There was nothing cool downtown, but Little Five Points was awesome, chock full of interesting stuff.

Free Stuff to Do: 0 out of 10. I really found basically nothing to do for free there.

Great Outdoors: 2 out of 10. There were a few parks, but nothing really close by in the way of hikes, that I know of.

Cleanliness: 3 out of 10. The downtown area, at least, was not particularly clean.

People: 3 out of 10. I know one nice guy who lives there, but people on the street were weird or sort of hostile.

Cost of Living: $ out of $$$$. Food was cheap (even the fancy places weren’t too bad), and a quick Craigslist search just revealed that I could be living in a 4 bedroom home with what I pay for rent in DC.

Tourist Congestion: 3 out of 5. Apparently tourists come to Atlanta. I’m not really sure why.

Safety: 2 out of 5. I did not feel particularly safe anywhere in Atlanta (a little better in Little Five Points). The guy I know who lives there says every apartment parking lot has to be locked up tight. Not great.

Overall Thoughts: I was not enamored of Atlanta. In fact, I didn’t like it. It was sort of dirty, and nobody walked around. It’s easy to drive around in – traffic in the downtown seemed pretty light even during ‘rush hour’. However, that’s not what I want out of a city.

Weather: 6 out of 10. Winters are cold (and there is pretty much no central heating) but it rarely snows or gets below freezing. It rains a lot in the winter. It does get warm (and fairly hot in the summer, I’m told). It really does embody that NZ slogan of ’4 seasons in a day’, though.

Food: 6 out of 10. Yummy Asian options. Good burger joints. Nothing in the way of good Mexican (but it’s NZ, what can you expect?). Fabulous Saturday farmers’ market at the train station (year round, as far as I could tell).

Walkability: 8 out of 10. Plenty of good sidewalks, and I never felt unsafe walking around anywhere from the Octagon north (even by myself at 3 am).

Bikeability: 6 out of 10. There were plenty of people biking but I didn’t see any bike lanes. Center City and the Uni area is pretty flat, but if you went outside of that you’d be dealing with some major hills.

Public Transportation: 5 out of 10. There’s just the bus, and it is hard to figure out. I had problems with it… I walked everywhere, though.

Vegetarian-friendly: 5 out of 10. Many places had meat-free items but there were few whole restaurants that were veg.

Beauty: City center: 7 out of 10, Areas around the city: 10 out of 10. Some lovely old architecture and a wonderful botanic gardens were gorgeous. Down in the uni flats, not so much. But you don’t have to go far to get to some of the most amazing views I’ve seen.

Museums: 5 out of 10. There weren’t that many museums but most of them were free or cheap.

Cool Shops: 6 out of 10. Plenty of opshops (that’s a thrift store) but that’s about it.

Free Stuff to Do: 4 out of 10. There were some things… but a lot of stuff cost a little money.

Great Outdoors: 9 out of 10. There were the botanic gardens and several hikes within walking distance, and if you had a car there are tons of hikes you can drive to.

Cleanliness: 3 out of 10. Especially on a Friday morning, it could be pretty gross – beer bottles everywhere… I would never walk around barefoot. I did find the ubiquitous graffiti rather charming.