What is Atlanta like?

<p>I visited Emory yesterday, and it was my first time visiting southern part. It just felt so different from west/east coasts. I may be wrong because i know nothing about Atlanta but what i felt was the city seemed a little too quite and dead. There seemed nothing to do near the campus and the downtown was pretty small, dark and dirty. I was looking for somewhere with a college town feel, where there are cafes and restaurants where students can just hangout, study and relax. I'm not sure if i really wanna live 4 years now....
It was Saturday and windy when i visited so that could be one reason for quiteness.
So plz tell me more about Atlanta and what Emory students do on the weekends other than partying on campus. Any inputs will be appreciated!!
Thanks.</p>

<p>emory village + toco hills = college town with exactly the feel youre looking for.</p>

<p>atlanta is not like NYC. i was quite surprised when i came here too, bc i was expecting it to be similiar, with narrow roads and packed with all sorts of stuff within walking distance of anywhere. but since atl was built after the popularity of cars rose, it isnt made for pedestrians like a lot of major cities. </p>

<p>downtown, the major metropolitan area where the skyline comes from, is big corporations and internship opportunities. places around it, like buckhead and the such has plenty to do, and its not difficult at all to get there. cabs/marta are quite useful. and theyre a ton of fun.</p>

<p>"with narrow roads and packed with all sorts of stuff within walking distance of anywhere" - exactly what i meant and expected!!
Based on what other people say on this board, Atlanta sounds so much better and more fun than how i felt when i visited! nice:)</p>

<p>I've been to Atlanta a few times. Every time until the last, it was raining, so I stayed in the hotel. However, the last time I went to Atlanta it was nice, sunny, and warm. I had a great time walking around downtown, taking the subway, and visiting a mall.</p>

<p>bump</p>

<p>i'd like to hear more about this too!</p>

<p>We visited Atlanta the weekend that the courthouse killer was loose, lol. We stayed at a hotel in Buckhead Friday night (freezing) and walked passed the Marta station on the way to dinner. We found out the next day that the killer had used this exact same station, and we may have walked right by him!</p>

<p>The next day was absolutely gorgeous and our visit to Emory was marvelous. The campus was charming and pristine in its beauty. The little village next door was equally nice. both downtown Atlanta and Buckhead were short drives/Marta rides away.</p>

<p>Both evenings, we really enjoyed our time in Buckhead. The restaurants were all packed and the area seemed to be really alive.</p>

<p>I think that it is really hard to beat the suburban charm of the Emory Village combined with the ready accessibility of Atlanta. No, it's not New York or Chicago. However, I think few people would have trouble having a good social life there.</p>

<p>I was there for barely 24 hours on a family trip last week. A minor thing that I appreciated was the layout of the city -- the streets aren't laid out in grids, which feels much more organic. Yes, that's the kind of thing I pay attention to. And the weather was lovely.</p>

<p>thanks guys!:) i loved the campus soooooooooo much, i just didnt get a chance to see the city.. it sounds awesome though!</p>

<p>anyone able to specifically compare atlanta to boston?</p>

<p>i lived in metro atlanta since 98 and the weather is not this crappy around this time of the year. normally everybody is walking around in shorts and sandals by beginning of april. so dont think the weather is always cold, raining and what not.</p>

<p>yes atlanta is a city where you cant do anything without a car because the public transportation just sucks. most people from emory will probably hang out in buckhead because thats where restaurants, clubs, and shoppings are.</p>

<p>ive heard everything is really spread out, and the public transportation system (marta?) sucks.. is this true?</p>

<p>(and still waiting for someone to compare atl to boston)</p>

<p>public transportation doesnt suck even a little. MARTA is ranked as like one of the best systems for a major city and it's definitely ranked very high as the safest. i like it soooo much better than NYC's subway system. </p>

<p>i didnt really like boston when i went there, and i really like atlanta. but i didnt like boston because (this is gonna sound weird) there were historical sites everywhere and they seemed out of place. or it seemed that way to me bc it was for a history class trip. but i loved that place with the 4 story abercrombie. =P um, atlanta is less baseball obsessed than boston id say. and less pedestrian friendly since it's not the port city boston is. yeah maybe someone who's been to boston sometime in the past 7 years should talk about this haha.</p>

<p>I've lived in Atl my whole life, and here's my opinion -
emory village kind of sucks when compared to other college communities (it's just really small), but in my experience, Emory students spend very little time there. The rest of Atlanta is great . . . shopping - 2 huge malls across the street from each other, and virginia highlands and little five points which have great unique stores; sports - braves, falcons and thrashers; tons of movie theaters (including a drive in); really nice restaraunts everywhere; clubs (mostly 21 and up though) in buckhead: tons of concerts - in philips arena, lakewood, variety playhouse, etc. . . . I haven't gotten bored in Atlanta yet and I've lived there for 18 years. So my advice is to make friends with someone who has a car or take marta (which is decent, overall safe and easy) and you should have no problems with Atlanta.</p>

<p>yay! sounds good! glad to hear about hte marta thing too.</p>

<p>haha yeah boston has a lot of historic stuff..but it is a great city aside from the weather (and the fact that ppl probably arent as friendly there as tehy are in the south)</p>