Tour Information

Cost: $29.95, $25.95 for Seniors

Inside CNN Studio Tour

The CNN Center is open to the public and entrance to the building is free. The world headquarters of CNN, this is the largest of their 48 bureaus. On the Inside CNN Studio Tour, you will learn how the live broadcasts are produced and sent around the world, and you will view the studio in action. This 55-minute walking tour descends 8 flights of stairs, but elevator assisted tours are offered at 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. Reservations for any of the tours are recommended, although walk-up tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.  

Centennial Olympic Park

Courtesy Matthew Kimemia CC BY-SA

Centennial Olympic Park, located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, was built for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. During the Olympics, the park was a gathering place for both visitors and athletes, with entertainment, medal presentations, and pin trading. The Quilt of Remembrance is a stone mosaic in the location of the July 27th bombing that took one life and injured 111 people. Within the park is a Visitors Center, offering information about the development of the park and the commemorative bricks used throughout the park. The Fountain of Rings is a computer-controlled fountain, synchronized with music. In the warmer months, you’ll see children of all ages playing in the water. The flags surrounding the fountain represent the Summer Olympics host countries for all the Olympic games up thru 1996. Sculptures in the park include one of Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympic games.

Cost: FREE

Atlanta History Center

Courtesy Evillarry CC BY-SA

The Atlanta History Center is located on 33 acres in the heart of Buckhead. The History Center includes one of the Southeast’s largest history museums with six permanent exhibits and a variety of temporary exhibits. The permanent exhibits are the Centennial Olympic Games Museum, Turning Point: The American Civil War, Metropolitan Frontiers (Atlanta’s development into a Suburban Metropolis), Folk Arts in a Changing South, Down the Fairway with Bobby Jones, and Phillip Trammell Shutze: Atlanta Classicist, Connoisseur, and Collector (one of Atlanta’s foremost architects and art collectors). Also included on the grounds and open for touring are the 1928 Swan House, the Tullie Smith Antebellum Farm, historic gardens, the Kenan Research Center including the Cherokee Garden Library, and the Swan Coach House Restaurant. The Museum has one of the largest collections of civil war artifacts in the world. 

Cost: $16.50, $13 for Seniors

Fernbank Museum of Natural History

Fernbank hosts both permanent exhibits and temporary exhibits. The main atrium of the facility contains Giants of the Mesozoic, featuring cast replicas of the original specimens of a 123-foot long Argentinosaurus and other dinosaurs large and small. Make sure you look at the flooring in the atrium to see the 40,000 limestone tiles embedded with 150 million year old fossils! The development of our planet and Georgia’s natural history are presented in A Walk Through Time in Georgia. Reflections of Culture looks at how physical adornment represents societies and their culture. Past temporary exhibits have included such varied topics as Frogs: A Chorus of Colors, Chocolate: The Exhibition, and Winter Wonderland: Celebrations & Traditions Around the World. Don’t miss the opportunity to see a beautifully filmed nature-related movie on the biggest screen in town at the IMAX theatre inside Fernbank.

Cost for museum only: $17.50, $16.50 for Seniors
Cost for museum + IMAX movie: $23.00, $21.00 for Seniors

Atlanta Botanical Gardens

The Atlanta Botanical Gardens are situated in Midtown, next door to Piedmont Park. Enjoy the Kendeda Canopy Walk on a skywalk elevated path thru the trees of Storza Woods. Visit the Dorothy Fuqua Conservatory, housing the largest collection of species orchids in the United States, and many rare, threatened and endangered desert and tropical plants. The Garden also offers many outdoor gardens including several formal gardens, a woodland garden, an award-winning Children’s Garden, and the Edible Garden.

Cost: $18.95

Atlanta - born as a railroad stop in the wilderness and christened by the land surveyor as a place that would never amount to anything.  General Sherman didn't agree.  He called it the citadel of the South and burned it.  Margaret Mitchell didn't agree.  She wrote a book about it.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't agree.  He called it home.  President Jimmy Carter didn't agree.  He located his Presidential Library and Center for World Peace here.  CNN's Ted Turner didn't agree.  He founded his empire here ... and then there are those other guys - the Atlanta Braves, the Atlanta Falcons, the Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Dream.

Welcome to Atlanta and a cultural journey through time as you discover who we are ... from Civil War to Civil Rights to International Host City of the Centennial Olympic Games.

May 10, 2012, 5:00 pm  Your Lamplighter Tours guide and minibus will meet you at your hotel to begin our whirlwind tour of the city.

First is a drive through one of Atlanta's most prestigious neighborhoods - Buckhead.  The Governor's Mansion is located here - and it is NOT the largest house on the block.   Then, sit back and enjoy the old and the new in Atlanta as our narrated tour follows Atlanta's famous Peachtree Street from the suburbs to the heart of the city.

See old favorites like the gold-domed State Capitol and the grand old Fox Theater.  Check out Atlantic Station, Atlanta's hot new 'city within the city'.  Travel with us to an earlier Atlanta with a visit to Inman Park with its beautifully restored Victorian architecture. Drive past the Carter Center, the library and museum of the Georgia peanut farmer who became our 39th President.  See Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves - Turner Field was Olympic Stadium during the 1996 summer Olympics.  Don't miss the Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the world! The New World of Coca Cola is right next door.

We'll take a look at Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta's best legacy from the 1996 Olympic Games.  See the dancing waters of the Five Rings Fountain, the Commemorative Bricks and the dramatic statue of de Coubertin, founder of the modern day Olympic Games.  Learn the stories of the '96 Games and the Memorial Quilt Plazas. The CNN Center, Philips Arena and Georgia Dome are on the south side of the park.

Tour time: 4 hours, beginning and ending at your hotel.

Cost per person: $30