Atlanta is a city that many people see for the first time while on a business trip. Others come because they want to see the new South or visit friends and relatives. For those who live nearby, it offers a fine collection of art galleries and music choices, including its own symphony. Visitors find a bustling business center, with all the usual amenities, plus parks and a variety of museums and other attractions meant to attract and entertain locals and visitors alike.

And for those who qualify as Civil War junkies, Atlanta is a must-visit. The Union Army famously burned the Georgia capital — but not everything in it — leaving us with some antebellum and Civil War mementos to pursue, as well as the Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History.

The city claims an important place in recent history, too, specifically as it relates to African-Americans. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is remembered here at a national historic site that encompasses his birthplace and his burial site. The city’s attractions, which include a mild climate and southern hospitality (sometimes delivered by transplanted northerners), tend to appeal more to those on the authentics side of the personality scale, but there is something for everyone.

Get the feel for race car driving by signing on at the Panoz Racing School. To participate, you drive (read: race) your own car at the famous track, Road Atlanta in Braselton.

Attend a cabaret show, or choose a night of jazz or the blues. Attend the annual Atlanta Jazz Festival.

Enter the Peachtree Road Race, a 10km run.

In the wee hours of the morning, eat chicken and waffles, a unique combo meant to capture dinner and breakfast, dating from 1930s Harlem and recreated at Gladys Knight and Ron Winans Chicken and Waffles. The restaurant stays open until 4 a.m. on weekends.

Camp at Stone Mountain Park Campground. Hike and fish in the park. Trek to the top of Stone Mountain. Bike around the mountain.

Ride a giant roller coaster called Goliath, which rises 200 feet above Six Flags Over Georgia. Or get your thrills aboard the flying roller coaster called Superman Ultimate Flight, which features pretzel-shaped inverted loops.

Order Southern specialties like barbeque, fried chicken and salmon croquettes at Mary Mac’s Tea Room. Tell your waiter you are a first-timer and you receive a complimentary bowl of pot likker with cornbread.

Attend a production by the True Colors Theatre Company, which is committed to staging groundbreaking plays by African-Americans.

Jog in the city. Great venues include Chastain Park and Piedmont Park.

Follow the Atlanta Campaign Heritage Trail. This driving journey follows the routes taken by the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War campaigns of 1863 and 1864.

Fashion a “Gone With the Wind” day. Tour the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, and see the Gone With the Wind Movie Museum. Time this right and you can hear well-known authors read during an evening reception at the Margaret Mitchell House. Then have dinner at PittyPat’s Porch, a downtown restaurant decorated with book and movie memorabilia. Sit on the porch as waitresses in hoop skirts serve mint juleps. (There are related museums in Jonesboro and Marietta, as well.)

Reserve a space on the Ride the Ducks adventure, a tour of Stone Mountain Park aboard a 1940s Army DUKW converted into an open-air vehicle that moves readily from land to water.

Visit the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site which includes a visitor center, the restored home where King was born, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where three generations of Kings preached and King’s burial site.

Visit the Carter Center, site of the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. It stands on a hill where it is said General Sherman sat to watch Atlanta burn. Sherman used the house that once stood on the hill as his headquarters.

During a tour of the World of Coca-Cola, taste 23 exotic beverages that Coca-Cola makes abroad but not in the United States.

Play golf on any of its many great courses. The area and its surroundings host tournaments.

Dine in a 200-year-old antebellum home, at the upscale Anthony’s restaurant in Buckhead.

Tour Rhodes Hall, one of the last great mansions on Peachtree Street. Completed in 1904, it features nine stained glass windows that together depict “The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy.”

Take a guided walking tour of Oakland Cemetery, noted for its Victorian statuary, where nearly 3,000 Confederate soldiers, 16 Union soldiers and “Gone With the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell are buried.

For more information, consult the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau at www.atlanta.net

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