Georgia is known for its charm and Southern hospitality, but its scenic beauty is not to be missed. Meeting planners wanting to host events in spectacular natural settings should look no further than these small Georgia towns.
Dawsonville
Dawsonville is the first town visitors reach when they are heading from Atlanta to the mountains. It is the gateway to the Appalachian Trail and home to Amicalola Falls, the tallest cascading waterfall in Georgia. Several farms open for agritourism and team building in the fall, including Uncle Shuck’s Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch, and the North Georgia Premium Outlets make Dawsonville a prime shopping destination.
The 57-room Amicalola Falls State Park & Lodge can host groups of 10 to 200 for meetings or events. It also offers team-building challenges on its zip-line canopy tours, low and high ropes courses, and a ground-level challenge course.
Dawsonville is the birthplace of stock car racing and the home of the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame, which makes a great off-site event venue. The hall of fame can host up to 200 guests for a banquet, and meeting groups can take a tour of the museum and challenge themselves with six racing simulators as part of their event.
Atlanta Motorsports Park’s Formula One-designed racetrack is five miles from downtown Dawsonville. Race enthusiasts can try their hand at racing on the facility’s Formula One-style kart racing track or host events in its 20,000-square-foot conference center.
The town has four hotel properties, including the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Dawsonville, which has event space for groups of up to 175 in a theater-style setup. The Revere is a resort-style property with 15,000 square feet of usable indoor and outdoor event space that can accommodate groups of up to 500.
Macon
Macon is a big music city, with museums that honor music legends like Otis Redding, James Brown and Little Richard, and is home to Capricorn Studios and Grant’s Lounge, where many famous artists got their start, including The Allman Brothers Band.
The city is also known for its scenic beauty, from the International Cherry Blossom Festival that happens every March to the nearby Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, which has eight miles of trails that take visitors past seven historical Native American mounds, wetlands and forests. A half-mile trail leads visitors from the visitor center to two temple mounds, an earth lodge and a trading post site. With its white sandy beaches, Lake Tobesofkee offers boating, biking, swimming, fishing and camping. It also has pavilions that groups can rent out for events.
The largest event facility in Macon is the Edgar H. Wilson Convention Center, with over 100,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space. It is connected to the 220-room Macon Marriott City Center, which has 5,000 square feet of meeting space. The convention center and hotel are both connected to the Macon Coliseum, which has a 9,252-seat capacity.
Anderson Conference Center has more than 15,000 square feet of meeting space, including a ballroom that can host 440 at rounds. The Robert F. Hatcher, Sr. Conference Center at Middle Georgia State University can host groups of up to 240.
Rhythm & Rally Sports and Events is the world’s largest indoor pickleball facility, with 32 indoor courts. It can host large groups for events or pickleball tournaments.
Marietta
Marietta is a dining, arts and historic destination about 20 miles from Atlanta. Visitors can walk or bike along the Mountain to River Trail, which takes them through downtown Marietta, Marietta Square and Marietta Confederate Cemetery. There are plenty of coffee, ice cream and snack shops in Marietta Square, and the Marietta Square Market Food Hall gives visitors a range of dining options, from vegan to barbecue, Korean to Cuban.
There are about 15 murals along the trail for those who love street art. The city has multiple theaters that can be rented out for events, including the Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theatre, a former Art Deco movie theater on the northeast corner of Marietta Square. The auditorium can seat 530, and groups can also rent out the theater’s Lumiere Lounge and Rooftop Terrace. Black Box Theater can accommodate groups of up to 140 guests.
The 200-room Hilton Atlanta/Marietta Hotel & Conference Center has 27,564 square feet of event space in 27 rooms. Boxwood Social Hall offers more than 5,000 square feet of indoor event space, and the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art has several spaces to host smaller meetings and events.
For fun, groups can visit the Marietta History Center, which details the history of Marietta from its inception in 1834. The Marietta Gone with the Wind Museum at Historic Brumby Hall features memorabilia from the movie, and the city is only 10 minutes from Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.
Dahlonega
In the mountains of north Georgia, Dahlonega is known for its vineyards and its gold mining history. Dahlonega was the site of the country’s first gold rush in 1828 — 20 years before the California gold rush. The Dahlonega Gold Museum State Historic Site in the Old Lumpkin County Courthouse details the history of Georgia and the Georgia Gold Rush. The building itself served as a courthouse from 1836 to 1965 and sits in the town’s historic public square.
The square is surrounded by local restaurants, shops and regional Georgia wine-tasting rooms and is adjacent to the University of North Georgia campus.
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Dahlonega-University Area has 75 guest rooms and meeting space that can accommodate smaller groups of 75. Montaluce Winery & Restaurant and Wolf Mountain Vineyards both have large event spaces that can host groups of up to 200, and 27 on Park is a boutique hotel property in downtown with 14 guest rooms and event space for up to 100.
Forrest Hills Mountain Resort & Conference Center, on the west side of the county, is a 140-acre resort that has 85 sleeping rooms and a large meeting room that can host 200 for a banquet. It offers chuckwagon dinners, horse and carriage rides, gem mining, two regulation size volleyball courts and team-building activities.
The University of North Georgia offers great meeting space for larger groups, and the county has 800 hotel rooms.
Duluth
Located 30 minutes north of Atlanta, Duluth offers big-city amenities but is only 17 miles from the largest lake in Georgia, Lake Lanier, with its hiking trails, boat rides and water park. Duluth has earned the nickname “Seoul of the South” because of its large Korean American community. The city has a walkable and historic downtown that features boutique shopping, chef-driven restaurants, colorful murals and a scenic town green.
The Gas South District is a 118-acre multipurpose campus that includes the Gas South Convention Center, with 90,000 square feet of exhibit hall space, a 21,600-square-foot ballroom and 23 meeting rooms. It also has outdoor gathering areas, a food hall and catering from Proof of the Pudding. The 13,000-seat Gas South Arena can host up to 10,000 attendees in its open floor space, and the district also includes the 708-seat Gas South Theater, The Hudgens Center for Art &Learning, and the 348-room Westin Atlanta Gwinnett.
The Westin features 28,029 square feet of event space in 16 event rooms. Its Jasper Ballroom can host groups of up to 1,050 in theater-style seating or 800 for a banquet. The Embassy Suites by Hilton Atlanta NE Gwinnett Sugarloaf, which is also near the Gas South District, has 166 guest rooms and 5,568 square feet of event space. The Sonesta Gwinnett Place Atlanta hotel has 20,000 square feet of meeting and event space, including 18 function rooms. The Georgia Ballroom can host up to 800 guests, and the hotel has 300 guest rooms.
