Midtown

Owned by two ridiculously fit local trainers, Jeff Toney and Amy Selig, the workouts here are based on the Lagree Method, a pilates-based practice that uses a combination of cardio and strength training to get the posture and lengthening benefits of the former along with the calorie-burn and metabolism boost of the latter. Everything happens on a Megaformer, and since the room can only hold a few of them, the classes have the added benefit of always feeling super intimate and personalized. There's a second studio inBuckhead.

A visit to the High Museum is as much an architectural pilgrimage as an artistic one—though the museum was originally housed in a mansion that belonged to the High family, a grant from Coca-Cola in the late '70s made possible a major expansion into a brand-new, Richard-Meier-designed building to house the growing collection. More recently, a 2002 addition by Renzo Piano more than doubled the size of the building. There are more than 15,000 works in the permanent collection, spanning American, European, African, and folk art—a selection of the best, plus several significant works of outdoor public art, are always on display and the museum puts on traveling special exhibitions year-round as a supplement.

This local yoga studio is right on the edge of Midtown, bordering Buckhead, so it’s easy to get to from almost anywhere. The focus here is on power yoga, with classes, trainings, and workshops on the calendar almost every week (look for flow and strength classes with Rebecca, who’s our favorite instructor here).

A stone’s throw from the Fox Theater in Midtown, Stonehurst is a restored, 19th-century residence with six guestrooms. Rooms are surprisingly modern, done up in a neutral palette; some feature a working fireplace. The main wraparound porch is a highlight, particularly scenic given the Stonehurst’s perch on a tree-lined block, and the homemade pastries at breakfast are worth indulging in seconds.

The highlight of Atlanta’s Four Seasons is the delightful Bar Margot. As the name suggests, the cocktail menu here is a real draw; house specialties include the Lady Victoria, a lemon-fresh vodka-rosemary concoction, plus a local-beer program. The restaurant does lunch and dinner with a number of snackable, shareable items on each menu (e.g. crab toast, burrata with pistachio butter, deviled eggs) in addition to their more substantial plates (lobster roll at lunch, lobster thermidor or chicken mattone at dinner). After midnight, they have a short-lived but appropriately satisfying late-night menu—think fried chicken sandwiches and house burgers dressed with charred onions.

Nouvelle is our go-to nail place in Atlanta, in part because of the dreamy interior, which has exposed brick walls and a great little bar for manicures. You can add aromatherapy to any of their treatments for optimal relaxation, and they also do great nail art on request.

Leigh teaches both Kundalini and Vinyasa yoga classes, both in private and at a few different yoga studios in Atlanta—you’ll find her at Yoga Samadhi a few times a week, plus Highland Yoga and Exhale Spa on Thursdays. For those who want to dig a little deeper, she also offers teacher trainings.

Octane now has outposts in almost every Atlanta neighborhood, and you’ll also find their roasts on the menus and plenty of local restaurants, as they roast their beans here in town. The wifi is free, and the snacks (deviled eggs, fresh sandwiches) are substantial enough that you can camp out for the entire day. In the evenings, you’ll see locals pop in after work, when the baristas/bartenders start mixing craft cocktails.

Like many Fox’s around the country, Atlanta’s oldest theatre was originally owned by movie mogul William Fox—it opened in the late 1920s, showing black-and-white movies with sound played by an enormous Möller organ that remains in the theatre today. In the 1960s, the city’s arts and cultural patrons banded together to save the theatre in its current incarnation as a performing arts venue. It’s worth visiting for the ornate (and original) architectural details alone, but this is also the place to see dance, broadway shows, comedians, and live music.

Designer Isamu Noguchi is best known for his iconic Herman Miller collaborations and his notable public sculptures, but also spent much of his career studying the playing habits of children, and designing playscapes that would, as Noguchi said, “Instead of telling the child what to do, [would] become a place for endless exploration.” Noguchi’s only built playground in the United States opened in Piedmont Park in 1976, was recently restored and re-painted by (who else?) Herman Miller Cares.