Many of you know me for traveling and partying internationally but I am not above having a good time stateside.
As a matter of fact, my travel journey started out as taking a trip from Nashville to Atlanta, GA every year for either Freaknik or the Atlanta Football Classic, a black college football game that was the highlight of many people in Nashville, TN. It was nostalgic to revisit the “scene of my crimes” for my birthday weekend in 2021.
Atlanta is 4-hour drive from Nashville, TN. If you are not in the mood to drive, you can also catch a Southwest Flight from Nashville to Atlanta for as low as $49 sometimes.
Atlanta is often referred to as the “Black Hollywood”. And truly it is because it is the home of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, Love and Hip Hop Atlanta and movies like The Walking Dead, Stranger Things and The Hunger Games.
Atlanta has amazing restaurants, nightlife, theatres, plays, museums, galleries and concert halls. You name it, you can find it somewhere in Georgia
My best friend, Punkin, invited me to accompany here for a bachelorette party weekend in Atlanta, GA because it my birthday weekend and she was attending the bachelorette weekend of one of her close friend’s daughter. Therefore, she was killing two birds with one stone by celebrating her friend’s daughter and my birthday. Which was fine with me——a turn up is a turn up. I don’t care what the reason is.
The only issue with the weekend was….the itinerary! Keep in mind that I said this was the bachelorette party of a friend’s daughter! That means young girls. We were the “aunties” of the group! When I saw the itinerary, for this young girl’s weekend, I responded, “Whew, Childddd, I’m too old for this!” But not only did I survive the weekend but I made every event and I promise you that I turned up harder than any young girl in the group!
The Hotel
We arrived and checked into our hotel, Home2 Suites By Hilton Atlanta Perimeter Center which was not an ideal location for all of the events that were on the itinerary however, the location of the hotel was surrounded by a couple of restaurants, Walgreens and Wal-Mart and that is really all you need should you find yourself needing a little more than what you traveled with. Besides, one of the beauties about driving is you have a car and get around.
Normally, I am “full-service” hotel type of girl. I like a hotel with a restaurant on property, a swimming pool and room service, at the minimum. Although this hotel did not have all the bells and whistles that I normally like, it was a good hotel for the weekend and we adjusted to what we didn’t have and focused on what we did have.
The hotel had:
- Free Breakfast
- Outdoor Swimming Pool
- Ice Machines and a fancy Water Filtration System where you can get different types of water and fill up your water bottle
- The rooms had a refrigerator, microwave, wetbar, dishwasher and dishes. This came in real handy when you there is not restaurant on property and you can bring food back with you for those late night cravings.
The Itinerary
Friday Night
Strip Club
First activity of the night was an adult entertainment club. Atlanta is known for its strip clubs and its most famous stip club is Magic City. We enjoyed some adult fun at Allure Gentleman’s Club. This was a 21 and up club with a cover charge of $20.
The club had a very poor selection of liquor at the bar but I managed to find something to drink. They had no Jack Daniels! Who does not serve Jack Daniels?
None of the girls seem to enjoy themselves and have a good time. I seem to be the only one that actually had a blast! As I mentioned in Episode #65 of my podcast, you are responsible for your own fun! I decided to take matters into my own hands and have fun. I was on my feet, dancing and making it rain with the little budget of ones that I had. The next morning, the whole group agreed that I partied by myself and I had the most fun of anyone.
Saturday Night
Shopping
We started our morning off visiting Lennox Square Mall. What is a trip to Atlanta without visiting Lennox Square Mall for your sophisticated shopping needs.
The Roof at Ponce City Market
After Lennox Mall, we headed to Ponce City Market for some rooftop fun at Skyline Park. On the rooftop of the Ponce City Market, we purchased all access tickets that allowed us to have some big kid Carnival Fun while overlooking an amazing view of Atlanta, GA.
The Skyline Park has games such as Horse Derby, Basketball, Skee Ball mini-golf and a 3-story slide for all ages. In addition to the carnival games and rides, there are several bars with cocktails and fun carnival food. After 5pm on Fridays and Saturday, The Roof is only open to ages 21 and older. This was big fun atmosphere and my best friend never stopped talking about how much fund she had at The Roof at Ponce City Market. She talked about it for the rest of the weekend.
Dinner at Boogalou Restaurant & Lounge
We had dinner reservations for Boogalou Restaurant & Lounge. When we pulled up to the restaurant, it took us a minute to get out of the car. We were convinced that we were at the wrong spot because we had dinner reservations and the theme, for the night, was dress to impress in red and there is no way this was a spot for us to be dressed to impress in red. However, it turns out that this was the correct spot.
We walked in and it was not what we had in mind for a dinner reservations. It was a bar, there were swings for seats all around the bar, which was cute, and there was a DJ. They sat us at a table that looked like it was regular club tables and not made for dinner.
We went with the flow and ordered from the menu and the food was absolutely delicious!
Once the food started flowing, the drinks pouring and the music bumping, everything seemed to fall into place. I began to warm up the place and no one wanted to leave. We had such a great time eating dinner with great food and music. I felt a little guilty for judging a book by its cover.
The Gold Room
After dinner, we headed to a club called The Gold Room. This large two-story club was the perfect place for a group of girls to get a table and bottle service for some all night fun and we definitely had all night fun. The drinks were flowing and the DJ was on point with the music.
The only negative about this spot was the parking. It was a minimum of $60 for parking at the far end of the parking lot and $100 for parking closer to the door. There is absolutely no reason to charge $60 for parking!
Sunday – The Departure Day
We started the day off with checking out of our hotel and having brunch at a place called Atlantis Restaurant & Loungelocated in Buckhead.
When you arrive at the restaurant, you have to pay to park in their parking lot. It was $10 to park in the back and $20 to park up front of the restaurant. Again, why does a restaurant need to charge their guests to eat at their restaurant.
Before you can get in the door, you have pass security. The security to get in a restaurant in the middle of the day was top flight security of the world. Security searched your purse and the little small bags that were inside of your purse. They searched every nook and cranny of your purse.
My friend had a bag of peppermints in her purse. She was told that she could not bring them into the restaurant because snacks were not allowed in the restaurant. A bag of peppermints is considered a snack?
What we went through—parking and security, to get into the restaurant for brunch did not match up to the service and food that we received. I was thinking, we should have gone back to Boogalou Restaurant & Lounge. Isn’t that a change of events?
The food was mediocre, the service was slow and the amount that was paid for mimosa’s that we didn’t receive until afterwe ate was unacceptable.
Lessons learned from my birthday weekend in Atlanta, GA:
- I don’t always have to leave the country to have a good time.
- I am responsible for my own happiness.
- Never judge a book by its cover.
- You’re never too old to have a good time at a Carnival
- Make the best out every situation
- Atlanta has something for everyone. If you are hood, classy or Hollywood, Atlanta has your vibe.
- You can go to Atlanta multiples time and always have a difference type of vacation.
I love your blog about your birthday weekend in Atlanta!! This is why a lot of us live here because of all of the options you have that caters to anyone’s style! I knew you would have a great time and outlast those young ladies!! Let’s talk about parking here, this City has always charged to park somewhere. I guess that is why when we do leave Atlanta and go other places and they charge for parking we be like that is cheap because we always spend lots of money to park in Atlanta. I pay to park to go see some of my doctors depending on where there office is located here in Atlanta.