Private Jet to Georgia

The Cloister at Sea Island
Located on the privately owned Sea Island resort, the elegant 5-star Cloister at Sea Island is the epitome of luxury.  Opened in 1928, the Cloister is set on the Atlantic Ocean and offers its guests superlative amenities such as three championship golf courses, a nearby yacht club, a world-class tennis facility, and squash courts, plus a full-service spa and fitness center.  The resort has 5 miles of beaches, plus three heated outdoor swimming pools and secluded outdoor hot tubs.  Activities include boating, horseback riding, kayaking, and fishing.  The resort has its own yacht, the Sea Island Explorer, for sunset cruises.  Fine dining is available at the resort’s Georgian Room restaurant, the state’s only five-star restaurant.

The Ritz-Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee, Greensboro
A luxurious property located inland on Lake Oconee near Greensboro, the Ritz Carlton Reynolds is set on a beautiful 30-acre site.  The resort offers fishing, kayaking, and canoeing on its private lakes, biking through the pine forests plus access to five championship golf courses.  The resort has a large world-class spa plus a gym and indoor and outdoor pools.  One unique water-based activity is trying out the water bikes.  The resort offers a choice of seven restaurants, including the resort’s signature restaurant, Georgia’s.

Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta
The Four Seasons Atlanta is in Midtown, a short distance from the High Museum of Art, Peachtree Street, and Piedmont Park.  The amenities include two swimming pools, plus a state-of-the-art fitness center with an indoor saltwater lap pool a sun terrace, and a spa. All three meals are available at the resort’s Bar Margot restaurant.

Waldorf Astoria Atlanta Buckhead
Set in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, the elegant Waldorf Astoria provides guests with a world-class spa to enjoy, a fully equipped fitness center, private English-style gardens in the back courtyard, a heated outdoor swimming pool, and even a yoga studio.  Rooms offer skyline views from the expansive windows.  Guests also have use of a private concierge during their stay.  Dining can include an alfresco meal on the hotel’s private dining terrace.  The shops and restaurants of Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza are a five-minute walk away.

The St. Regis Atlanta
The St. Regis is in Buckhead, a short walk away from the Shops at Buckhead.  The St. Regis offers a world-class spa, a delightful afternoon tea service at the Astor Court, a large heated outdoor pool with a waterfall, a fitness center, and billiard rooms.  The resort offers Butler Service suites with personalized butler services. Fine dining is available at the hotel’s Atlas Dining Room.  The 40,000 square foot Pool Piazza has a poolside cafe and fountain.  Extras include a nightly Champagne Sabering and complimentary car service within a two-mile radius.

The Lodge at Sea Island, Saint Simons Island
The Lodge at Sea Island provides luxury with an intimately sized resort, including stand-alone cottages.  Ocean views and the English-inspired lodge create a romantic ambiance for guests.  The large spa facility covers more than 65,000 feet.  There are three championship golf courses and tennis facilities plus a spacious fitness center and an oceanfront pool.  Colt & Alison offers fine dining with its Southern American steakhouse menu. Guests can drive the resort’s BMWs for up to two hours upon request.  Each room has butler service and a private balcony.

Jekyll Island Club Resort
Jekyll Island Club is a historical 19th-century resort tracing its history back to 1888.  The resort features an outdoor pool with a bar and grill, plus free shuttle service to the beautiful beaches of Jekyll Island.  Guest can play croquet on the front lawn, enjoy golf (at one of 3 courses) and horseback riding, rent bikes, or play tennis.  The Grand Dining Room is located inside the elegant Victorian clubhouse and offers an afternoon tea experience. Waterside dining is offered at The Wharf or Eighty Ocean Kitchen.

The Drayton Hotel, Savannah
Located in the heart of Savannah's Historic District, The Drayton Hotel presents a 19th-century façade but is fully modern within. Visitors are but a short distance from Forsyth Park and Savannah City Hall. All rooms face the Savannah Historic District or the Savannah River. Southern seafood is on tap at the Hotel’s Saint Neo’s Brasserie, while the rooftop bar and Downstairs Cocktail Lounge offer drinks in scenic, classy surroundings.  

Perry Lane Hotel, Savannah
The Perry Lane occupies two buildings across Perry Lane, just a 4-minute walk from Oglethorpe Square in the Savannah Historic District.  The Hotel offers free bikes to its guests, along with a fitness center and outdoor rooftop swimming pool and bar with great downtown views.  Comfortable indoor spaces include the library with piano and leather chairs. The ground floor Emporium serves up modern French bistro food plus there’s a wine shop and wine bar.

The Whitley, Atlanta
Situated in the Buckhead neighborhood, the Whitley features 37” flat screen TVs in its rooms and serves up southern-inspired recipes at its Trade Root restaurant.  Top shopping at Lenox Square Mall and Phipps Plaza is within walking distance.   The hotel also offers a luxurious spa, fitness center, and an indoor heated pool.

Atlanta
Atlanta offers a diversity of great attractions from historical sites from the Civil War to the Civil Rights era, and from the natural world to famous business firsts.  Atlanta’s past can be enjoyably explored at the Atlanta History Center, with its collection of historic buildings including a farm and the 1928 Swan House.  Here you’ll also find the impressive 1886 painting The Cyclorama, one of only two in the U.S., which provides visitors with a 365-degree view of the Civil War’s Battle of Atlanta.

Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, and his life is the centerpiece of the Martin Luther King National Historical Park.  Here you’ll find King’s childhood home, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he was ordained, and the tombs of King and his wife.  There is also the National Center for Civil and Human Rights that recounts the history of the Civil Rights movement and its pioneers, including exhibits on the Freedom Riders, the Lunch Counter Sit-ins, and the life of Martin Luther King. 

Atlanta boasts one of the world’s largest aquariums, the Georgia Aquarium, home to whale sharks and manta rays in the Ocean Voyager area with a 100-foot-long acrylic tunnel visitors walk through while surrounded by fish, as well as themed areas exploring various topics such as cold-water life and freshwater rivers with alligators and piranhas. 

Centennial Olympic Park was where the 1996 games were hosted, and the playful Fountain of Rings still delights visitors with its water jets.  Atlanta is where Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 and first sold, and the World of Coca-Cola tells the history of this world-famous brand and its marketing and offers a tasting room to sample its various international products.  CNN Studios introduced the first 24-hour news service, and its studios in downtown Atlanta can be toured. 

Stone Mountain Park, Stone Mountain
Located about 15 miles east of Atlanta, Stone Mountain is an 863-foot granite monolith with a bald dome.  Most famously known for the now controversial figures of three Confederate Leaders carved into the rock face between 1923 and 1970, the Park also features a cable car to ascend to the top of the mountain, a square with historic Georgia structures including an antebellum plantation building and a 1940s locomotive that can be boarded for scenic rides around the Park.

Savannah Historic District
Savannah is a wonderfully walkable city, with its extensive and highly romantic Historic District filled with antebellum houses from the 1700s and 1800s with Georgian and Greek Revival architecture, scenic squares with Spanish-moss draped oaks, Forsyth Park with its beautiful iron fountain and artistic pleasures like the Telfair Academy of Arts.  The squares are part of the symmetry of the original town plan designed in 1733 by James Oglethorpe.  The Historic District covers over three miles in total, bounded on the north end by the Savannah riverfront, with cobblestoned River Street and rampways leading up to Factors Walk, where the cotton factors judged the quality of the cotton crop.  Lovely 30-acre Forsyth Park borders the south end with its spacious lawns, ornate 1858 Fountain, and colorful Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.

The 1820s Davenport House was the first of the historic properties rescued from destruction in 1955 by the Historic Savannah Foundation.  Savannah is also home to Juliet Gordon Lowe's birthplace; Lowe was the founder of the Girl Scouts.  The publication of John Berendt’s 1994 non-fiction novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, brought a new influx of tourists to the city, and the Mercer-Williams House which is featured in the book is also open for tours.

The Golden Isles, Brunswick
The Golden Isles are a string of picturesque barrier islands that stretch between Savannah and the Florida state line, consisting of Jekyll Island, St. Simons and Little St. Simons islands, and Sea Island.  With the city of Brunswick serving as the mainland entry point, the Golden Isles offer up beautiful historic resorts, scenic beaches, and picturesque ruins.

Jekyll Island has the popular Driftwood Beach along with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center where injured turtles are rehabilitated.  The island offers recreational activities such as golfing, fishing, horseback riding, biking, and kayaking.  The grounds of the historic Jekyll Island Club are now a National Historic Landmark, and the Mosaic Museum, set in the club’s former stables, presents the island’s history.  Take a trolley tour of the 240-acre historic district, past the Gilded Age cottages of the rich and famous who built homes here in the past.

St. Simons Island is the largest of the barrier islands and features Fort Frederica National Monument, built by James Oglethorpe of Britain to protect the southern boundary of his colony against Spanish encroachment, the St. Simons Lighthouse Museum and Christ Church, one of Georgia’s oldest, as well golfing, fishing, and lovely beaches.  Shopping and dining opportunities abound in Pier Village.

Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain
Forty miles north of Columbus near the western state border with Alabama, the floral wonderland of Callaway Gardens on Pine Mountain dazzles visitors with its gorgeous natural settings, flower displays of magnolias and azaleas and artificial lakes.  The garden stretches over 2,500 acres and has biking and hiking trails along with the world’s largest man-made white-sand beach on Robin Lake.  There’s also a butterfly house, plus golf courses and ziplining.

Okefenokee Swamp, Waycross
One of Georgia’s prime natural areas is the Okefenokee Swamp, located at the southeastern border of the state where it meets Florida.  This swampland covers over 600 square miles and is a maze of cypress swamps, marshland, and waterways.  The swamp features so-called floating islands that support forest growth and were known by the native Indians as the Land of the Quaking Earth.  Boat tours into the swamp originate from the small town of Waycross, located 8 miles north of the swamp.  The area is home to many birds, animals from raccoons to bobcats, and otters to bears, plus reptiles including alligators.

Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, Macon
Outside of the city of Macon lie the remains of ceremonial mounds built by Native Americans over 1,000 years ago.  These preserved mounds are part of Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park.  This archaeological park presents information about the uses of the mounds, including for burials, and the Native Americans who lived here.  Trails lead to the mound sites where explanatory plaques are posted, and there is a visitor center with an archaeological museum.  The Earth Lodge enables visitors to go inside a mound.

Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, Plains
Jimmy Carter, the 39^th President of the U.S., hailed from the small town of Plains, Georgia in the western part of the state.  The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site delves into the life of Carter and the legacy of his political career.  The Site contains his restored childhood farm, a visitor center established in his former high school with exhibits and a documentary on his life, and his presidential campaign headquarters housed in a railroad depot. 

Cumberland Island National Seashore, St. Mary’s
Cumberland Island is the southernmost of the barrier islands lining Georgia’s coast. Home to wild horses descended from those brought to America by the Spanish in the 16^th century, Cumberland Island is reachable only by ferry, which departs from the mainland town of St. Marys, and provides a peaceful respite in beautiful natural surroundings.  The island has over 17 miles of beaches, and biking is one of the best ways to explore the surroundings.  Most of the island is protected by the Cumberland Island National Seashore, covering most of the beaches, marshes, and lakes located here.  Visitors can also see the ruins of the former Carnegie family home, or indulge in other outdoor activities like kayaking, swimming, hiking, or fishing. 

Chattahoochee National Forest, North Georgia
Northern Georgia has the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and a large swath of the area is part of the Chattahoochee National Forest, which cuts across 26 counties and 900,000 acres.  The Forest is one of Georgia’s natural gems.  It is here that the Appalachian Trail begins.  Visitors can seek out beautiful sights such as the twin falls of Anna Ruby Falls, drive the Russell-Brasstown Scenic Byway, hike to the top of Brasstown Bald, Georgia’s tallest peak, and take advantage of hundreds of miles of hiking trails, and fishing and canoeing opportunities in its lakes, rivers, and streams.