Visiting Georgia on a Budget
Georgia delivers some of the South's best free history across Atlanta and eight distinctive smaller cities — coast to mountain. Atlanta anchors the state with the free Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, the free 2.6-mile BeltLine Eastside Trail, and the free Krog Street Tunnel street-art gallery. Savannah's entire historic landmark district, free Belles Ferry, Forsyth Park, and Bonaventure Cemetery cost nothing. Columbus delivers USA Today's Best Free Museum (the National Infantry Museum), the free Columbus Museum, and the world's longest urban whitewater course. The coastal Golden Isles span Jekyll Island (Driftwood Beach, Horton House tabby ruins, 1888 Millionaires' Village) and St. Simons Island (free Fort Frederica National Monument, 20+ free Tree Spirit oak-carvings, free Christ Church Frederica). Augusta covers the eastern side with a free 10.8-mile Canal Towpath Trail and a $5 Morris Museum (free Sundays). Macon protects 17,000 years of Native American civilization at the free Ocmulgee Mounds. Cartersville packs the "Museum City of the South" with Smithsonian-affiliate museums. Athens adds the free Georgia Museum of Art and the 313-acre State Botanical Garden. Best season is March–May and October–November — spring azaleas and mild fall weather both beat the brutal summer humidity.
Cities in Georgia
Pick a city to see free attractions, cheap activities, and budget travel tips.
Savannah, Georgia
One of America's most beautiful coastal cities, Savannah is built around 22 historic squares draped in Spanish moss and bordered by 18th-century townhouses. Budget travelers spend days walking the National Historic Landmark District (including Chippewa Square where the Forrest Gump bench scene was filmed), riding the free Savannah Belles ferry, picnicking in 30-acre Forsyth Park, and wandering moss-hung Bonaventure Cemetery — all for nothing. Cap the visit with low-cost ticketed standouts: Wormsloe's avenue of live oaks ($12), SCAD Museum of Art ($10), the $14.95 Mercer Williams House from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and the $14 Tybee Island Light Station.
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Macon, Georgia
Macon sits in central Georgia at the meeting point of Native American history and Southern soul — a working music town with the legendary Allman Brothers Big House Museum, the studio where Otis Redding and Little Richard recorded at Mercer Music at Capricorn, and the free 700-acre Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park preserving 17,000 years of Native American civilization. Add the dramatic Victorian Rose Hill Cemetery, the free 180-acre Amerson River Park along the Ocmulgee, the affordable Tubman African American Museum ($10), and the 1921 Douglass Theatre that hosted Otis Redding and Bessie Smith — and a budget weekend stays well under $30.
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Athens, Georgia
Athens is a college and music town an hour east of Atlanta — home to the University of Georgia and the live-music scene that birthed R.E.M. and the B-52s. The free Georgia Museum of Art, the 313-acre State Botanical Garden of Georgia, and the original 1801 UGA campus framed by its cast-iron 1857 Arch anchor the visit. Add the free Bear Hollow Zoo, the famous Tree That Owns Itself (a white oak deeded itself in 1832), the 225-acre Sandy Creek Nature Center, Lyndon House Arts Center, and the 1834 T.R.R. Cobb House, and a long budget weekend here barely cracks $20.
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Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta delivers Georgia's biggest budget travel surface: the entire Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park is free (including Ebenezer Baptist Church and the King tomb), the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail runs nearly three miles of public art and converted rail corridor for nothing, and Piedmont Park, Centennial Olympic Park, the ever-changing Krog Street Tunnel street-art gallery, and 48-acre Oakland Cemetery all cost nothing. Cap a visit with low-cost picks like the $12 Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, the High Museum's free third Wednesdays, free Georgia State Capitol tours, and the free Federal Reserve Monetary Museum.
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Cartersville, Georgia
Cartersville bills itself as "Museum City of the South" — and earns it. A walkable downtown an hour northwest of Atlanta packs the $6 Etowah Indian Mounds State Historic Site (six platform mounds from the Mississippian culture), the Smithsonian-affiliate Booth Western Art Museum ($16, with free 2nd Thursdays), the kid-magnet Tellus Science Museum, and the smaller Bartow History Museum into a five-block grid. The 1894 World's First Painted Coca-Cola Wall on Young Brothers Pharmacy is free, as are the Allatoona Pass Civil War battlefield trail and the Cooper's Furnace Iron Works ruins on the Etowah River.
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Augusta, Georgia
Augusta — best known for the Masters Tournament but plenty to do beyond it — anchors east-central Georgia on the Savannah River. The free Augusta Riverwalk runs along the river through downtown, the free Augusta Canal Towpath Trail covers 10.8 miles along Georgia's first National Heritage Area, and the free 1,100-acre Phinizy Swamp Nature Park sits 10 minutes south. Cap with low-cost picks: the $5 Morris Museum of Art (free on Sundays), the $5 Augusta Museum of History, the $14 Augusta Canal Discovery Center & Petersburg Boat Tour, and the free Sacred Heart Cultural Center in a stunning 1900 Romanesque church.
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Columbus, Georgia
Columbus, Georgia's second-largest city on the Chattahoochee River, anchors the western edge of the state. The marquee draw is the free 190,000-square-foot National Infantry Museum & Soldier Center just outside the gates of Fort Moore — USA Today's Best Free Museum. The 15-mile Chattahoochee Riverwalk, the free Columbus Museum (deeded free in perpetuity), and the world's longest urban whitewater course run for free along downtown. Cap with paid picks: the $10 Coca-Cola Space Science Center, the $12 National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus, and the $5 Heritage Corner walking tour of Coca-Cola inventor John Pemberton's home.
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Jekyll Island, Georgia
Jekyll Island — Georgia's smallest barrier island and a state park since 1947 — combines world-famous Driftwood Beach (the eroded oak-skeleton beach at the north tip), the free Horton House tabby ruins (Georgia's oldest tabby, 1743), and the late-Gilded-Age Millionaires' Village Historic District where the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Morgans wintered. Cap with the $12 Georgia Sea Turtle Center (the only sea turtle rehab center in Georgia), the $10 Mosaic Jekyll Island Museum, and 25+ miles of free paved bike trails connecting beaches, marshes, and shaded oak corridors. A $10 daily parking pass applies to driving visitors; pedestrians and cyclists enter free.
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St. Simons Island, Georgia
St. Simons Island — Georgia's largest Golden Isle, connected to mainland Brunswick by causeway — anchors three centuries of coastal history. The free Fort Frederica National Monument preserves James Oglethorpe's 1736 colonial fort. The $12 St. Simons Lighthouse Museum and $12 WWII Home Front Museum (combined $20 ticket) bracket the south-end Pier Village. Cap with the free Christ Church Frederica (where John and Charles Wesley preached in 1736), the free Tree Spirits self-guided tour of 20+ live-oak carvings by sculptor Keith Jennings, and a stroll on the free St. Simons Pier overlooking St. Simons Sound.
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More on Georgia from TravelCheapUS
In-depth budget travel guides from our companion blog that mention Georgia.