Bike Tours, A Great Way to See Atlanta

What: Atlanta Bike Tours
Where: Tours start in Inman Park
When: Daily and by appointment
Cost: Tours begin at $45 per person depending on the length. Discounts are available for groups.

Recently I was treated to breakfast and a bicycle tour of Atlanta by the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. It was a wonderful way to see the city and it’s many unique neighborhoods.

We started our tour with breakfast at the Highland Bakery. A colorful local eatery housed in an old warehouse. The food was wonderful, and I can highly recommend the sweet potato pancakes. Another specialty of the house is designer cakes. Owner and cake baker Stacy Eames could give the Food Networks Ace of Cakes a run for the money. Check out some of her fabulous creations in the cake gallery.

Atlanta Bike Tours is the only bicycle tour company in Atlanta and the brainchild of Robyn Elliott, a former new construction inspector who re-invented herself after the real estate slowdown. I’m so glad she did.

After getting the appropriate bike size and a short introduction, we began to work off our hearty breakfast. Our tour began in Inman Park, Atlanta’s first planned community filled with beautiful Victorian mansions, wide tree-lined streets and lush parks. Inman Park has a rich history and is one of Atlanta’s most sought-after neighborhoods for artists and professionals. Next we road through Little Five Points. A normal tour would stop here for ice cream of shopping, but due to other commitments, we just rode through the area. If you have the time, I’d highly suggest exploring this unique area of Atlanta that was once a shopping mecca to a growing Atlanta. Little Five Points is now known for its funky storefronts and interesting people watching. Next we headed to Sweet Auburn, which features the childhood neighborhood, birth home and resting place of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here we learned about Atlanta’s role in the Civil Rights Movement and visited the grounds of the King Center for Non-Violent Social Change. Next we road through Cabbagetown, a mill town built in the late 1880’s that has become one of the most trendy and interesting bohemian neighborhoods of Atlanta. We made a stop at Oakland Cemetery and then headed back through Downtown Atlanta to the Georgian Terrace.

I found the tour to be an easy and enjoyable ride through Atlanta, and the bikes provided were super comfortable and in great shape. Some in the group found portions of the tour more challenging. If you have trouble in the heat, try to take the earlier tours rather than the later times and make sure you dress appropriately and drink lots of water. The scheduled tours are for older children who understand the rules of the road and are more predictable on a bike, but Atlanta Bike Tours also offers customized tours, so if you’d like to take the little ones, call Robyn and she can suggest an appropriate tour. Atlanta Bike Tour also offers bike safety workshops for kids and parents.