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Sarasota celebrates the Circus
Ringling Brothers Circus Museum and Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla.

Thomas Jefferson’s retirement retreat restored
Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest plantation retreat has unveiled its $6 million, 20-year architectural restoration to the public.

Spoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA is an annual arts and crafts festival that takes place in Charleston, S.C.

Memorial Day destinations in the Southeast
If you are looking to play this Memorial Day weekend, but don't want to stray far from Atlanta, here are popular tourist destinations in the Southeast.

Following the Bourbon Trail
Kentuckians like to brag about their whiskey, and distillery tours along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail let them show off the craft of turning grains and a few other ingredients into fine whiskey in an age-old process.

Tours of Louisiana swamps and plantations
When visiting Louisiana, consider adding a tour of a historic plantation or a swamp teeming with alligators to your itinerary.

Southeastern National Parks
National Park Week is an annual celebration of the nation's parks. There are 62 such recognized parks located in the Southeast, within driving distance of Atlanta.

Memphis a music mecca for rock, soul lovers
Memphis is a mecca of sorts for fans of rock and the blues. Gallery focuses on three museums: Graceland, the Rock n Soul museum and Sun Records.

Tellus Science Museum opens minds in Cartersville
Photos of the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville GA.

Literary trail shows southern writers' homes
Within driving distance of Atlanta exist many famous 20th-century writers' homes along the newly created Southern Literary Trail, a collaboration of 18 towns in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi that recognizes significant writers' residences and towns. Organizers of the trail, which kicked off in March, chose 22 writers whose body of work was influenced heavily by their communities.

Frank Lloyd Wright architecture at a Lakeland, Fla., college
Photos of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings at Florida Southern College in Lakeland.

Savannah celebrates St. Patrick's Day
Photos of the parade in Savannah which celebrated St. Patrick's Day

Six more beaches within driving distance of Atlanta
Photos of another six beaches within driving distance of Atlanta.

Why we love Miami Beach
Photos of cool places and things around Miami Beach.

Ocracoke is a classic island getaway
Accessible only by ferry, North Carolina's Ocracoke Island is a classic island getaway, thanks to the quiet streets, friendly locals, award-winning beaches, one-of-a-kind shopping, varied accommodations and fresh seafood. Any time is a great time to visit Ocracoke, although it can get crowded in midsummer. Spring and fall bring fewer visitors, mild weather and generally lower prices.

Where to take Fido on vacation
If you want to travel with your dog by car or plane, here are several pet-friendly options across the Southeast.

Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans
Photos of Mardi Gras festivities and fun in New Orleans.

Five budget ideas for your spring break vacation
Photos of places you should visit in the Southeast for spring break

'Courir,' costume and chickens mark Cajun Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras is such an iconic New Orleans festival that it’s easy to forget the holiday is a celebration throughout Louisiana. In the heart of Acadiana, an eight-parish region in southwest Louisiana, Mardi Gras is not about extravagant parades, colorful beads and flamboyant costumes. Cajuns have their own traditions that are less familiar but just as entertaining as New Orleans’ festivities, so this year venture into rural French Louisiana and discover the thrill of Mardi Gras done Cajun style.

Romance flourishes in pretty Charleston, S.C.
If there’s a more romantic city than Charleston within driving distance of the Atlanta area, we haven’t visited it (at least not yet). For certified romantics and “foodies” like us, few places in the region — or practically anywhere in the world — can rival the port city’s blend of grace, beauty, history, tradition and romantic dining spots. Charleston has a way of charming couples with romance around every gas-lamp-lit corner or restaurant table. It’s great to visit over Valentine’s Day weekend — or any time.

Carnival in New Orleans means floats and fun
Roll out the king cakes, plastic beads and Mardi Gras masks. Carnival season has begun in New Orleans. Jan. 6, the 12th night on the Biblical calendar, marked the beginning of the 153rd annual pre-Lenten celebration. Before it wraps up Feb. 24, almost 100 parades will have rolled in the area and thousands of riders will have thrown tons of glitzy gee-gaws to what organizers hope will be huge crowds.

One-tank trip: Gadsden, Ala.
Photos of a one tank trip to Gadsden, home to a cute downtown and several nice museums

Fossils and more in East Tennessee
When highway construction workers shoveled into a dark, mucky deposit amid the red clay fields of East Tennessee, they knew they’d unearthed something unusual. Maybe not unusual enough to stop the expansion of the state highway that winds just past the discovery but worth calling in specialists to evaluate. The specialists dug up an alligator skull. In the southern Appalachians. And the new road took a detour.

One-tank trip: the Helen Keller home in Tuscumbia, Ala.
The Helen Keller Birthplace in Tuscumbia, Ala., is known for many things, but it’s most famous for the backyard water pump where 7-year-old Helen first learned the meaning of language from her teacher, Anne Sullivan. In 1887, Sullivan finger-spelled the word “water” on Helen’s hand as water flowed over her palm.

Versace mansion now open to tourists
Versace's mansion on South Beach in MIami has opened its doors, first as an invitation-only private club, then allowing non-members to stay in its ornate rooms, and now to the masses; or at least anyone willing to plunk down $65 for a tour.

Visit Asheville, N.C., for Biltmore, mountains
For many of us, the day after Thanksgiving signals it’s time for holiday decorating. Some see this seasonal transition as a daunting task — the tangled Christmas lights, the ornaments that spontaneously broke into pieces while stored in the attic. But what if you had to decorate a home with 250 rooms? And what if you were expecting 300,000 holiday visitors to drop by to admire your handiwork? For Cathy Barnhardt, floral design staff supervisor at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., that’s just another day at the office. Planning holiday decorations for the palatial French Renaissance chateau that was once home to the wealthy Vanderbilt family is a year-round job, and Barnhardt’s been doing it for 31 years.

Selma, Ala., is a beacon of history
Roughly four hours west of Atlanta is the city that once called itself the queen of the Black Belt. A trip there is a voyage to the heart of the South. Selma, Ala., is the site of an old and gracious architecture, where Italianate and Victorian houses more than a century old sit under live oak trees drenched in Spanish moss. Selma is also the site, during the civil rights movement, of a viciousness that culminated in the 1965 Bloody Sunday beating of marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

New Orleans cemeteries try to stay afloat
Death has a distinctive presence in New Orleans — people play music and dance at funerals; for burials they move old bones to make room for new; and tombs ranging from plain to ornate, from new to old, are the final resting places for many residents. Now, after years of neglect, vandalism and theft, there are signs of life in New Orleans' "cities of the dead."

The Fontainebleau hotel's second act
The Fontainebleau hotel was once the Miami Beach playground of the Rat Pack and Elvis Presley (even James Bond). Now, the hotel has been updated in a way guaranteed to turn a new generation of heads.

One-tank trip: Albany, Ga.
Seventy-eight years after his birth in Albany, a life-size likeness of Ray Charles slowly revolves in the city’s Riverfront Park. Forty-seven years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed here, the new Albany Civil Rights Institute Museum commemorates the movement he helped inspire. Meanwhile, a gopher tortoise named Malcolm X and a 50-pound alligator snapping turtle named Big Al swim through the Flint RiverQuarium, and cheetahs, lemurs, zebras and black bears roam the natural habitats of the Parks at Chehaw. The Albany Museum of Art boasts a large African art collection, and Thronateeska Heritage Center’s new Wetherbee Planetarium projects faraway galaxies onto a giant dome “sky.”

Apalachicola area is slow, scenic
This isn’t your grandparents’ Florida. Franklin County and the towns of Apalachicola (pop. 2,300) and Carrabelle (800) are part of Florida’s Forgotten Coast, a drowsy, off-the-beaten-path slice of Gulf of Mexico shoreline, a few hours and about a half-century from Destin’s high-rises and Panama City’s amusement parks, and a galaxy away from Miami’s glitzy glam.

On Halloween, Tybee Island is one sweet trip
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. — Yards have been transformed into spooky spectacles with gravestones, fog machines and pirate skeletons. The fire department has delivered $1,100 worth of candy to homeowners so they don’t run out. And Susan Hill is paying a friend $60 to handle the costumed hordes at her door. Now, the Halloween fanatics on Lewis Avenue await the onslaught of trick-or-treaters from as far as Savannah, 18 miles away — sometimes even from neighboring South Carolina.

ICEBAR Orlando, a bar on the rocks
ICEBAR Orlando, the first permanent ice bar in the United States, allows guests to experience 45 minutes in 27-degree temperatures while sitting on fur-lined ice furniture and enjoying vodka drinks in glassware, also made of ice.

Miami on a budget
Vacationing in Miami doesn't have to cost a fortune. See Miami Beach, Calle Ocho, the Vizcaya museum and the Everglades without busting your wallet.

Vintage cycles on show in Leeds, Ala.
Whether traveling by two wheels or four, this trip is sure to get your motor running. Barber Motorsports Park, in Leeds, Ala., just east of Birmingham, is home to a world-class museum showcasing a collection of 1,200 historic motorcycles. And more than 40,000 vintage motorcycle fans are expected to descend on the facility next weekend for the fourth annual Barber Vintage Festival.