Where to get free cookies on National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

Cookies are good. Free cookies are better.

Doubletree by Hilton Hotels has a tradition of welcoming guests with a warm chocolate chip cookie, and on Thursday, August 4, National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, the hotels plan to extend that tradition beyond the lobby.

On that day Doubletree will give away chocolate chip cookies to anyone who stops in their hotels, whether they're planning to stay or not. There are 465 Doubletree hotels on six continents, including nine in Atlanta.

In addition, the hotel has teamed up with Amtrak to give away cookies at Penn Station in New York and Union Station in Chicago.

The gesture is part of Doubletree’s “Nice Travels” initiative, which intends to turn to the generally negative online chatter about travel experiences into a positive conversation. The group claims some progress since beginning its charm offensive in April, measuring a 5 percent reduction of whining.

Atlanta's Doubletree by Hilton hotels are in the Galleria area, Alpharetta, Buckhead, Marietta, Northlake, Roswell, near the airport, downtown and in the Emory area.

Doubletree will also be giving away tins of its cookies through a contest called Instagram Roulette Giveaway. Details are here.

Is August 4 really National Chocolate Chip Cookie day? We don't know. According to the authoritative National Day Calendar web site, the answer is yes, though they don't know where the holiday came from. We do know that May 15 is National Chocolate Chip Day, named in honor of Ruth Graves Wakefield, inventor of the Toll House cookie.

Giving away cookies is a nice gesture, and according to Dianna Vaughan, Doubletree’s senior vice president and global head, “At Doubletree we’ve dedicated ourselves to spreading niceness every day.”