Downtown Connector
Where: I-85 meets I-75.
Inside scoop: Traveling those few miles through downtown Atlanta where the two superhighways meet can take a few lifetimes. Stay away if you can.

Five Points
Where: Marietta and Peachtree streets.
Inside scoop: Used to be the center of downtown, where the city's five biggest streets converged. Now it's better known as the city's biggest MARTA station, where the East-West and North-South lines converge. You may pass through this site often, on your way to or from sports or music events, but you probably won't want to linger.

Little Five Points
Where: Moreland and Euclid avenues.
Inside scoop: Atlanta's version of New York's East Village. Kids with Mohawks and tattoos, street musicians, a cool boutique called the Junkman's Daughter, a cool joint called the Star Community Bar, complete with an Elvis shrine. Walk around, stare at people who look weirder than you - get a little funky - and collect "you wouldn't believe what I saw" stories for the folks back home. (See Dining, Nightlife, Shopping.)

Park Place

Park Place

The Perimeter
Where: I-285.
Inside scoop: Like the Beltway in Washington, this ring around Atlanta tends to be an unofficial demographic marker, separating the in-towners from the suburbanites. It's also the home of some of America's most infamous traffic.

Spaghetti Junction

King Center/Sweet Auburn
Where: About one mile east of Peachtree along Auburn Avenue.
Inside scoop: Auburn Avenue was the heart of the black business and entertainment district in the city's early history, it fell on hard times and hasn't quite come back. It's worth a stroll though, especially after a visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, which includes the birthplace, church and grave of the revered civil rights leader.

Tara
Where: Not applicable.
Inside scoop: Sorry, it doesn't exist. The closest you'll get to it is the Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown, where the Atlanta native wrote "Gone With the Wind" in a small apartment she called "the Dump." The entire building is a historic site complete with exhibitions about the author's life.

Underground Atlanta
Where: Downtown at Five Points (The main entrance is at Peachtree and Upper Alabama streets at the Five Points MARTA station; another is on Central Avenue near the World of Coca-Cola.)
Inside scoop: Designed to breathe life into downtown with a variety of shops, bars and restaurants. Sadly, it hasn't. Still, it remains a tourist attraction - and a place for teenagers to cruise on foot.