For date nights, we often default to dinner and a movie. Neither is bad a choice, but sometimes we want to mix things up.
Here’s a guide to trying something a little different with your significant other. Play games, dance salsa, take a scenic stroll, go on wine-tasting tour.
Topgolf
It’s a high-tech driving range with a lounge — a mix of golf, entertainment and drinks.
While Topgolf offers leagues and tournaments, nongolfers can soak up the party atmosphere and have a fun night. On weekends, you will find serious golfers working on their game, but at night singles, couples and groups come out to play — and be seen.
With a location in Alpharetta and a new one in west Atlanta, Topgolf also is an upscale sports bar, with more than 200 TVs and a menu ranging from nachos or Cobb salad to a dish they call “mushi” — cilantro sticky rice, drunken beans, spiced chicken and Cheddar cheese neatly rolled in a tortilla.
Even with more than 100 hitting bays on three levels, golfers sometimes will find a wait on Friday and Saturday nights (sometimes an hour or longer), but that gives you time to eat, drink and mingle.
Then go hit those golf balls embedded with microchips in a driving range dotted with targets. After you sign up for a $5 membership, the high-tech golf balls know who you are and keep track of the score you accumulate during your visits. Each section of the target has a reader that detects the microchip in your ball, and that’s how you score points.
Hours vary; check the website. 1600 Ellsworth Industrial Blvd. N.W., Atlanta. 10900 Westside Parkway, Alpharetta. One-time $5 membership. Depending on the time of day, fee to hit balls is $25-$45 per hour (for up to six players). 404-475-4000, topgolf.com.
Salsa dance nights at Fernbank Museum
Every third Friday, during Martinis & Imax, Fernbank Museum turns into an enormous dance club, with salsa dance nights from Salsambo Dance Studio. Enjoy Latin dancing (or appreciate the dance skills of others) with early evening lessons (right about 7 p.m.) for those who want a little practice before they heat up the dance floor. A special guest DJ provides the rhythmic beats. Standard Martinis & Imax ticket prices apply.
7-11 p.m. 767 Clifton Road, Atlanta. Ticket prices for Martinis & Imax are $13 for adults, $12 for seniors (65-plus) and $8 for museum members. To enjoy the dancing and skip the Imax film, there is an $8 cover charge for nonmembers (free for members). 404-929-6300, fernbankmuseum.org/experience-imax/martinis-and-imax.
Vine and dine in Dahlonega
In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Dahlonega is home to wine country. Located just 65 miles north of Atlanta, it’s a quick getaway for couples who are looking for an extraordinary date idea.
From Italianate hillside mansions to Appalachian-style lodges, visitors can tour five distinctive wineries and several tasting rooms to learn first-hand from the vineyards what it takes to coax award-winning wines from ground to grape to glass. At each, you can stop and savor the colors and flavors of the area from decks and patios surrounded by rolling hills and mountains.
A couple to consider:
Planned around an "old family farm" theme, Cavender Creek Vineyards & Winery features a hand-hewn log cabin, disassembled and moved from Tennessee. Enjoy live music on weekends and taste any four wines for $10. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursdays, 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 12:30-5:30 p.m. Sundays. 3610 Cavender Creek Road, Dahlonega. cavendercreekvineyards.com.
Frogtown Cellars, a 57-acre wine estate, is located equidistant between Dahlonega and Cleveland. Frogtown encompasses 28 acres of vineyards and a tri-level gravity flow winery. Noon-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays, 12:30-5 p.m. Sundays. 700 Ridge Point Drive, Dahlonega. frogtown.us.
SkyView Atlanta
Hard to go wrong with SkyView Atlanta, a 20-story-high Ferris wheel located outside the southern entrance to Centennial Olympic Park. A relaxing ride on SkyView offers breathtaking views of the city, and during the holiday months they are brightened by twinkling lights. The 42 climate-controlled gondolas also offer a warm and cozy ride during the coldest days of the year.
Flights vary, but are typically nine to 15 minutes or four complete rotations. Street performers help pass the time as you wait in line.
If you are looking for a bite to eat, Ted’s Montana Grill is only about a block away at 133 Luckie St.
Noon-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, noon-11 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturdays. Discounted parking in LAZ parking deck off Luckie Street. $13.50 for adults, $8.50 for 12 and younger. Children 2 and under, free. 168 Luckie St. N.W., Atlanta. 678-949-9023, skyviewatlanta.com.
CineBistro
If you have children, working a movie into date night can be a spectacular challenge.
We’re faced with the age-old conundrum of how to accomplish dinner and a movie and still make it home before the babysitter’s bedtime. Today, dine-in theaters offer a solution to our timing troubles by offering complete dinner menus and full bars to accompany first-run features.
CineBistro is far the most polished and adult of Atlanta’s dine-in theaters. Those under 21 are permitted entry only when accompanied by someone over that age, and only before 6 p.m.
CineBistro boasts a from-scratch kitchen with all items prepared in-house. All dinner service ceases at showtime to minimize disruptions during the film. Multiple courses are made difficult by space limitations, since all courses are delivered at once. For additional beverages or courses, you’ll have to leave the theater and make your way to the lobby to order and wait for the extras.
Adult (4 p.m. and later): $15. Matinees (before 4 p.m.): $13. 1004 Town Blvd., Atlanta. 404-333-0740, cobbcinebistro.com
Beltline stroll
Take a stroll along the Beltline, enjoy the sights, and stop at one of many restaurants along the way for a drink and bite to eat. Think of it as a (free) living, breathing outdoor museum you can stroll, bike or jog through.
Good places to enter are by Krog Street Market or the other side of the paved trail across from Piedmont Park at Monroe Drive and 10th Street.
You can’t go wrong with Krog Street Market (99 Krog St., Atlanta). There, you’ll find a hip food hall where you can collect meals from chef-driven food stalls; drinks from Hop City, with its dozens of local craft beers on tap; and artisan desserts from shops like the Little Tart Bakeshop and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. Expect to smell cacao — roasted, ground and conched on-site — at Xocolatl’s chocolate micro-factory.
Art on the Atlanta Beltline, the South’s largest temporary public art project, returns Saturday for its sixth and most selective go-round yet. More than 100 works were chosen, ranging from murals and hanging sculptures to a Bollywood production and whimsical sculpted benches. It runs until Nov. 15.
And even when this art display comes to end, there’s always a lot to see and do along the Beltline.
Georgia waterfalls
Is there anything more romantic than a waterfall? Whether you want to simply gaze and admire or hike to a spectacular example of nature in action, Georgia has many waterfalls to choose from.
Amicalola Falls (gastateparks.org/AmicalolaFalls) has one of the highest cascading waterfalls east of the Mississippi, boasting a 729-foot cascade. The park around the falls is also one of the few Georgia state parks with a lodge.
Another favorite is Hurricane Falls, a dramatic 96-foot drop found at the end of a trail with a swing bridge that crosses the deep Tallulah Gorge (gastateparks.org/TallulahGorge). And Cloudland Canyon (gastateparks.org/CloudlandCanyon) rewards those hiking to the bottom of the gorge, including a 600-step staircase, with two waterfalls cascading over layers of sandstone and shale into pools below.
Admission to all state parks is free. $5 parking. gastateparks.org.
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