7 Playfully Peculiar Towns In Georgia

What sets a few Georgia towns apart from the rest? The Peach State stretches from the Appalachian foothills to Atlantic marshes, bordered by Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and the Atlantic Ocean. As one of the original thirteen colonies, the state has witnessed Civil War battles, endured Reconstruction, and experienced wave after wave of cultural reinvention. While Atlanta keeps expanding and Savannah shows up on every postcard, smaller towns across the state have taken stranger turns. Some embrace zombies, others light up entire neighborhoods with Christmas lights, and a few still cling to ghosts. If road trips with a side of weirdness appeal to you, these seven playfully peculiar Georgia towns are prime examples of the unexpected.

Senoia

It took a zombie apocalypse to turn this quiet town into a destination. For years, it served as the main filming location for The Walking Dead, transforming its streets into the barricaded city of Woodbury. Begin your day at The Woodbury Shoppe, a store full of cast memorabilia, screen-used props, with a small portion of the upstairs preserved as a set display. After all this fun, you will meet your guide at the Georgia Tour Company, which offers two-hour walking tours and points out various filming locations conveniently located (mostly) in the middle of town.

Just down the block is Nic & Norman’s, a restaurant co-owned by producer Greg Nicotero and actor Norman Reedus (“Daryl Dixon”). Inside, fans gather to enjoy burgers, themed cocktails based on the show, and have the opportunity to meet the owners between takes.

Calhoun

Tiny castles, temples, and towers made from shells and cement give Calhoun its playfully peculiar identity. The Rock Garden holds more than 50 hand-built replicas along a creek in a peaceful setting. Just ten minutes away is New Echota State Historic Site, the site of the former Cherokee capital, including council houses, print shops, and trails through history.

Then head back into town to play a few holes at the laid-back and shady Calhoun Elks Lodge & Golf Club. If you are here in May, make sure you check out the BBQ & Boogie Festival in downtown Calhoun, where locals dance under string lights with ribs and sweet tea, no fuss required.

Plains

This town has a peanut and Jimmy Carter obsession. That’s what makes Plains whimsical. Get your picture taken with the beaming Jimmy Carter Peanut Statue, a roadside monument erected while he was campaigning for president in 1976. Next, visit the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, where a former high school and a campaign headquarters trace the rise of a peanut farmer who became president.

Just outside of town, walk the red-dirt trails of Jimmy Carter’s Boyhood Farm, where chickens still roam among the preserved barns and hand-dug wells. If you happen to visit in late September, stick around for the Plains Peanut Festival, where tractors parade down Main Street and peanut butter goodies take center stage.

Summerville

Art, God, and scrap metal meet here. Start with Paradise Garden, a maze of mosaics and found-object towers created by artist-preacher Howard Finster, who claimed God told him to create 5,000 pieces of art. You also want to step inside World’s Folk Art Church, one of several surreal structures placed throughout the garden’s backyard layout.

Then, head to the Summerville Train Depot featured in the HBO film Warm Springs and Ma Ma Flora’s Family. Stop downtown for happy hour at Jefferson’s, and finish up with a relaxing hike to Sloppy Floyd State Park, five miles east of town.

Darien

This coastal town hides more than it shows. Start your adventure at the Fort King George Historic Site, where the battered tabby walls, officers’ quarters, and wooden watchtower recall Georgia’s first British outpost. Then head downtown to Skipper’s Fish Camp, where the patio overlooks gator-infested marshes and shrimp boats unload their daily catch. When lunchtime is over, walk the Darien Waterfront Park and Trail, a well-maintained trail lined with palms, benches, monuments, roadside shrines, and river views.

As a side trip, hop the ferry to Sapelo Island. You will find the Gullah-Geechee community of Hog Hammock, wild beaches without vehicles, and the eerie (yet still standing) R.J. Reynolds mansion beneath the moss-covered oaks.

McDonough

McDonough’s silent streets carry the weight of water and death. Begin at the Heritage Park Veterans Museum and view the open display of tanks and war artifacts. Next, walk to Heritage Square, where the dead from Southern Railway’s Train No. 7 were brought after the wreck at Camp Creek in 1900. The train ran off the tracks into a flooded gully, and nearly 40 passengers were killed. Locals still talk about the square carrying echoes of the past, like train wheels on tracks that no longer exist.

If you go there in May, you can see the Geranium Festival, which is the liveliest weekend in McDonough.

Bainbridge

One neighborhood makes this town unforgettable. Every December, Bainbridge becomes a glowing spectacle thanks to the Woodams Christmas Lights, made up of inflatable Santas, lit archways, and cars lined up in traffic for blocks. What started as one yard has since become a full neighborhood tradition. It is part of what makes this town amusingly strange.

During the day, stop by the Firehouse Arts Center, in a restored 1914 station with local exhibits downstairs and creaky jail cells upstairs. Walk the Earle May Boat Basin Trail, where gator signs keep things interesting as the Flint River winds through cypress trees. Relax under the old oaks in Willis Park Square, a safe space located in the heart of town.

The Georgia No One Told You About

Believe it or not, you don’t have to go too far at all to discover something strange in Georgia. Just minutes off the main pavement, or sometimes right off the highway, these small towns are quietly evolving. It might be a folk art maze, a movie set turned main street, or a holiday light event that shuts the street down, but each one adds a strange little stamp to the map. They are not necessarily tourist destinations, and that just makes them better. What you will find is local pride, strange customs, and stories you can’t make up. So if you don’t want the cliché and perfect, pack a bag and hit the road for some small-town strange. Expect it to be part of the welcome.