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Augusta, United States - Things to Do in Augusta

Things to Do in Augusta

Augusta, United States - Complete Travel Guide

Augusta sits along the Savannah River in eastern Georgia. For one week each April, the whole world knows its name because of the Masters golf tournament. Otherwise it stays quieter. The other fifty-one weeks reveal a Southern city with antebellum houses, a walkable riverfront, and the kind of humid air that carries magnolia blossoms in spring and woodsmoke from backyard grills come autumn. You'll hear the soft drawl of Georgia accents in the coffee shops along Broad Street, smell the barbecue smoke drifting from joints in Olde Town, and feel the cool shade of the live oaks draped in Spanish moss along the canal path. Augusta wears its history lightly. The Savannah River laps against the levee, the old cotton mills have been converted into lofts, and James Brown (Augusta's most famous son) has a bronze statue downtown where locals come to leave flowers and the occasional pair of patent leather shoes. The bartender remembers your drink on the second visit. Sunday morning church bells still mean something. Worth noting too: the city has a creative undercurrent. It surprises visitors. Murals tuck into alleys. The art scene punches above its size.

Top Things to Do in Augusta

Augusta Riverwalk and Levee

A brick-paved promenade runs for blocks along the Savannah River. Two tiers. The upper level is shaded by crepe myrtles, the lower drops right down to the water. You'll hear cyclists clicking past, families feeding ducks, and the occasional rowing crew slicing through the brown current below. The air smells faintly of river silt. Or charcoal smoke. Or fresh-baked bread, depending on which restaurant patio you're near.

Booking Tip: No booking needed. It's free and open dawn to dusk. Locals tend to walk it just before sunset when the light turns the river copper. Avoid mid-afternoon in July. The brick radiates heat and there's little shade on the lower tier.

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Augusta Canal Boat Tour

Petersburg boats glide along the canal past brick mill buildings now converted to apartments. They're flat-bottomed replicas. Specifically, of 19th-century cargo vessels. Guides tend to be retired locals with a real love for the engineering story. You'll spot herons stalking the shallows, turtles sunning on logs, and the occasional river otter if you're lucky. The slow pace lets you hear the cicadas and the soft splash of the boatman's pole.

Booking Tip: Tickets sell out for weekend sunset cruises. Masters week is worst. They're booked solid months ahead. Twilight cruises tend to be the prettiest run. The boats include a basic bar setup if you want a drink in hand.

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Morris Museum of Art

Tucked into the Riverwalk complex, this museum focuses on art of the American South. It's unexpectedly impressive for a city of Augusta's size. The galleries are cool and quiet, the lighting subdued, and the collection ranges from antebellum portraits to contemporary work that grapples honestly with the region's complicated history. Wooden floors creak underfoot.

Booking Tip: Free admission on Sundays. Locals swear by this. The museum is small enough to see properly in about ninety minutes, which makes it good for a rainy day or the hottest part of a summer afternoon when you need air conditioning.

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Augusta Common and James Brown Statue

A green square sits in the middle of Broad Street, where the bronze likeness of the Godfather of Soul stands mid-pose, microphone in hand. You'll see tourists posing, locals walking dogs, and on Saturday mornings a farmers market spreads out with peaches in season, boiled peanuts, and pimento cheese sandwiches. The square smells of cut grass. When the market is on, kettle corn and grilled sausages too.

Booking Tip: Saturday market runs roughly nine to one. Show up before eleven. The best produce goes early. Free parking on weekends along the side streets, though you'll want to read the signs carefully because the meters in Augusta tend to be aggressively enforced on weekdays.

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Phinizy Swamp Nature Park

About ten minutes south of downtown, this stretch of wetland boardwalks weaves through cypress knees, lily pads, and water the color of strong tea. You might spot alligators basking on muddy banks (keep your distance, obviously), herons stalking frogs, and turtles dropping off logs as you approach. The boardwalk creaks underfoot. The air carries that distinctive swamp smell, damp earth and decaying leaves and something faintly sweet.

Booking Tip: Free to enter. But bring strong bug spray. The mosquitoes here are not subtle from May through September. Early morning gives you the best wildlife sightings and cooler temperatures. By midday in summer, the boardwalk planks are hot enough to feel through thin shoe soles.

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Getting There

Augusta Regional Airport handles direct flights mainly from Atlanta and Charlotte. One stop from most US cities. Many visitors fly into Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson instead and drive the two and a half hours east on I-20. The drive tends to be cheaper. It also gives you a rental car you'll want anyway. Amtrak's Crescent line stops in nearby Aiken, South Carolina, only about a half-hour drive across the river. From Charleston or Savannah, the drive runs roughly two to three hours through pine forests and small Georgia towns where it's well worth pulling off for boiled peanuts.

Getting Around

You'll likely want a car in Augusta. The downtown core is walkable. Broad Street, the Riverwalk, and Olde Town are all easy on foot. But most restaurants, hotels, and attractions sprawl across a wider area connected by stroads that aren't built for pedestrians. Rideshare works in the central neighborhoods but tends to be patchy in the outer suburbs after ten at night. The local bus system exists. It runs infrequently and isn't set up for tourists. Parking downtown is mostly metered street parking and a few surface lots, generally cheap by big-city standards and free after six in most spots.

Where to Stay

Downtown / Broad Street. Walkable to restaurants and the Riverwalk. Converted historic buildings and a few boutique hotels.

Olde Town. Quieter residential streets lined with Victorian houses. Several B&Bs in restored mansions.

Summerville. A leafy historic neighborhood on a ridge, near the Hill, with a more genteel feel and proximity to Augusta National (though the course is private).

West Augusta. Chain hotels along Washington Road, useful for Masters week and convenient to shopping.

North Augusta (across the river in South Carolina). Riverside hotels with downtown views, slightly cheaper than the Georgia side.

Evans / Martinez. Suburban and family-friendly, near the Columbia County parks, good if you've got a car and want quieter surroundings.

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Food & Dining

Augusta's food scene leans hard on Southern fundamentals with some genuine standouts. For barbecue, head to Sconyers Bar-B-Que out on Windsor Spring Road. It's an institution since 1956, where the pork shoulders smoke over hickory for twenty hours and the sauce comes mustard-tinged in the Georgia style. Downtown along Broad Street, you'll find Frog Hollow Tavern doing elevated Southern with a real seasonal menu, plus Craft & Vine for cocktails and small plates in a brick-walled space that hums on weekend nights. For breakfast, Sunshine Bakery on the corner of Broad gets you flaky biscuits and proper grits, while Buona Caffe in Summerville roasts its own beans and serves what might be the best espresso in the CSRA. Soul food anchors the city's identity. Bee's Knees and Whiskey Bar do creative versions. But for the real thing, drive out to a meat-and-three like Atlanta Bread Company's local rivals, where collards, fried chicken, mac and cheese, and sweet tea will set you back roughly the cost of a fancy coffee elsewhere. Riverwalk restaurants skew tourist-priced and underwhelming. Locals generally avoid them.

When to Visit

Spring (March through early May) is when Augusta shows off. Azaleas explode into bloom. Dogwoods flower. Temperatures sit in the high seventies, and the whole city feels like it's been styled for a magazine shoot. The catch: Masters week in early April sends hotel rates through the roof and books out everything for fifty miles, so unless you're going for the tournament, aim for late March or late April. Fall (October-November) runs a close second, cooler and drier with the river running clear. Summer is hot and humid in the way only the Deep South can manage, with afternoon thunderstorms, sticky nights, and air thick enough to feel. It's also the cheapest time, and the swamps are at their wildest. Winter is mild. It can still surprise you with the occasional cold snap and gray drizzle that drags on for days.

Insider Tips

Don't bother trying to see Augusta National Golf Club without a tournament badge. It's strictly private. The grounds stay completely closed to the public outside Masters week. Locals will tell you the closest you'll get is staring through the hedges along Berckmans Road, and security takes a dim view of that.
The free Augusta Canal towpath runs for miles past the old mills and through wooded stretches. They feel surprisingly remote. Rent a bike from the Canal Interpretive Center, and you can ride from downtown out to Lake Olmstead with barely a road crossing.
First Friday on Broad Street (first Friday of each month) is when galleries open, food trucks line up, and the whole downtown turns into a street party. It's the best way to see Augusta acting like itself rather than performing for visitors. And it's free.

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