The striking Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta is well situated for artistic inspiration—it’s in the heart of Midtown, the city’s lively cultural hub. Within just a few blocks of the Hotel, you’ll find the iconic High Museum of Art, the beautifully laid out Atlanta Botanical Garden, and a wealth of design-driven shops and restaurants. You’ll also find art-inspired areas to explore elsewhere in the city, from the emerging retail and gallery districts on the up-and-coming west side to the venerable interior-design hubs in stylish Buckhead.

Although it helps to have a car when exploring Atlanta, you can park and stroll on foot in a surprising number of charming, pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods. Keep in mind such spirited dining and shopping districts as East Atlanta Village (Glenwood and Flat Shoals avenues), Little Five Points (Euclid and Moreland avenues), and downtown Decatur (West Ponce de Leon Avenue at Commerce Drive).

Bennett Street Design District, Bennett Street NW at Peachtree Road NE

Everyone from bargain-driven antiques hunters to contemporary art aficionados frequents this unassuming lane at the southern edge of fashionable Buckhead.

Woodruff Arts Center, 1 404/733-4444, 1280 Peachtree Street NE

Midtown Atlanta’s pre-eminent performing and visual arts campus, the Woodruff is home to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Alliance Theatre, as well as a world-class venue for viewing art, the High Museum, which comprises an original building designed in 1983 by Richard Meier and a 2002 expansion by Renzo Piano.

Castleberry Hill, Walker and Peters streets SW

A formerly downcast industrial neighbourhood, small but dynamic Castleberry Hill has blossomed into a district of edgy contemporary art galleries.

Virginia Highland District, Virginia and North Highland avenues NE

Across leafy Piedmont Park from Midtown, the convivial Virginia Highland neighbourhood was developed in the early 20th century as one of the city’s fashionable “streetcar suburbs.”

Westside Provisions District, 1100-1210 Howell Mill Road

This hip, fashion-forward neighbourhood sprang up in the late 1990s in a largely vacant tract of late-19th-century mills and warehouses.

Atlanta Decorative Arts Center, 1 404/231-1720, 349 Peachtree Avenue NE

For years, only credentialed interior designers could explore this 550,000-square-foot (51,000-square-metre) leviathan containing some 60 showrooms filled with furniture, wall and floor coverings, bath and kitchen accessories, carpets and draperies, lighting, and every other decorative element you could imagine.