A Day Exploring Atlanta With the Toyota Corolla

(Photography by Kevin O'Gara)

One of the silver linings of the COVID shutdown in Atlanta has been the absence of daily rush hour in the city! I recently took advantage of the clear streets to spend a day exploring the city in the new 2020 Toyota Corolla – and in a city as spread out as Atlanta I got to spend lots of time in the car getting to know all of its features. As a hybrid, it gets over 50 miles per gallon which meant I could take it out on a full day hitting all my favorite neighborhoods without hardly seeing the gas indicator move. I hate paying for gas, so this is a great bonus! The car also features Apply CarPlay, Alexa, JBL Speakers, and a sleek 8-inch touchscreen display console so I picked up my friends, put on my favorite music, and visited some cool neighborhoods, restaurants, and destinations around the city in the car. See all my hotspots below, plus check the car out in action in my new YouTube video below:

My apartment is conveniently located between Buckhead and Midtown, so first things first I headed to a cute little street in the heart of Midtown where I’ve been dying to take photos. It’s a lush green stretch along the side of one of my favorite Italian restaurants, Ecco, and was the perfect place to get some new Instagram content with my friends.

We then headed over to my favorite skyline view of Atlanta, Jackson Street Bridge. This is a super popular place to get a clear shot of the downtown skyline – just a small slice of our sprawling cityscape. You might recognize the view if you’re a fan of The Walking Dead! It was a beautiful sunny day and so picturesque driving over the bridge in the sleek slate blue Corolla.

 

Next we took a scenic route through Downtown Atlanta. I want to point out another important feature of the car here – Pre-collision System with Pedestrian Detection, which brakes for you if you don’t see a car or pedestrian ahead. This is such a great safety feature for driving in a dense area of town where there can lots going on in the street! We arrived in Cabbagetown for a coffee and snack at a local gem, Carroll Street Café at the center of the neighborhood’s commercial strip. I used to go here all the time when my dad lived in this neighborhood and it was the perfect place to rest and refuel. While parking on Carroll Street can be tight, the backup camera on the Corolla makes it easy to get in and out of parallel parking spots!

For an evening out on the town, we hit up my favorite rooftop sushi restaurant O-Ku in hip West Midtown, where there’s some of the best design shops, clothing stores, and restaurants all in a walkable area. I enjoyed one of my favorite sushi rolls at O-Ku with fresh lemon slices on top and an Asian-fusion cheesecake for dessert. With such great gas mileage, I had no hesitation about crossing the city for our last activity! Lee+White is a fun new development in Southwest Atlanta located right along the Westside Beltline Trail, and full of fun restaurants with outdoor patios, picnic tables, and string lights for a magical evening experience. It’s a great place to gather with friends and just hang out! It was such a treat to explore Atlanta from the new Toyota Corolla, and I loved how all of the car’s modern features and polished interior styling provided the perfect accompaniment to my adventures in the city!

Make sure to watch my video on YouTube to see the whole day play out.