Things to Do in Americus

For more than two decades, Olympia Family Fun Center has helped guests young and old get their groove on with a wooden roller-skating rink, snack bar, and O-zone—an on-site dance club for teenagers. The rink's fluorescent lights and energetic, upbeat tunes keep skaters in motion as they loop around the rink, passing slower skaters and high-fiving onlookers who have really great hair.

Ranging in length from 4,940 yards to 6,626 yards, Bowden Golf Club’s emerald fairways were designed more than 70 years ago, making it Macon’s second-oldest course. With four sets of tees on each hole, golfers can opt for team play, test their mettle during tournaments, or borrow Paul Bunyan's 5 iron to hit a quartet of balls at once. As a full-service facility, the club boasts an onsite pro shop and snack bar, as well as a full-length driving range flanked by practice bunkers and putting greens.

Baldwin Bowling Center’s 24 polished lanes reflect gleaming overhead lights and the competitive glint in bowlers’ eyes as they rack up spares and strikes with gutter-hugging curves. Automatic scoring systems keep track of each frame, freeing up bowlers to focus on hunting elusive turkeys and clearing the gutters of dried-up pins. The bowling center’s snack bar replaces energy lost while hurling balls or smashing buttons in the arcade room, which harbors games designed to further test one’s sharpshooting accuracy. During cosmic bowling on Friday and Saturday evenings, glowing lights flood the lanes and the sounds of pins crashing share the airwaves with pulsating dance beats. Make reservations ahead of time to bowl from Sunday through Wednesday.

Spotlight Theatres Eisenhower 6 screens enrapture audiences with first-run movies. In each movie house, digital sounds and visual projections of fresh Hollywood films alight inner emotions of audiences resting in plush, high-backed stadium seats—each outfitted with a coin-operated mustache comb—or thrown directly into the action through 3-D technology. As eyes and ears relish motion-picture pursuits, soda, candy, and bounties of salty, crunchy popcorn emerge from the concession stand to occupy chatty mouths or catapult towards the screen to feed the hungry actors.

More than 50 species of butterflies flit between the petals of an ever-changing array of exotic plants inside the greenhouse as sunlight streams in through the glass ceilings. Outside, experts launch owls, falcons, and eagles into the air to fly—and many come back down to land on the arms of the audience. Since 1952, the staffers of Callaway Gardens’ educational nature preserve have immersed visitors in their passion for wildlife management and conservation across more than 4,600 acres of demonstration gardens, arboretums, and outdoor sports attractions.

At the 5-acre Horticultural Center, visitors wander through three conservatories, a grotto, and an outdoor garden and stand at the base of a 22-foot indoor waterfall. They can also soar up to 30 feet above the forest floor on a five-zipline treetop course replete with ladders, logs, and netting or practice their lumberjack calls on a 10-mile discovery trail through the trees. Staffers regularly lead guided hikes through the woods, hold a range of butterfly shows and cultural workshops, and help facilitate seasonal events—including circus, music, and theater performances and a holiday light show. On overnight stays, they welcome guests into lodgings such as a rustic inn, 155 secluded pine cottages, and 57 stone and wood villas with balconies.

Jordana Adler, a licensed massage therapist certified by the Pilates Method Alliance, fosters wellness as much as fitness at her boutique Discipline Pilates studio. Drawing on her thorough knowledge of myoskeletal alignment and other facets of health, she can target chronic pains in private sessions or work with larger assemblies.

Her studio’s group classes strengthen participants with diverse Pilates modalities, from standing routines that promote alignment to jump intervals, which employ the reformer machine for a joint-friendly cardio workout. Postworkout, patrons can detangle muscles under the percussive Thumper massage device, which combines the precision of a machine with the comfort of a machine that has learned to bake cookies.