Marietta, GA is worth the drive.

Most people driving through Marietta on I-75 don't stop. They're heading somewhere else — Atlanta, Chattanooga, wherever — and Marietta registers as an exit sign, not a destination. That's a mistake worth correcting.

Marietta is Cobb County's largest city, about 20 miles northwest of Downtown Atlanta and roughly 25 minutes from Skibo House. It has a genuine downtown square, a farmers market that runs every Saturday year-round, a Civil War battlefield that most visitors walk right past on their way to Six Flags, and a food scene that punches well above its suburban reputation. It's the kind of place that rewards actually stopping.

The Square

Marietta Square is the center of it all — a proper town square with Glover Park at its heart, ringed by restaurants, coffee shops, galleries, and independent retailers. On Saturday mornings the farmers market sets up around the park with local produce, artisanal goods, and prepared foods from vendors across the region. The Glover Park Concert Series runs free outdoor concerts on select evenings throughout the year.

The 1935 Strand Theatre sits on the square and is worth a look even if you don't catch a show. Originally built as a movie theater, it sat vacant for decades before being fully restored — it now hosts concerts, classic films, stage productions, and events, with a rooftop terrace bar overlooking the square. The art deco exterior alone is worth slowing down for.

History you can actually walk through

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park sits just a few miles from the square — 2,923 acres preserving a significant battleground from the 1864 Atlanta Campaign. Sherman's forces and Confederate troops under General Johnston fought here in June 1864 before Johnston's retreat toward the Chattahoochee. The park has 20+ miles of hiking trails and some of the best preserved earthworks from the Civil War anywhere in Georgia. It's free to enter and genuinely undervisited given how close it is to Atlanta.

Back on the square, the Root House Museum — one of the oldest homes in the Atlanta area, restored to its 1860 appearance — tells a more intimate story of what Marietta life looked like before the war came through.

Worth knowing before you go

• The Marietta Square Farmers Market runs Saturdays 9am–12pm year-round
• The North Georgia State Fair comes to Jim R. Miller Park each September and draws over 300,000 visitors
• Taste of Marietta, held the last Sunday in April, showcases the city's best restaurants in one afternoon
• Chalktoberfest in October brings nearly 100 artists creating large-scale chalk murals around the square — free admission
• Marietta is about 20 miles from Downtown Atlanta via I-75 — budget extra time during rush hour

Marietta is the kind of place people discover on a day trip and immediately start thinking about more seriously. If you find yourself wondering what it would actually be like to live here — the real estate market, what homes are going for, what the process looks like — the team at Sell Fast Atlanta's Marietta page is a solid starting point. They know the Cobb County market well and can give you an honest read on what's happening without the usual sales pressure.