Things to Do in Valdosta Georgia

Getting to Valdosta from Jacksonville Florida

For the purposes of this post, we are basing everything in terms of Jacksonville, FL distances (where we live and started our trip from). Valdosta is a 2 hour 15 minute drive northwest from our house. We had to go through 3 highways: I-95 north, I-10 west, and I-75 North, crossed the state line from Florida to Georgia and exited very quickly within the Georgia border.

If you are coming from Gainesville, you may have a shorter drive up north through I-75, but what we’re trying to say is that the easiest way to get to Valdosta is by driving. After all, if you want to go around the city, you definitely need a car. You can also use ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft to get around if you don’t have the option of driving a car.

Valdosta has a small regional airport that’s serviced by Delta, and is a very short drive to the downtown area, like 20 minutes or less.

What to see and do in Valdosta Georgia

Wild Adventures and Splash Island Valdosta

Wild Adventures is a theme park centered on an animal/nature theme. It’s like a small zoo and they even have a small safari train type ride. Their rides are not as crazy, so even children can ride on them (or scared adults too). Think Disney’s Animal Kingdom or Tampa’s Busch Gardens, but much cheaper, smaller, and of course, in an entirely different state.

We bought out Wild Adventures tickets through Groupon. It makes it a better deal, as their day passes could be more than half off the online ticket price. There are also some ticket deals where you can get a meal

Downtown Valdosta

Book and Table Inn

Our accommodation for the night is an Airbnb room in a working bookstore and cafe called the Book and Table. It is a small, quaint indie bookstore where the focus is on curated books (from popular authors) and local, Indie authors.

The book selection is eclectic, but if you are staying with the host, you are allowed to browse through the hundreds of books around.

There’s also free WiFi, bottled water, and freshly brewed coffee available in the morning.

We stayed in the loft room which had a very comfortable bed and a modern bathroom to boot. We have never stayed in a loft before so that was quite an experience.

Birdie’s

Downtown Valdosta is small, with only a few lively streets, but it is very charming. For those of you that have been to Savannah, it’s like a very small version of that. There are cool local stores, cafes and a couple of restaurants. One excellent place is Birdie’s, a hybrid event space, general goods store, cafe, and restaurant. We had brunch there and also bought a couple of gourmet jams. It’s located in an old building, but the interior has been renovated in a more modern style.

Book Warehouse off I-75

You can’t help but see the billboards that are dotted through I-75 advertising cheap books as soon as you cross through the Georgia border.

Book Warehouse is located a block away on the right as soon as you go on Exit 5. It’s mostly a Christian bookstore but they also sell livestock and ex-library books. In fact, I got the second and third books of the Crazy Rich Asian series, China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems for a total of $4.28. Pretty amazing deal.

Weekend Getaways

We live in Jacksonville, so we have a lot of possible weekend getaways: Orlando, Savannah, Fernandina Beach, Gainesville, St. Augustine, plus parks galore. We have done all of the above, so we’re happy we found another weekend getaway destination in Valdosta, Georgia. It has downtown charm, a theme park, and some great places to eat.

Have you guys been to Valdosta?