Sometime last Fall, one of the authors I follow on Instagram posted about taking a “reading retreat” – she used her travel rewards to get her hotel room for free for a night or two and did nothing but read. That sounded divine to me, and I wanted in! I immediately started researching where and when and how long I could get away. Here’s my journey to planning my own reading retreat…and some photos of my adventures!
The Starting Challenges
First Challenge: My schedule. After scouring my calendar and working with my managers, I realized that I was going to have four days of vacation I needed to use before the end of the year or I’d lose it. The perfect time to take those days was the week between Christmas and New Years. Only one problem – I had a huge project at work that wasn’t going to be completed until the end of the year. This challenge was easily resolved though – mid-December, I accepted a new role with my company that would begin January 1st and we started working to shift my responsibilities to the rest of my team. We agreed to have everything shifted before the Christmas break, meaning I could take my much-needed vacation days and solved the “when”!
I really recommend starting with this part of the planning – hotel stays and other expenses vary depending on the time of year and day of the week.
Second Challenge: Where. I decided I wanted to be somewhere within an hour of our home – driving stresses me out sometimes, and holiday traffic around Atlanta is no joke! I knew I wanted somewhere I could walk to good food and fun because parking around Atlanta is tough, too. I had two other requirements for my hotel – I wanted somewhere with a good sitting area so I could read and work without being on the bed, and I wanted to be close to a park. My final “wish” was not really a requirement, but just a nice to have – a kitchenette where I could cook myself food if I didn’t feel like going out.
My first thought was to stay somewhere close to Piedmont Park. If you’re not familiar with this iconic greenspace, it’s basically Atlanta’s answer to NYC’s Central Park. It’s got great walking paths and is surrounded by good food. The Atlanta Botanical Garden anchors the north end of the park, which would check off not only my park requirement, but my fun, too. I also considered some other neighborhoods in the Metro area like Alpharetta’s Avalon Park, Cumming’s Halcyon, or Buckhead’s Lenox Park. Each had some draws, but I felt like each of these had some downsides I couldn’t overcome.
Drawing on my experience as an outside sales rep in the downtown area, I finally settled on Atlantic Station. This historic neighborhood is just to the west of the I-75/I-85 connector and just north of the Georgia Tech campus. It has retail, restaurants, entertainment, and just two hotels. With a legacy anchored in its history as a steel mill, it is one of the stars of the Atlanta redevelopment and modernization movement of the past two decades. It is a fully walkable neighborhood sporting its own zip code and underground parking that spans its entire space. Working in the construction equipment rental industry, I have been fortunate to walk many of the buildings and attractions in this neighborhood before they were completed. And best of all? The hotel I’d be staying at is 100% suites with separate living rooms and kitchenettes and is across from a park.
This is an important second step in your planning – I would recommend choosing your primary hotel location, but have a backup or two, just in case the rates make it prohibitive to stay.
Third Challenge: How long. As I mentioned, I’ve done quite a bit of travel this year for work and family vacations, plus I earn points with a hotel brand credit card. My preferred hotel brand allows you to redeem reward nights using points plus cash in certain circumstances, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of cash for the stay, knowing that I would need money for food and fun. With my primary choice of Atlantic Station, I had only one hotel to choose from in the area, which limited me in terms of rate flexibility. I had my when and I had my where, but I had to work on how many nights I could spend. Before I started looking at reservations, I set a budget of how much cash I was willing to spend on the hotel outside of my points.
I knew I wanted to stay at least 2 nights and started there – I had enough points to cover 2 nights! Then I looked at 3 – that would give me 2 full days of reading plus a little time on the check in and out days. I discovered I had enough points to cover those 3 days and only need about 80% of the cash budget I set! I was sold!
Packing List
With the hotel booked, I started considering what to take with me. Here’s a few things off my packing list:
- Laptop – I wanted to spend a little bit of time writing reviews
- Kindle & physical books – it is a reading reatreat after all!
- Fire Tablet – I use mine for watching movies and listening to music
- Earpods – for listening to books while exercising
- Charging cords – so many devices!
- Workout clothes – I do yoga, pilates, and/or walk at least 4 days a week
- Sweaters and a blanket for cozy reading
If there’s something you love, like a smoothie blender or another device, make sure to add it to your list! The blender was definitely on my packing list along with a corkscrew.
My Adventure
As for my adventure…it was amazing! The day after Christmas, my eldest and I drove up to the Atlanta History Center and spent the day exploring the museum and grounds. I’ve been here a dozen times recently for author events but hadn’t been able to explore the exhibits. We had a blast! After a quick lunch nearby, we split – she traveled to her campus to pick up a package and I headed to the hotel.
First impressions of the hotel – IMPOSSIBLE to figure out where the front door was! I knew where the hotel was, but had never visited after it’s construction. I put in the address for the Twelve Hotel Midtown and it took me to the corner of 17th and State Street…which wasn’t the entrance. After driving around, I finally figured out the entrance is actually off Atlantic Drive at 18th Street, one block away. The exterior entrance doesn’t scream hotel either, but the lobby is so beautiful! Full glass walls, a vaulted lobby with a gorgeous sitting area, and a beautifully styled restaurant.
Second impressions – this place is stunning! The hallways and rooms have some exposed architectural concrete and wood with large open sitting areas. The bathroom is by far the best of any hotel I’ve stayed at this year with a separate shower and tub. And my balcony overlooked that corner of 17th and State the GPS took me to…which gave me a beautiful view of the Millennium Gate arch and the park!
After checking in, I ventured next door to the Publix to pick up some groceries. I needed frozen fruit for my smoothies, something for dinner, and some breakfast foods. I also grabbed some coffee supplies, wine, ice cream, and kitchen supplies. While the room has a kitchenette with pots, plates, cups, and silverware, I was lacking some essentials like a spatula, sharp knife, and baking sheet. It was pouring rain though, so I was soaked after my 1 block walk!
My first night was quiet and relaxing. I made dinner, enjoyed some wine, and worked on the schedule for the reading challenge. I used my Fire tablet to listen to my audiobook (Frankenstein) while cooking and swapped over to my January Spotify playlist while I worked on my laptop. After all the walking around the AHC, I was exhausted and went to bed early.
Day two was great! I started my day with a workout in my hotel room before finishing with a run around the park. After snapping some photos of the Millennium Gate and the city in the pre-dawn darkness, I walked over to the Publix to pick up some additional supplies for dinner and cocktails. I carried my groceries back to the hotel, made breakfast, and hopped in the shower to warm up – it was chilly!
Over the course of my time at the hotel Wednesday and Thursday, I finished 3 books – a hard copy, an e-book, and an audiobook. I spent so much time curled up on the couch with my throw blanket and a cup of coffee or a cocktail. I wrote reviews, I read, I planned. But most importantly for me, I slowed down. I’m always in a rush with everything I do, but it was time to break that habit and this trip was just that. I also spent a good bit of time watching the city from the balcony. Sunset over the arch is gorgeous!
Friday morning was my final time at Atlantic Station. Like Thursday, it was much too cold to get outside for long, but I did walk down Atlantic Drive to look at the neighborhood. I wish it had been a tiny bit warmer during my stay – I would have walked all over the area and visited some of the restaurants (I’m disappointed I didn’t get to try Naan Stop or the macaroon kiosk!). The area is 100% walkable and some streets are even shut down to cars to make it pedestrian friendly. I felt like I was back in New York walking down this street – so cute!
My final thoughts on my solo reading retreat…I can’t wait to do it again! I wish I’d had more time to explore the area. Cirque du Soleil performs in a tent at one end of the neighborhood and there are so many great shops and restaurants. If I learned one thing from this trip, it’s that you MUST consider what is fun for you before planning your reading retreat. If you want to spend time doing more things outside your hotel room, you may need a longer stay in order to have enough reading time. It’s also important to consider what you want to be around. I definitely think having a grocery store nearby is a top priority for me next time, too. I know some people would prefer not to cook on their retreat, but I spent around $125 on supplies and food for 8 meals and all my snacks, which is cheaper than I could have dined at the area restaurants just three times (and it didn’t require changing out of PJ’s!).
My reading retreat allowed me to get ahead on my reading schedule and my reviews, bringing me a full 2 weeks ahead of schedule for the blog. It also gave me some much-needed relaxation, meaning I started my new role on the 2nd with so much less stress and pressure. Other than my work trips, I haven’t taken a solo vacation in over a decade. It was nice to not have the pressure of someone else’s preferences or needs to consider and to really get to focus on what I wanted – books!
Have you done a reading retreat before? Is it something you would want to do in the future? Share your thoughts below!
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What I’m Reading
- Current print book: The Thread Collectors, Shaunna J Edwards & Alyson Richman
- Current audio book: The Great Divide, Christina Henriquez
- Book I’m most looking forward to: Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
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