There’s more to Augusta than golf. While certainly a Mecca for golf enthusiasts, with numerous top-rated public and semi-private courses, as well as The Masters tournament and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, Augusta is also a haven for arts and water sports.

Georgia’s second-largest city is also home to the only art museum dedicated solely to Southern artists — the Morris Museum of Art. Located in the heart of downtown, the Morris Museum of Art features exhibitions on the Antebellum period, Civil War art, Southern Impressionism and African-American artists from the South.

The city’s revitalized downtown hosts numerous festivals on its Augusta Commons, including the Arts in the Heart of Augusta annual festival. First Friday, appropriately held on the first Friday of every month, features special openings of the galleries and specialty shops in downtown’s Artists Row, as well as street vendors and outdoor music performances.

Located next to the Savannah River, Augusta hosts the Head of the South Rowing Regatta each November and the Augusta Southern Nationals Drag Boat Races each July, two of the largest events of their kind in the South.

Adjacent to the river, the Augusta Canal has hiking and biking along its towpath and two operating re-creations of Petersburg boats, available for touring the pristine waterway.

Only minutes away, Georgia’s largest lake, Clarks Hill, offers swimming beaches, boating, fishing, water skiing, camping and even windsurfing. The 71,000-acre lake has 1,200 miles of shoreline, which is more than California has coastline. – Donnie Fetter