Editors' picks across 8categories — the dock with the deepest channel, the winery with the view, the restaurant with the right wine list, the trail nobody's on at sunrise.
A 10-acre estate vineyard in the Rabun County mountains — barrel-room tastings, wine flights, and local cheeses, with the Red Barn Cafe on site for lunch.
Visit ↗The dining room at the last surviving mountain lodge on Lake Rabun, welcoming guests since 1922 — Southern and American fare built on local ingredients.
Visit ↗A historic 1890s inn a short drive from the lake, with a seasonal fine-dining room — reservations required, one seating a night.
Visit ↗A 1.7-mile hiking trail from Lake Rabun Beach's Loop 1 to two waterfalls on Joe Creek — one of the more accessible waterfall hikes in the Rabun County mountains.
A full-service marina on Lake Rabun Road — boat slips for lease, a convenience store, a service shop, and half- or full-day pontoon rentals.
Visit ↗A family-owned rental outfitter on Bear Gap Road serving Lake Rabun, Lake Seed, and Lake Burton — pontoons, canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards.
Visit ↗A U.S. Forest Service campground and swim beach in the Chattahoochee National Forest — a sand beach with a roped-off swim area and bathhouse, 80 campsites, and the trailhead for the Angel Falls/Panther Falls hiking trail at the back of Loop 1.
Visit ↗The ambursen-type concrete dam that created Lake Rabun — 108 feet high and 660 feet across, completed in May 1915 but left the reservoir unfilled for a decade while Georgia Power finished the tunnel to the Terrora hydroelectric plant at Tallulah Falls. Lake Rabun is the third of six lakes strung along the Tallulah River behind Georgia Power dams, after Lake Burton and Lake Seed.