Things to Do in Downtown Helen, GA

Start in the village

Downtown Helen is small enough to cross on foot in a few minutes. Main Street, which is also Georgia Highways 17 and 75, runs north to south, and the Chattahoochee River runs alongside and then under it. The city’s map names the public places worth finding: Helen Square, White Horse Square, the Swiss German Plaza, Fussen Platz with its band shell on River Street, Unicoi Hill and Riverside Park.

The best first stop is the Helen Arts & Heritage Center at 25 Chattahoochee Strasse. It has a gallery, a pottery studio and a free museum about how the town came to look the way it does. According to the center, it opens daily, noon to 5 in spring and summer and 11 to 4 in fall and winter.

• Helen Arts & Heritage Center

  Gallery, pottery studio, free history museum · 25 Chattahoochee Strasse

  Source: Helen Arts & Heritage Center, checked Oct 16, 2026

• Helen Square and Fussen Platz

  Public squares with restrooms; band shell at Fussen Platz · Main Street and River Street

  Source: City of Helen records, checked Oct 16, 2026

• Unicoi Hill Park

  City park with a playground and track; the Christmas Market's second site · Pete's Park Road

  Source: City of Helen records, checked Oct 16, 2026

• Riverside Park

  City park on the river; the Lighting of the Village is held here · Off Edelweiss Strasse

  Source: City of Helen records, checked Oct 16, 2026

• Helen Welcome Center

  Maps, brochures, restrooms · 726 Bruckenstrasse

  Source: Helen Welcome Center (CVB), checked Oct 16, 2026

From the square, walk the side streets east of Main. Chattahoochee Strasse and Edelweiss Strasse carry on the shopfronts and restaurants across the Davidson Bridge toward the Festhalle, where the Helen Chamber holds Oktoberfest each fall.

On the river

From Memorial Day to Labor Day, two outfitters in town rent tubes for a float down the Chattahoochee: Cool River Tubing and Helen Tubing. The city’s river rules are strict, with no alcohol, no glass and no coolers. Our tubing guide covers seasons, rules and where to park for a long afternoon on the water.

Out of season, the river is still the point of downtown. Fussen Platz on River Street is the place to sit and watch it, and in late March the Helen Trout Tournament stocks it with more than 400 pounds of trophy trout.

Twenty minutes out: falls and parks

Head east on GA-356 and you reach Unicoi State Park, which its own site puts two miles from Helen, and then Anna Ruby Falls, a pair of twin waterfalls at the end of a paved trail. The U.S. Forest Service charges $6 per person 16 and older. West of town, the Richard Russell Highway (GA-348) leads to the trailheads for Dukes Creek Falls and Raven Cliffs Falls. Our waterfalls and parks guide compares them side by side.

South into the Nacoochee Valley

Just south of town the valley opens out. Hardman Farm State Historic Site keeps an 1870s farm, and Nora Mill Granary on South Main Street has ground grain beside the river since 1876, according to the mill. Habersham Winery’s tasting room is in Nacoochee Village, about half a mile south of Helen, and the Sautee Nacoochee Center has a free folk pottery museum.

• Nora Mill Granary

  Working gristmill, est. 1876 · 7107 S. Main St., south of downtown

  Source: Nora Mill Granary, checked Oct 16, 2026

• Habersham Winery tasting room

  Winery (since 1983) · 7025 S. Main St., Nacoochee Village

  Source: Habersham Winery, checked Oct 16, 2026

• Sautee Nacoochee Center and Folk Pottery Museum

  Galleries, theater, free pottery museum · 283 Hwy 255 North, Sautee Nacoochee

  Source: Sautee Nacoochee Center, checked Oct 16, 2026

• Babyland General Hospital

  Cabbage Patch Kids, free admission · 300 N.O.K. Drive, Cleveland

  Source: Babyland General Hospital, checked Oct 16, 2026

With children

Unicoi Hill Park has a playground and is two minutes from Main Street. The Anna Ruby Falls trail is paved. In Cleveland, about a twenty-minute drive, Babyland General Hospital (the Cabbage Patch Kids home) is free to visit. In summer, tubing is open to children from age 2 at Cool River, and life jackets are required for 13 and under.

What we left off this list

Two things still turn up on other Helen lists. We could not find any current source showing Charlemagne’s Kingdom, the old model railway on North Main Street, still open. And there is no Museum of the Cherokee in Helen: the museum of that name is in Cherokee, North Carolina.

Quick answers

Hours, prices and dates change. The official visitor center has the final word: Helen Welcome Center (Alpine Helen/White County CVB)