7 Fun Things to Do in Athens, GA With Your UGA Friends This Fall

There is just something about fall in Athens. Football is back! The weather finally goes from scorching to tolerable (Fall weather is coming, I promise)! Everyone has settled into their classes and routines, and suddenly it feels like there are a million reasons to get your friends together and do something fun. So if you’re looking for fun things to do in Athens, GA with friends this fall, consider this your UGA girls’ fall bucket list.

And while we will never turn down a Saturday in Sanford or a night downtown, some of the best memories from college are the simple ones—the random afternoon plans, the traditions you start with your friends, and the things that someday make you say, remember when we used to do that at UGA?

So grab your girls. Here are seven fun fall activities to add to your UGA bucket list this year.

1. Plan a Red + White Picnic With Your Girls

Consider this your sign to romanticize an ordinary afternoon. One of our favorite fun things to do in Athens is to plan a picnic!

Grab a blanket, your favorite snacks and drinks, and all the red and white you can find. Make it as simple or as over-the-top as you want—the point is just to get everyone together.

UGA has some seriously beautiful picnic spots right on campus. Spread out under the trees on North Campus, find a spot around Herty Field, or tuck yourselves away in Founders Memorial Garden for something a little quieter.

Our Izzy + Co Seniors Ambassador Team recently did exactly this for our Back-to-School Picnic, complete with the cutest UGA-inspired picnic details from Plain Jane Designs—from the red-and-white picnic baskets and Georgia bucket to the mocktail glasses that made the whole setup feel extra fun. And honestly, we think this needs to become a tradition.

2. Do a UGA Fall Game Day Properly

Football is an obvious choice for fun things to do in Athens. But pick one Saturday this fall and make the entire day an event.

Coordinate the outfits. Get ready together. Take the pictures before everyone gets sweaty. Tailgate. Do the Dawg Walk. Get into Sanford in time for kickoff. And if it’s a night game, there is nothing quite like watching Sanford light up at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Bonus points: after a Georgia win, head to North Campus and ring the Chapel Bell. It’s one of UGA’s oldest traditions for a reason.

3. Go to an Athens Pumpkin Patch

Nothing says fall quite like forcing all of your friends to take cute pictures while carrying pumpkins.

Head out to a local pumpkin patch or make an afternoon of the corn maze at Washington Farms. If you want to stay closer to campus, keep an eye out for the annual pumpkin patch on Milledge Avenue—the one Athens locals simply know as the “Pumpkin Church.”

Grab coffee on the way, put on the fall outfit that is absolutely too warm for the actual Georgia temperature, and embrace it.

4. Have a Girls’ Day in Downtown Athens

When was the last time you actually wandered around downtown Athens during the daytime without rushing to class or heading straight to a specific restaurant?

Pick an afternoon with nowhere else to be. Grab coffee, shop around downtown, get lunch somewhere you haven’t tried before, and make everyone put their phones away for a little while.

One of the best things about going to UGA is that downtown and North Campus practically spill into one another. Walk back toward campus when you’re finished, take the obligatory pictures near the Arch, and maybe ring the Chapel Bell just because you can.

5. Spend an Afternoon at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia

When Athens finally gets one of those perfect crisp fall days, take advantage of it.

The State Botanical Garden of Georgia is one of our favorite fun things to do in Athens for a reason! It is one of the prettiest places to wander around, talk for hours, bring a blanket and snacks, or simply escape campus for a little while.

You don’t need a big plan. That’s kind of the point.

6. Start a UGA Fall Tradition That’s Just Yours

Maybe it’s Friendsgiving in someone’s apartment. Or maybe you all dress up and go to dinner once a month. Maybe it’s coffee after your hardest class, Sunday walks, a Halloween movie marathon, or taking the same picture together in the same place every year.

The tradition itself doesn’t really matter.

What matters is that someday, long after graduation, someone in the group text will say, Do you remember when we used to…?

And everyone will.

7. Take the Pictures

We obviously couldn’t make a UGA girls’ fall bucket list without saying this one.

But we don’t mean that every memory needs a photoshoot.

Take the blurry pictures downtown. Take the group selfie when nobody is ready. Photograph the apartment you think you’ll remember forever. Get the picture with your roommate, your Big, your Little, your best friend, your whole friend group.

And every once in a while, make sure you’re actually in the pictures, too.

Because somewhere between your first day at UGA and the day you finally walk under the Arch, Athens becomes more than the place where you went to college.

It becomes your place.

These are the people and the ordinary little moments that make it that way.

So if you’re looking for things to do with your friends in Athens this fall, plan the picnic. Wear the cute outfit. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Start the tradition.

You have four years here.

Make them really, really good ones.

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About Izzy + Co Seniors

Izzy + Co Seniors creates a senior portrait experience for UGA seniors who want their photos to feel like them—stylish, joyful, confident, and full of personality. From planning your session and styling your looks to documenting the places and people that made Athens home, we’re here to celebrate the story behind your senior year.

Below are some of our favorite tips for your senior photos:

Tips to Look & Feel Confident For Your Senior Session

8 Best Grad Pic Spots on UGA’s Campus

Follow along with our Ambassador Team and all things UGA senior life on Instagram at @izzyco.seniors.