Looking for things to do in Gwinnett, Georgia? You’ll find authentic Korean BBQ, one of the most extraordinary temples in the United States, massive international markets, and a whole lot more – all just a two-hour drive from Greenville.
Thank you to Explore Gwinnett for hosting our visit. All opinions are our own.
If you’re looking for a unique day trip or weekend getaway from Greenville, Gwinnett County, Georgia, belongs on your list. The things to do in Gwinnett, Georgia, alone make it worth the drive – authentic Korean BBQ, one of the most extraordinary temples in the United States, massive international markets, and a whole lot more, all just two hours away.
Here’s what’s waiting for you in Gwinnett County
- Skip the passport – Gwinnett County packs Korean BBQ, Hindu temples, Japanese markets, and Caribbean street food into one two-hour drive
- Every meal is an adventure – Charcoal-grilled meats, Asian pastries, temple café curry, and fresh coconut opened by machete
- A hidden bucket list landmark – The BAPS Mandir is the second-largest Hindu temple outside India, and it’s free
- Fun for every age – Massive markets, splash pads, quirky candy shops, and some of the best fried chicken you’ve ever had
Things to do in Gwinnett, Georgia
International travel for children is incredible, but it’s also expensive, logistically complicated, and not always realistic. So when we learned that Gwinnett County, Georgia, is considered the Seoul of the South™, we put together a trip itinerary that was as close to using a passport as you can without leaving the Southeast.
What I found was one of the most culturally rich weekends my family has had in years, and you can easily duplicate our experience on a weekend or day trip with just a tank of gas.
Gwinnett County sits just northeast of Atlanta and is famous for its enormous Korean-American population. But it’s not just Korean culture. Over the course of one weekend, we ate Mediterranean food, drank coconut milk straight from a coconut that was opened in front of us with a machete, explored a Hindu temple that belongs on any list of architectural wonders in the United States, and shopped at massive stores filled with Asian foods & products.
Here’s our itinerary plus some bonus ideas.
Korean BBQ at 9292
We started the trip the right way: dinner at 9292 Korean BBQ in Duluth. For our family, this was our first Korean BBQ experience, and now we are spoiled.
Korean BBQ is a communal dining experience where the food is cooked right at your table over a grill built into the surface. At 9292, they use actual charcoal rather than gas, which makes a noticeable difference, as the smokiness that comes from a real charcoal fire isn’t something you can replicate. Your server handles the cooking, so you’re not hovering over raw meat, figuring out timing. You’re just eating, talking, and watching the meal come together in front of you.
The meal format includes choosing your table meats and then eating them with an all-you-can-eat spread of banchan, the small Korean side dishes that come before and alongside the main meal. Think kimchi, rice, pickled vegetables, japchae noodles, tteokbokki. We barely knew what most of it was going in, but got our chopsticks out and started taste testing. Our server gave great advice on how to pair the meats, sauces, and banchan.
Greenville does have Korean BBQ options, but nothing quite like this that includes the charcoal format, table spread, and cooking.
9292 Korean BBQ
3360 Satellite Blvd, Duluth, GA
Open daily 11 am – 12 am (Friday – Saturday until 2 am)
The Asian Bakeries: Sweet Hut and Mozart
Both Sweet Hut Bakery & Cafe and Mozart Bakery are within a few minutes of each other on Pleasant Hill Road. We hit both, and they’re worth back-to-back visits if you have time.
These aren’t American-style bakeries. The display cases are full of Asian breads and pastries: soft buns filled with red bean or custard, fruit tarts, pistachio tarts, and layered cakes. We got boba tea, and we tried as many types of pastries as we could eat. The quality was excellent, and the prices were reasonable. If your kids have never had red bean anything, this is a good place to start.
Sweet Hut Bakery & Cafe
2180 Pleasant Hill Road, Ste. 18, Duluth, GA
Mozart Bakery
2131 Pleasant Hill Road, Ste. 148, Duluth, GA
bb.q Chicken- Duluth
Korean fried chicken is its own category, and bb.q Chicken in Duluth is a good place to find out why. The cooking method, double-fried for extra crunch, produces something noticeably different from what you’d get at any American fried chicken spot, and the sauces and flavor options are the real draw. We ordered a few plates to share, which is the right way to do it because the portions are large and it’s fun to try different flavors.
My teens went for one of the spicy flavors (not the hottest on the menu, to be clear), and it was legitimately spicy, so factor that in if you’re ordering for younger kids or even adventurous teens. We also tried Ddeokbokki, a Korean dish made with chewy rice cakes in a spicy sauce that we would definitely eat again.
The Milkis was an impromptu addition to our order, a Korean cream soda that the kids liked enough that we made a point of picking up a pack at Mega Mart, which is conveniently right next door.
bb.q Chicken
3530 Mall Blvd. NW, Duluth, GA
Open daily 11:15 am – 10 pm
TESO Life, H-Mart, and Mega Mart: Shopping Like You’re Somewhere Else
If you want a quick way to explore Gwinnett County’s international community, check out the shopping on Pleasant Hill Road.
TESO Life is a Japanese lifestyle and import store. It includes everything from plush toys to rows of chopsticks. There are aisles of Japanese and Korean snacks, K-beauty and skincare products, household goods, blind boxes, and even claw machines. It’s genuinely fun, even if you don’t buy a single thing. Though good luck not buying anything.
H-Mart and Mega Mart are massive Korean supermarkets. Imagine if you took a Korean version of the Walmart Supercenter and put it in Georgia. The produce section alone is worth walking through: vegetables and fruits you won’t recognize alongside the familiar. There are long open cases of fresh seafood with fish staring at you. Each store also has sections of home goods, skin care, and even clothing. Labels are primarily in Korean, but most items have English translations, and the experience of just wandering through is its own kind of cultural education.
- TESO Life
2180 Pleasant Hill Road, Ste. F, Duluth, GA - H- Mart
2550 Pleasant Hill Road, bldg 300, Duluth, GA - Mega Mart
2106 Pleasant Hill Road, Duluth, GA
Glow in the Park at Town Center Park
We planned dinner in downtown Suwanee with a concert later, but quickly realized that Glow in the Park International Night Market was taking place in the nearby Town Center Park.
For dinner, we ate at Raik Mediterranean. Inside, it had candlelit tables and live music. My shrimp kabob with grilled vegetables has to be one of the most beautiful meals I’ve ever eaten.
The festival had food vendors representing cuisines from around the world, a live band, a glow lantern display, and a glow parade through the park. Kids could make their own lanterns to carry through. We stopped at a Jamaican booth where they opened a fresh coconut with a machete right in front of us and handed it over to drink. Glow in the Park is an annual festival, but the International Night Market hosts multiple events during the year.
✨Bonus: If you come at a different time of year, be sure to check out Everett’s Music Barn. This iconic Suwanee music spot hosts bluegrass music bands on Saturday nights. Bring your fiddle if you play because impromptu jam sessions break out pre-show. Saturday concerts are free.
Downtown Duluth: More Than a Pit Stop
One thing I didn’t expect from this trip was how charming Downtown Duluth itself would be. We were staying at the Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Duluth (no parking fees, which was a nice surprise for an Atlanta-area hotel), and the location put us within easy walking distance of both the downtown area and Duluth Town Green.
Gigglebark Tree
The park is worth visiting, especially if you have younger kids. There’s a large, well-kept playground anchored by the Gigglebark Tree, a climbable tree structure that doubles as a public art piece and glows at night. There’s also a big splash pad fountain that, from appearances, half the kids in town were enjoying.
The downtown shops are small and browsable, the kind of places you duck into without a plan and come out with something. Rocket Fizz is a candy and novelty soda shop that’s fun for kids (and honestly fun for adults. They carry hundreds of unusual sodas). Personify Shop has gifts and home goods. The Chocolaterie has not only specialty chocolates and fudge but also ice cream and gifts.
Alchemist Coffee
The Alchemist Coffee is a must if you’re a coffee person. I got an iced Dutch coffee with cold cream and chocolate powder, it was genuinely one of the best coffees I’ve had. Dutch cold drip is a specific brewing method that takes significantly longer than regular cold brew and produces a smoother, less bitter result. It’s not something you find everywhere, and theirs was excellent.
Maple Street Biscuit Company
We had our last breakfast of the trip at Maple Street Biscuit Company, a two-minute walk from the hotel. If you’ve been to a Maple Street location before, you know what you’re getting. If you haven’t, it’s a Southern biscuit concept done very well and a comfortable, familiar way to close out a weekend of adventurous eating.
Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Duluth
3141 Hill Street, NW, Duluth, GA
Free parking
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
I keep asking people I know if they have been to the BAPS Mandir, and they keep saying no. This might be one of the biggest nearby bucket list items that nobody seems to have on their list, and it’s free.
The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Lilburn, Georgia, is the second-largest Hindu temple outside of India. The building is constructed from Turkish limestone, Italian marble, and Indian pink sandstone. More than 34,000 individual pieces were hand-carved in India, shipped to Georgia, and assembled by volunteers over 17 months. The outside of the building is overwhelming on its own, but it still doesn’t fully prepare you for the intricate inside.
Entry is free. The audio tour is $5 at the gift shop, and I would highly recommend paying for it as it provides key information on the building and Hindu beliefs. Every pillar and dome inside is different. Every surface is carved. The level of detail is genuinely unlike anything we’d seen before. Visitors are welcome to observe the daily ceremonies; the Arti ceremony at 11:15 am is the most popular.
A few things to know before you go: dress code requires covered shoulders and knees (wraps are provided if you need one), shoes come off before entering, and photography is only permitted outside. This is an active place of worship, not a museum, so prepare your children to be quiet and respectful when you enter.
Before you leave the Mandir grounds, eat at Shayona Café.
It’s located just inside the entrance on your left, and it would be easy to accidentally drive past on your way out. Shayona is an all-vegetarian Indian café run as part of the temple, and the food is the real thing. We shared samosas and a curry with flatbread, and ordered mango lassis to drink on the way out. You can also purchase Indian sweets, snacks, and freezer items inside its small market.
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
460 Rockbridge Rd. NW, Lilburn, GA
Open daily 9 am–6 pm
Free admission
Audio tour $5
Shayona Café
460 Rockbridge Rd. NW, Lilburn, GA
Plan Your Visit to Gwinnett County
Gwinnett County is about two hours from Greenville, a manageable day trip, but a weekend gives you room to fully experience the area. Duluth is the central hub for most of the things to do in Gwinnett, Georgia on this list. The Pleasant Hill Road corridor alone – TESO LIFE, Sweet Hut, Mozart Bakery, and the Korean markets nearby – could fill a day.
A few practical notes:
- Book 9292 or arrive early on weekends, it fills up
- Research what products you want to find at the markets. The volume of options is overwhelming.
- For the Mandir, check the schedule if you want to time your visit around one of the ceremonies. Don’t forget to follow the dress code.
- Budget extra for dining and treats. Eating out is more than a necessity on this trip, but part of the experience.
Age Recommendations
We took our teenagers, but this trip is easily adaptable for younger children, especially those old enough to enjoy cultural experiences, shopping, and food. If you travel with younger children, be sure to plan time for playing in the fountain and on the Gigglebark Tree in downtown Duluth – proof that things to do in Gwinnett, Georgia, extend well beyond the dinner table.
✨One Note: The grill at Korean BBQ 9292 is a hot coal grill in the middle of the table, so exercise caution with young children. They do have an extensive menu of items that do not require the grill.
