Helen is a little farther than we usually wander for Worth The Drive — about two and a half hours from Rome — but some fall events are simply too big to ignore.

The 56th annual Helen Oktoberfest is already underway and runs through November 1, with weekend celebrations through September and daily events beginning October 1. It is the longest-running Oktoberfest in the United States, and year after year Helen lands among the country’s most recognized Oktoberfest destinations.

And if you’re going to drive that far, I’d make a weekend out of it.

Saturday could start with the mountains instead of the beer hall. The Chattooga River rafting outfitters near Clayton are about an hour from Helen, and fall rafting runs through October.

Families and first-timers can take on the milder Section III, while the more adventurous can tackle Section IV and its famous Five Falls. Most guided trips run five to six hours and include lunch.

That makes for a pretty good North Georgia doubleheader: whitewater in the morning, bratwurst and polka music at night.

If full-on rafting sounds like a little too much commitment, Helen itself sits on the Chattahoochee and offers tubing during the warmer part of the season. Cool River Tubing is operating into September, weather and water permitting, with one- and two-hour float options.

Then trade the life jacket for lederhosen.

The Helen Festhalle is the center of Oktoberfest, with live German music, dancing, food and beer, while the rest of town plays along with the Bavarian theme. The atmosphere is part festival, part mountain getaway and part somebody-decided-Georgia-needed-a-little-Germany-and-never-looked-back.

That is what makes this more than just a festival listing.

You can turn the trip into a full fall weekend: raft the Chattooga, spend the afternoon exploring Helen, check into a mountain hotel or cabin, then head to the Festhalle for Oktoberfest. Wake up Sunday, grab breakfast, wander the shops, maybe take in the riverwalk, and head back toward Rome.

Yes, it is a drive.

But between the mountains, the river, the food, the music and one of the South’s biggest Oktoberfest celebrations, Helen is exactly the kind of place that earns the words Worth The Drive.