All-American Music Tour

With included airport lounge access, you'll start your holiday in relaxed fashion before your daytime flight to Nashville. This is the home of country music and the Grand Ole Opry – a weekly event that's featured everyone from Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline to Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton. Explore the city's acclaimed musical heritage further at the Country Music Hall of Fame, pay a visit to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery, or bag yourself some bargains at the Opry Mills outlet shopping centre. An evening of live music in one of Broadway's honky tonk bars is not to be missed.

Stay: Holston House Nashville (Superior)

Collect your hire car this morning for the drive to that other musical great – Memphis. Commanding the Mississippi River from high bluffs and renowned as the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll and the home of the blues, Memphis is perhaps the most atmospheric city in the South. Dance your way round the Smithsonian Rock ’n’ Soul Museum, call into Elvis's former home, Graceland, examine the tools of the trade on a tour of the Gibson guitar factory and see where the magic happened with a visit to Sun and Stax Studios. Then, round it all off with a neon-framed stroll down Beale Street, where the late blues legend B.B. King owned his own bar.

Stay: DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Memphis Downtown (Standard)

Travel along the lower section of the Natchez Trace Parkway to arrive in Natchez itself. Along the way, perhaps pause at Greenwood on the Yazoo River. A former cotton producing centre, it remains a mecca for Blues fans. Be sure to visit the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretative Centre in nearby Indianola to explore the astonishing story of King’s life and his 60-year career in music. 

Natchez itself is the oldest permanent settlement on the Mississippi, home to some 500 antebellum buildings and mansions, dating back to before the American civil war. Then there's Natchez Under-the-Hill, a one-time lair for gamblers, thieves and riverboat roughnecks. Now it's a thriving entertainment district home to some of the city's best restaurants and liveliest bars.

Head on to Lafayette, where grand plantation homes and living museums depict the history of Cajun Country. Experience all the fun of an air-boat excursion on the Louisiana bayous with an optional swamp tour, and sample authentic Creole cookery at the city's seemingly endless collection of restaurants. And, in the evenings, there's every chance to practice your line-dancing skills in lively dance halls, all set to a Cajun music soundtrack, of course.  

Set out early for the drive to New Orleans where you'll drop off your hire car. Known affectionately as the Big Easy, this is the birthplace of jazz, a sultry melting pot of French, Spanish and Creole culture that perfectly sums of the eclecticism of the Deep South. The city's famous French Quarter – the setting for your hotel – is a veritable treasure trove of historic buildings, all wrought-iron balconies and hidden courtyards, which in turn set the scene for everything from bourbon-soaked jazz bars to vendors offering the tastiest Louisiana fare.

Enjoy a final day at leisure, before returning to the airport in the evening for an overnight flight back to the UK, arriving on day 13.