Take your seat for a live Grand Ole Opry performance, where country musicians perform as part of one of American music’s most enduring broadcasts. Hear the variety of voices and styles that keep Nashville’s stage tradition alive.

First broadcast in 1925, the Opry helped carry country music far beyond Tennessee. A performance connects today’s artists with generations who found a national audience through its radio show and stage.

Tour Memphis’s Sun Studio with a local musician and discover the recording space associated with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. Hear how performances captured in this modest studio helped change the sound of popular music.

Opened in 1950 by Sam Phillips, Sun brought together blues, country and early rock ’n’ roll influences. The guided visit makes that musical crossover easier to hear and understand in the place where it happened.

Explore Nashville’s civic and musical landmarks, including Riverfront Park, the Tennessee State Capitol and Music Row. See the city’s full-scale Parthenon replica in Centennial Park, a reminder of Nashville’s long-standing nickname, the Athens of the South.

This city orientation brings together the places where Nashville’s public history and recording industry took shape. Music Row’s studios and publishing houses offer a sense of how the city became a centre for country music.

Step inside RCA Studio B on Music Row, where artists including Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton and the Everly Brothers recorded. Explore the working studio setting associated with the polished, influential sound that helped bring country music to a wider audience.

Opened in 1957, Studio B preserves an unusually tangible link to Nashville’s recording history. Standing where performers worked gives familiar songs a fresh sense of place and reveals the craft behind the city’s musical reputation.

Listen to a private performance of Johnny Cash songs by a member of his family, alongside insights into his life and music. The personal connection offers a different perspective on a performer whose voice became inseparable from the story of American country music.

Cash’s songs drew on gospel, folk and the experiences of people living at society’s margins. Hearing his work shared through a family connection adds intimacy to the music and its enduring place in Nashville’s heritage.

Explore the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on a self-guided visit. Browse exhibits and memorabilia connected with artists including Elvis Presley, Hank Williams and Loretta Lynn, tracing the performers, recordings and objects that shaped the genre.

In downtown Nashville, the museum places country music within a broader American story of regional traditions and changing popular culture. Its collections offer room to follow the artists and eras that interest you most.

Sit down to breakfast at The Arcade, a long-standing Memphis café, and sample Southern morning favourites in a setting rooted in the city’s everyday life. This is a meal with a sense of place rather than a routine hotel breakfast.

Established in 1919, The Arcade is known as Memphis’s oldest café. Its diner atmosphere and local history make it a fitting place to experience the food culture that sits alongside the city’s better-known musical landmarks.

Visit Graceland to tour Elvis Presley’s mansion and see his private planes. Explore the rooms and personal spaces of the Memphis home that became closely identified with the King of Rock ’n’ Roll.

The property offers a glimpse of Elvis beyond his recordings and stage performances, from domestic details to the scale of his fame. For music fans, walking through his former home brings an unusually personal dimension to an American cultural icon.

Discover New Orleans with a Local Specialist, taking in distinctive neighbourhoods such as the Garden District and French Quarter and visiting one of the city’s above-ground cemeteries. Look for mansion-lined streets, ornate tombs and the architectural details that give each district its character.

The tour introduces a city shaped by French, Spanish, African and American influences. Its raised tombs reflect both local burial traditions and the practical challenges of a low-lying landscape.

Choose to explore the Ryman Auditorium, Nashville’s celebrated music venue and former home of the Grand Ole Opry. Discover why performers and audiences still regard this historic theatre as the Mother Church of Country Music.

Originally built as a tabernacle in the 1890s, the Ryman became a defining stage for American music. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; visit arrangements may depend on the programme available.

See more of Nashville aboard a hop-on-hop-off trolley, choosing which city sights to explore at your own pace. The format offers flexibility for travellers keen to spend longer in the neighbourhoods and attractions that catch their interest.

It is a way to connect Nashville’s music heritage with its wider downtown setting without committing to a fixed walking route. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; routes and stops are subject to the operator’s schedule.

Ride the Backbeats Mojo Tour with a Beale Street musician as your guide. This music-led bus experience introduces Memphis through the sounds and stories of the artists who helped make it a centre for blues, soul and rock ’n’ roll.

Beale Street has long been a gathering place for performers, making a musician’s perspective especially fitting. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Visit the Memphis Rock ’n’ Soul Museum to trace the musical traditions behind the city’s blues, soul and rock ’n’ roll, and dine at Blues City Café. Together, the museum and meal offer a closer look at Memphis’s music culture.

The museum explores how rural roots and urban recording scenes contributed to sounds heard around the world. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Explore Memphis’s Civil Rights history with a Local Specialist, visiting the National Civil Rights Museum and the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum. These sites confront different chapters of the struggle against slavery and racial injustice in the United States.

The National Civil Rights Museum incorporates the Lorraine Motel, where Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, offering space for learning and reflection.

Travel onto Louisiana’s waterways by pontoon boat with a local specialist, scanning the swamp and bayou habitat for alligators, egrets, eagles and snakes. Wildlife sightings depend on conditions, but the waterways themselves reveal a landscape far removed from New Orleans’s streets.

Listen for birdlife and observe the vegetation that thrives in this wetland environment. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Watch local chefs prepare Cajun and Creole dishes at the New Orleans School of Cooking, sharing techniques, tips and stories behind the city’s food traditions. The demonstration offers ideas for recreating regional flavours at home.

New Orleans cooking reflects a blend of cultural influences and a strong tradition of gathering around food. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the dishes demonstrated may vary.

Explore The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, designated by Congress as America’s official World War II museum. Its exhibitions examine the war through personal accounts, artefacts and the experiences of those who served and supported the effort.

The museum offers a substantial opportunity to engage with the human and global scale of the conflict. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; available exhibits may vary.

Spend an evening in an authentic New Orleans jazz club, listening to live music over dinner and drinks. Experience the interplay and improvisation that give a small-room jazz performance its energy.

Jazz emerged from the city’s distinctive mix of musical traditions, and live venues remain part of its cultural life. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; performers and menus depend on the venue.

Costsaver

• 4 Breakfast (B)

• Explore Studio B, the Country Music Hall of Fame and enjoy an evening at the Grand Ole Opry
• Iconic Breakfast at Memphis’ oldest café 
• Visit Sun Studios where Elvis recorded some of his revolutionary albums before heading to his home, Graceland, to tour the mansion
• Learn about the history of the South’s Antebellum estates
• Spend the early afternoon with a Local Specialist touring the downtown area and Garden District before visiting one of the above-ground cemeteries

• Deluxe coach travel
• Selected hotel dinners, with optional meals to purchase
• 3-star stays

• Nashville: The famous Nashville Sound comes alive this morning as RCA’s Studio B reveals the legends of Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves and Roy Orbison. ‘Dive into Culture’ and gain insights into the life and music of Johnny Cash during a private performance of original Cash tunes with one of Johnny’s family members.
• Nashville: The famous Nashville Sound comes alive as guests learn about the country music legends, such as Jim Reeves and Roy Orbison, at The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on a self-guided tour. The museum helps to “preserve, celebrate, and share the important cultural asset that is country music.” 
• Memphis: Take in the historic Sun Studios on a guided tour led by a local musician. Opened in 1950 this storied studio is where Elvis got his start, along with many other all-time greats.
• Memphis: Explore the lavish mansion and private retreat of Elvis Presley and get an intimate look into his Rock N’ Roll life.
• New Orleans: Get to know the city with a Local Expert – from the Garden District to the French Quarter, Uptown to Treme, you’ll get to know and better understand what makes this vibrant city tick.