Join a guided panoramic tour that frames Music City’s skyline and civic heart, from river views at Riverfront Park to the Tennessee State Capitol. Stroll Centennial Park to admire the full-scale Centennial Park Parthenon, a striking homage to classical Athens set amid leafy lawns and public art.

Along Broadway, glimpse neon marquees and honky-tonks on Broadway spilling with live riffs. Your guide threads together Nashville’s political, cultural, and musical spirit, offering context that enriches every venue you’ll visit afterward in the city.

Walk the hallowed halls of Historic RCA Studio B, where the sleek harmonies of the Nashville Sound took shape. Step into sessions once graced by icons like Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton and learn how engineers sculpted hits with strings, echo, and effortless polish.

Inside the control room and live room, hear how arrangement, mic placement, and tape reels defined an era. Your guide shares recording lore that transforms this modest studio into a cathedral of American popular music.

Explore the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, home to rotating exhibitions and the landmark narrative “Sing Me Back Home”. Trace country’s evolution through artifacts, listening stations, and stage-worn finery that reveal how songs moved from porches to global stages.

Inside an intimate theater, meet a female songwriter for performance and industry insights. Hear how craft, grit, and community shape careers, and gain perspective on the voices that continue to broaden the genre’s tradition.

Choose an included visit to Nelson’s Green Brier, the reborn home of the Original Tennessee Whiskey. On a guided distillery tour, discover mash bills, barrel aging, and the family saga behind a brand revived from 19th-century glory.

Conclude with a tasting of Tennessee whiskey, comparing notes of vanilla, caramel, and oak. This Insight Choice experience is included at no additional cost and celebrates a defining Southern craft from grain to glass.

Opt for the National Museum of African American Music, the only institution dedicated to the Black roots of America’s soundtrack. Engage interactive galleries that connect spirituals, blues, jazz, gospel, R&B, and hip hop across generations and geographies.

Follow the through-line of innovation and resilience as you recognize the central role of Black artists in shaping U.S. culture. This Insight Choice experience is included, providing a powerful lens through which to hear Nashville anew.

Join a guided city tour of Memphis to see the modern silhouette of the Memphis Pyramid and the ornate lobby of the Peabody Hotel, famed for its daily procession of Peabody ducks. Feel the spirit of Beale Street where blues riffs still drift from storied venues.

Your guide connects landmarks and legends, revealing how river commerce, barbecue, and a fervent music scene forged a city whose cultural influence far exceeds its size.

Meet civil rights educator Elaine Lee Tumer for a powerful exploration of Memphis through the stories of trailblazing women of Memphis. Visit sites like First Baptist Beale Street Church as Elaine shares first-hand accounts of marches, sit-ins, and organizing.

Encounter the legacies of figures such as Ida B. Wells and the Lee Sisters, and learn how local activism reverberated nationally. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER experience supports community education and preserves voices too often left out of history.

Enter the Stax Museum of American Soul Music after closing for a private after-hours tour. See stagewear, session photos, and the studio re-creation that powered hits from Booker T. & the M.G.’s to Otis Redding.

Learn how the Soulsville Foundation invests in youth and arts education, amplifying creativity where Stax once recorded. The museum’s galleries spotlight Memphis soul’s inclusive spirit and the cultural change it helped soundtrack.

Step inside Graceland Mansion to see Elvis Presley’s living room, the tiki-styled Jungle Room, and family spaces that reveal the King’s private world. Explore expansive exhibits displaying stagewear, gold records, automobiles, and custom jets from the Graceland Archives.

Audio narration and period film clips place you alongside fevered tours and quiet offstage moments. The visit balances celebrity with humanity, offering a textured portrait of America’s most recognizable performer.

Tour Sun Studio, the fabled Birthplace of Rock ’n’ Roll, with a working musician as your guide. Hear how Sam Phillips captured raw energy on acetate, and stand at the microphone where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis cut era-defining tracks.

Vintage equipment, session lore, and scarred floor tiles evoke nights when country, blues, and rhythm collided into something entirely new. It’s a compact space with an outsized global impact.

In Indianola, delve into the life of the “King of the Blues” at the B.B. King Museum. Trace his journey from Mississippi Delta fields to international stages through films, instruments, and intimate mementos, including famed Lucille guitars.

Walk the landscaped grounds to pay respects at his final resting place. The museum’s storytelling underscores how gospel roots, tireless touring, and heartfelt restraint shaped B.B.’s unmistakable sound.

Gather at historic Club Ebony, a pillar of the Chitlin’ Circuit, for a flavorful lunch paired with a musician-led workshop. Learn structure and call-and-response, then write a 12-bar blues before hearing it brought to life in an intimate performance.

Stories of touring greats mix with the aroma of Delta cuisine, connecting heritage to the present. This is blues as living culture—shared, taught, and felt in real time.

Explore Destrehan Plantation, the oldest documented plantation home in the Lower Mississippi Valley. A costumed interpreter leads you through the main house and a restored slave cabin, interpreting daily life, craftsmanship, and the social hierarchy of a complex estate.

Archival documents and period furnishings frame the intertwined lives of the free and enslaved. The visit invites thoughtful reflection on the River Road’s wealth, its human cost, and the stories preserved along its oak-lined grounds.

Go behind-the-scenes at Mardi Gras World to see vast studios where artists sculpt and paint floats for New Orleans’ famed krewes. Hear how parades fuse satire, spectacle, and tradition while towering props rise from foam and pigment.

Guided by a Mardi Gras artist, design your own mask—a feathered, glittered keepsake to capture the city’s carnival spirit. The workshop reveals how craftsmanship and community fuel the season’s exuberant pageantry.

Explore New Orleans with a Local Expert through the lens of the Great Women of the Mississippi River Delta. Learn how the Mississippi River shaped neighborhoods and livelihoods while meeting local changemakers—from a recycling artist to a mentor preserving culinary heritage.

Conversations in studios and storefronts illuminate resilience, migration, and community entrepreneurship. The experience connects past matriarchs to today’s innovators, revealing a city remade by women’s hands and voices.

Settle into Fritzel’s Jazz Club for VIP front-row seating in the city’s oldest continuously operating jazz venue on Bourbon Street. Musicians trade solos at arm’s length as rhythms bounce off brick walls and candlelit tables.

Enjoy a pre-dinner drink and chats with performers who carry forward New Orleans’ improvisational tradition. The club’s intimate scale turns each chorus into a conversation between band and audience.

Dine at Tujague’s, a French Quarter institution serving Creole hospitality since 1856. Savor gumbo, brisket, or shrimp remoulade as servers keep the pace lively and the room humming with French Quarter conviviality.

Stories of past patrons mingle with clinking glasses and the fragrance of roux and herbs. It’s a taste of old New Orleans—heritage recipes, high spirits, and a setting made for celebration.

Begin your journey in Music City with a convivial evening to meet your Travel Director and fellow travelers. Share first impressions of Nashville over a Welcome Dinner with wine as introductions turn into easy conversation.

The gathering sets a friendly tone for the days ahead, pairing regional flavors with practical tips and local context. It’s a relaxed start that helps the group feel like a traveling community.

Sit down at The Beauty Shop, a former salon reimagined as a whimsical restaurant where Priscilla Presley once had her hair styled. Banquettes and vintage dryers set a playful scene for chef-driven New American plates.

Between courses, admire design touches that nod to the building’s past while conversation flows under globe lights. It’s a Memphis original: creative cuisine, local lore, and a space that sparks smiles.

Discover the National WWII Museum, a sprawling campus of immersive exhibits, aircraft, and oral histories that trace America’s road to victory across multiple theaters. Engage with personal stories of service that bring grand strategy down to human scale.

This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour. Allow time for multimedia presentations and poignant galleries that move from D-Day to the Pacific, illuminating sacrifice and resolve.

Venture by flat-bottom boat on a swamp and bayou boat tour, gliding beneath cypress draped in Spanish moss. Scan the banks for alligators and wading birds as your captain explains wetland ecology and the threats facing Louisiana’s disappearing wetlands.

This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour. The quiet channels and shifting light reveal a wilder side of the delta, rich in folklore and teeming with life.

Experience the pulse of country music at the Grand Ole Opry, where a live performance showcases the show’s trademark mix of country legends and rising stars. Hear the stories behind the songs and feel the energy of an institution that remains the longest-running radio broadcast in U.S. history.

From classic fiddles to modern chart-toppers, the Opry’s curated lineup captures Nashville’s past, present, and evolving soundscape. Soak up the auditorium’s buzz, join in the applause, and savor a night on music’s most storied stage.