Known as ‘Music City’, Nashville’s music history goes back to the late 1700s, but is more recently associated with country music. Today you can hear all genres of music in the variety of venues in the city, from the back-street honky-tonks to the newly constructed Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Take a free dance lesson at the Wild Horse Saloon, tour the Country Music Hall of Fame and RCA’s Studio B. Visit the Grand Ole Opry, the world's longest running radio show and a recommended highlight, and also the Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry. 

Stay two nights in a hotel in Nashville

Drive to Muscle Shoals, approx. 125 miles

‘The Shoals’, as the area is known, is a cluster of cities bursting with musical talent – Tuscumbia, Florence, Sheffield and Muscle Shoals. Visit the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in Tuscumbia which showcases some of the state’s famous music icons, and the Muscle Shoals Sounds Studio and FAME Recording Studio, used frequently by superstars like Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon and Otis Redding. Both studios are active recording studios but are open for public tours (check ahead for visiting times).

Stay two nights in the Muscle Shoals area

Memphis is renowned as the ‘Home of the Blues’ and the ‘Birthplace of Rock ’n’ Roll’. Visit 'Graceland', the home of Elvis Presley, Sun Studio which opened in 1950 and a place where many great names have passed through, as well as the Stax Museum of American Soul and the Memphis Rock ’n’ Soul Museum. Outside of music, you may also like to pay a visit to the National Civil Rights Museum located in the former Lorraine Hotel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Spend your evenings on Beale Street, where W.C. Handy first penned the Blues music of the Mississippi Delta. Stretching for several blocks, you can enjoy bars, nightclubs and restaurants offering a variety of food and live music, including traditional Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Jazz and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Be sure to hear live Blues at BB King’s or Rum Boogie Café.

 

Stay three nights in the Memphis area 

Head south on Highway 61 – The Blues Highway. Clarksdale is in the heart of the Delta and has a rich Blues heritage. Names like Muddy Waters, Charley Patton and Robert Johnson dot the musical landscape here, and their legacies continue to inspire and entertain millions of people worldwide.

Visit the site of Stovall Plantation where McKinley Morganfield, aka, Muddy Waters was raised and discovered by folklorist Alan Lomax who recorded him for the Library of Congress in 1941. Muddy Water's cabin is now housed inside the Delta Blues Museum at the train depot in downtown at Blues Alley. 

Stay two nights in the Clarksdale area

Continue south on Highway 61 to Vicksburg, which sits on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, and the setting of a bloody 47 day siege during the Civil War. Vicksburg is also the place where Coca-Cola was first bottled, a fact that is happily immortalized at the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum.

The head east to Jackson – the capital of Mississippi, known as the ‘City with Soul’. Visit the superb Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and points on the Mississippi Freedom Trail that runs through the city, encompassing a number of historic sites that were significant in the Civil Rights Movement. Jackson also boasts a vibrant music scene and places throughout the city where you can find live music, as well as a range of dining options, from small ‘mom and pop’ restaurants to nationally renowned chefs. 

Stay two nights in the Jackson area

Take the scenic Natchez Trace Parkway - one of America’s top 10 National Park is historic route through some beautiful countryside with places to hike or just take in the view. Tupelo is Elvis’ birthplace, and where he lived for the first 13 years of his life. You can not only visit the Birthplace, but also Tupelo Hardware, where Elvis’ mother Gladys bought his first guitar, or the award-winning Elvis Presley Museum. You can enjoy authentic local shopping and dining, visit the Tupelo Buffalo Park or one of the area’s Civil War sites.

Stay two nights in Tupelo

Enjoy your final night of RV’ing in this peaceful state park, convenient for your drive back to Nashville on your last day. Three lakes are nestled into the 3,850-acre park and provide visitors the opportunity to soak up the sun, swim and paddle in the calm waters. There is also a golf-course, hiking trails and bird watching points.

Stay one night in Montgomery Bell State Park

Fly from Nashville back to the UK