Day One
Arrive at New Orleans International Airport and transfer to your hotel in New Orleans, The Astor Crowne Plaza. In the evening enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of this unique city. The American art form known as jazz inspired such world-renowned local musicians as Louis Armstrong who transformed it into the heartbeat of the city where “the good times roll”. You will hear jazz everywhere – on street corners, traditional funeral processions, the Preservation Hall, and in the numerous clubs, and hotel lounges dotted through-out this wonderful vibrant city.

Day Two
Explore New Orleans including the US Mint Jazz Museum, Jackson Square, Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. No other city in America can boast such intrigue or romance

Day Three
Spend more time getting to know the Big Easy and its many sights and – more importantly – sounds. You might choose to take a steamboat trip along the Mississippi or you might decide to sample the city’s Creole cuisine; New Orleans is also famous for its food.

Day Four
You last day in New Orleans. Perhaps by now you’ll have some favourite jazz clubs to go back to or, more likely, you’ll still have a lot to see. Visit the Gallier House, Lake Pontchartrain and Mardi Gras World where the famous festival floats are made.

Day Five
Pick up your hire car and drive across swampy Louisiana to Lafayette, capital of the French-speaking Cajun South and home to Cajun and zydeco music. Go in search of the Cajun way of life at Vermilionville or hone your dance moves at a local club.

Day Six
A full day in Lafayette to explore this sleepy, Southern town where music and dancing are part of everyday life. Go to a Cajun jam session or visit one of the many nearby antebellum plantation houses.

Day Seven
From Lafayette head north into Mississippi to Natchez, a cotton centre and once the richest town in the US. Natchez is still dripping in antebellum finery; explore the many plantation houses and indulge in some of the best restaurants on this tour.

Day Eight
This extra day in Natchez will allow you to explore a little further afield; go in search of the some of the most impressive plantation grounds and houses in the South amid the cotton fields around Natchez. Or you could investigate the cool ‘Under-the-Hill’ district, once described by Mark Twain as home to the roughest bars on the Mississippi River but now a trendy row of bars and restaurants.

Day Nine
Drive to Jackson, state capital of Mississippi. You have one night here to explore Farish Street, where the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson II and Robert Johnson were discovered, and the city’s many blues clubs.

Day Ten
Leave Jackson and head across the Delta to Greenville, putting you as deep in the Delta blues as you can get. On the way you might want to use our ‘Deep Delta Guide’ to find the graves of Charley Patton, Robert Johnson and others as well as a series of key blues landmarks. You’ll have one night to explore the juke-joints of Greenville’s Nelson and Walnut Streets or to try your luck in one of the town’s many casinos.

Day Eleven
Drive north along Highway 61 – the ‘Blues Highway’ – through the Delta to Clarksdale, America’s most significant blues town. On the way you might want to use our ‘Deep Delta Guide’ to find Dockery Plantation where Charley Patton defined the Delta blues. Clarksdale is America’s most significant blues town. Illustrious one-time Clarksdale residents include John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Ike Turner.

Day Twelve
A full day to get to know Clarksdale. Visit the outstanding Delta Blues Museum and drive out to Stovall Plantation where Muddy Waters grew up. This evening you might tour the town’s many ‘juke-joints’ – authentic blues bars – or you could dine at Hollywood star and local Morgan Freeman’s restaurant.

Day Thirteen
Continue north along the ‘Blues Highway’ to Memphis, the place where blues came of age and where rock & roll was born. We recommend you park the car at your centrally-located hotel and walk over to Beale Street for a night of great music. Beale Street was a key arena in which bluesmen from BB King to Howlin’ Wolf made their names. BB King’s Blues Club is now one of Beale Street’s best clubs.

Day Fourteen
A full day to explore Memphis. Tour Graceland and Sun Studios or visit the exceptional Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum in the new Gibson Guitar factory. Here you’ll learn about the incredible contribution Memphis has made to blues, soul and gospel music.
Optional extras include a half-day tour of Memphis’s music sights in a 1955 ‘pecos-biege’ Cadillac – Elvis’s favourite! - and tickets to Graceland.

Day Fifteen
Another full day in Memphis – you’ll find it easy to fill your time. Drive out to the Full Gospel Tabernacle where Al Green is the resident preacher or explore the city’s many musical sites. You might choose to visit the National Civil Rights Museum housed in the old Lorraine Motel, the place where Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated. It’s one the most moving and insightful museums in the States.

Day Sixteen
Your last day in Memphis and your last chance to roam Beale Street and explore the city’s many great restaurants and attractions. Head over to Mud Island to see the ‘Memphis Belle’ bomber aircraft and the amazing scale model of the lower basin of the Mississippi River – a perfect reprise of your trip! This evening you want to find your way to Wild Bill’s, one of the coolest but most hidden blues bars in town.

Day Seventeen
Go east from Memphis to Nashville, ‘Music City USA’, home of country music and some of America’s biggest recording companies. Trawl the outstanding music venues of Second and Broadway or head out to the Grand Ole Opry, the ‘church’ of country music.

Day Eighteen
A full day to explore Nashville. Visit the famous Ryman Auditorium, the new Country Music Hall of Fame or RCA’s Studio ‘B’ where Elvis Presley recorded over 200 of his best-loved hits. Or you might choose to wander Music Row hoping – like thousands before you – to be ‘spotted’ by a talent scout!

Day Nineteen
Head north along Highway 61 – the ‘Blues Highway’ – through the lush farmland of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri to Cape Girardeau, an attractive and laid-back stopover en route to St Louis.

Day Twenty
Continue along that ol’ ‘Blues Highway’ to St Louis, America’s great ‘gateway city’. Check in at your hotel then spend the evening roaming the funky Soulard district, home to one of the best blues scenes in the US. Look out for local legends Henry Townsend and Johnnie Johnson.

Day Twenty one
A day in St Louis. Ride to the top of the amazing 630-foot Gateway Arch which dominates the city’s skyline. Then visit Scott Joplin’s House where the ragtime innovator penned such hits as ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ and ‘The Entertainer’.

Day Twenty two
One more day in St Louis giving you time to leave the music landmarks to explore some of this great city’s more mainstream attractions like the superb art galleries, parks and the eccentric City Museum. St Louis is a major city and one which has a great deal to offer visitors. Or you might choose to use this ‘extra’ day to relax before hitting the road again.

Day Twenty three
You’ll know you’ve left the South far behind you as you drive on into the cooler, faster world of the American Midwest. But before you reach the next major city, Davenport, stop over at quaint Fort Madison, a taste of peaceful, rural, small-town America. Enjoy the exceptional views across the ‘Great Bend’ in the Mississippi River to Illinois.

Day Twenty four
Follow Highway 61 as it weaves alongside the mighty Mississippi River to Davenport, Iowa. Here jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke took up the cornet after hearing Louis Armstrong’s sound drifting across the river from a steamboat where he played with Fate Marable’s orchestra.
Optional extras include a Bix tour of Davenport.

Day Twenty five
Drive across the Great Plains of the Midwest to Chicago, the place where jazz and blues really came of age and the last stop on your epic journey along the Blues Highway. After the drive you might want to head into the Loop for some Italian-American cooking or to a soul food joint for ‘smothered pork and beans’.

Day Twenty six
Your first full day in the Windy City. Where do you start? You could focus on the South Side’s many blues landmarks like Muddy Waters’s house and the Checkerboard Lounge or you could head for the mainstream attractions like the lakeshore or Navy Pier.

Day Twenty seven
Chicago is a vast city and even with three full days you’ll come away feeling that you still had a lot to see. Perhaps head down to the South Side for a gospel church service at the Pilgrim Baptist Church – the place where Mahalia Jackson and Tom Dorsey defined modern gospel music. Or you could check out Maxwell Street, Chicago’s great blues thoroughfare.

Day Twenty eight
This is the your last day on America’s music trail. Spend the day checking out the Loop and some of Chicago’s great museums before a night on the town. Choose between the North Side with its world-famous blues venues or head down to Buddy Guy’s club. Then there’s the South Side with clubs like Lee’s Unleaded where raw electric blues pounds night after night.

Day Twenty nine
Spend the morning last minute shopping or relaxing before transferring to the airport to catch your flight home.

Package Includes:

• 28 nights accommodation and tax
• A travel packet with itinerary, maps, suggestions, brochures

Not Included:

• Flights to and from the UK
• Meals unless mentioned

Total mileage - 1860 miles

2008 Costing*

*Rates shown are per person

 Please contact us for more information.