Mardi Gras in New Orleans plus Nashville & Elvis Presley's Memphis

Upon arrival in Atlanta you will met by your Tour Director and transferred to the hotel in Montgomery, Alabama for an overnight stay.

We travel south through Alabama and Mississippi and on to New Orleans, Louisiana for a four-night stay.

Spend the evening at leisure soaking up the vibrant atmosphere of the historic French Quarter, the city’s oldest neighbourhood. Enjoy a stroll along the famous Bourbon Street, listening to the infectious sounds of the Dixieland rhythms, which spill out onto the streets.

Happy Mardi Gras! Today is free for you to enjoy the finale of carnival season with New Orleans' most famous event.

Mardi Gras is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’ and always takes place on Shrove Tuesday. Attended by hundreds of people from across the world, Mardi Gras is all about the music, parades, costumes and atmosphere. Be sure to catch the many beads, trinkets and doubloons thrown from the passing floats. Your Tour Director will provide information on the best areas to be during this fantastic day. Please note: the city is expected to be very busy today.

Spend a further day at leisure in New Orleans or alternatively, why not join our optional New Orleans city tour and Oak Alley Plantation visit?

Our guide will take us on a panoramic city tour where you will be introduced to the history and culture of one of America’s greatest and most beautiful cities. We see the French Quarter, St. Louis Cemetery, City Park and the historic Garden District.

We then continue to Oak Alley plantation, built in 1839 to grow sugarcane and located on the west bank of the Mississippi River. It is aptly named due to its 800ft long alley which has a canopy created by a double row of Southern Live Oak trees, a native species to the south-eastern United States.

This evening, there will be the opportunity to join our optional jazz dinner cruise aboard a paddle wheeler on the world-famous Mississippi River. Enjoy panoramic views of New Orleans’ skyline whilst listening to a lively jazz band.

Spend another day at leisure in New Orleans, or join us on our optional Jazz Brunch and Swamp Tour.

Enjoy a scrumptious array of hot and cold dishes at the famous Court of Two Sisters restaurant, accompanied by the sound of gentle music played by the jazz trio, which adds to the ambience. The restaurant is in a lovely setting, with most seating in a large French Quarter courtyard dominated by an enormous wisteria.

Later, we head down to the swamp to experience the rich wildlife of this region. View fascinating plant life, see exotic flora and fauna, live alligators and many other wild creatures, as your swamp boat floats leisurely beneath cypress trees covered in Spanish moss.

Today, we leave Louisiana to travel to Memphis, Tennessee for a two-night stay, visiting Tupelo en route.

The city of Tupelo is famous as the place where Elvis Presley was born and is now the site of the Elvis Presley Birthplace Complex. Here you will have free time to visit the museum which displays Tupelo artifacts, and the tiny, two-roomed house in which Elvis was born on 8th January 1935 (admission is extra, paid locally.) The building stands in its original location and has been restored to its original condition, decorated with period furniture.

The actual building of the church that Elvis attended with his family is also located at this site, moved here from its original location for visitors to see and enjoy the story of Elvis’s childhood and first music.

We continue to Memphis, home to the blues and birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll. You will have the opportunity to enjoy some good old-fashioned southern hospitality in this vibrant city.

This evening, why not venture to famous Beale Street? With jazz clubs, bars, eateries and street entertainers, it’s a great place to soak up the atmosphere, take in the live music and enjoy fantastic food – especially the spare ribs, for which Memphis is so famous.

A day at leisure in Memphis. Known as the home of the Blues, and birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll, you’ll have the opportunity to enjoy some good old-fashioned southern hospitality in this vibrant city.

Alternatively, why not join our fantastic optional Graceland and Sounds of the South excursion.

First we visit the famous Graceland, Elvis Presley’s mansion, where you can join an audio tour which will guide you around the house and the grounds, including the Jungle Room, Pool Room and Music Room, plus the Hall of Gold and Racquetball building, ending at the Meditation Garden, which was one of Elvis’ favourite places and one he used for relaxation and reflection.

Then it's onto the National Civil Rights Museum where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated (entrance not included).

Finally we visit Sun Studio, where you can hear outtakes from recording sessions, touch Elvis' first microphone, see loads of memorabilia, hear how Elvis came to record there and the story of the studio that launched the careers of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and many more, including, more recently, Irish rock band U2 and Maroon 5.

We travel to ‘Music City’, Nashville for a two-night stay. The city is known the world over as the birthplace of country music. However, Nashville is also a thriving hub for visual arts, theatre, film, fashion, local food and products for you to explore and enjoy.

Spend the day at leisure in Nashville, or join our optional excursion.

First, we visit the undisputed home of country music, Studio B – your chance to visit the most famous recording studio in America, where incredible artists like Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton and the Everly Brothers have laid down their much-loved music tracks. You can even sit at the piano which Elvis used on many of his tracks – a 1942 Steinway which has not left the room since the studio opened in 1957.

Then it’s on to Nashville where you will see all the landmarks of the city within historic Downtown Nashville: Fort Nashborough; the State Capitol; the Parthenon; Vanderbilt University; and Ryman Auditorium.

The tour will also feature a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame, with exhibitions spread over two floors in an impressive building, the windows of which represent the keys on a piano, the round discs symbolising the different sized records and CDs on which country music has been recorded, and, from the air, the building is the shape of a bass clef. The corner of the building represents a 1950s cadillac tail fin.

After free time to explore the city of Nashville, we visit a local shopping mall for some US-style retail therapy. This evening, why not head into the city?

Depart Nashville and head to Chattanooga, synonymous with the famous train and song, for a short visit before continuing to Atlanta airport for the overnight return flight.

Arrival in the U.K.