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This Itinerary Begins With You

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The Deep South Luxury Travel: A Sample Itinerary

Days 1 - 3

Your Southern journey begins in New Orleans, where French colonial heritage, Creole culture, and jazz music create America's most distinctive cultural melting pot.

Your first day explores the French Quarter's historic streets laid out in 1718, where jazz spills from clubs on Bourbon Street and Cajun dinner introduces you to Louisiana's unique culinary fusion of French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean influences. Day two ventures into the Garden District's antebellum mansions and Lafayette Cemetery, established in 1833, followed by streetcar rides on lines operating since 1835 and Creole lunch showcasing the complex cultural heritage that defines New Orleans. Your third day offers a bayou boat tour through Louisiana's wetlands or visits to River Road plantations that reveal the complicated history of the antebellum South and its sugar economy.

Days 4 - 7

The middle portion of your journey traces America's musical heritage from Memphis blues to Nashville country, exploring the cultural roots that shaped American popular music.

Your fourth day travels to Memphis, where Beale Street has been the heart of blues music since the early 1900s, and Sun Studio, the "Birthplace of Rock 'n' Roll" where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis recorded their first hits in the 1950s. Day five explores Graceland, Elvis's mansion that opened as a museum in 1982, and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The sixth day drives through Mississippi Delta blues country, visiting juke joints and learning about the musical traditions that emerged from cotton plantations and influenced American culture worldwide. Your seventh day arrives in Nashville, country music's capital since the 1920s, exploring Music Row's recording studios and attending the Grand Ole Opry, America's longest-running radio show since 1925.

Days 8 - 12

Your final days journey through Appalachian mountains to the Carolina coast, where Revolutionary War history and antebellum architecture complete your exploration of Southern heritage.

Day eight explores Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame, Broadway's honky-tonk clubs, and Nashville hot chicken, the spicy local specialty that originated at Prince's Hot Chicken Shack in the 1930s. Your ninth day offers an optional mountain detour to Chattanooga's Lookout Mountain, site of Civil War battles, or Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains, heart of Appalachian craft culture. The tenth day arrives in Charleston, founded in 1670 and preserved as one of America's most architecturally significant cities, with walks through the historic district and Waterfront Park.

The following day includes a ferry to Fort Sumter, where the Civil War began in 1861, followed by afternoon visits to Magnolia or Boone Hall plantations that illustrate the complex legacy of the antebellum South. Your twelfth and final day features a trip to Savannah, founded in 1733 with its famous squares designed by James Oglethorpe, where Spanish moss-draped oaks and cobbled streets create the perfect farewell to Southern charm and hospitality.

BEST TIME

TAILORED TRIPS

from £2500 pp, per night

New Orleans - Memphis - Nashville - Charleston

Days 1 - 3

New Orleans & Beyond

Days 4 - 7

Musical Heritage

Days 8 - 12

History in the Streets

Trip Highlights

Stroll New Orleans’ French Quarter and ride streetcars past Creole mansions, where jazz, gumbo, and bayou life define the city’s soul.

Trace blues roots on Memphis’s Beale Street and visit Graceland and the Lorraine Motel, where music and civil rights history converge.

Drive the Mississippi Delta to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, experiencing the soundtracks that shaped American identity.

Explore Appalachian peaks or Blue Ridge towns, discovering mountain culture, Civil War sites, and sweeping Southern landscapes.

Wander Charleston’s historic harbor and Savannah’s moss-draped squares, where colonial charm and antebellum elegance bring the journey full circle.

Day 1

Dive into America's most enchanting city, where jazz rhythms, Creole magic, and centuries of sultry history create an intoxicating cultural cocktail unlike anywhere else on earth.

Day one plunges you into the legendary French Quarter, where wrought-iron balconies dripping with Spanish moss and tropical flowers overlook cobblestone streets that have witnessed three centuries of revelry, tragedy, and rebirth. Founded in 1718 by French colonists in the steamy Louisiana bayous, this remarkably preserved Vieux Carré pulses with the creative energy that gave birth to jazz music in the early 1900s—a revolutionary sound born from the explosive fusion of African rhythms, Caribbean beats, and European melodies in the neighborhood's infamous dance halls and brothels.

Bourbon Street comes alive after dark with brass bands and blues musicians carrying on traditions established by legends like Jelly Roll Morton and Buddy Bolden, while the aromatic symphony of Creole and Cajun cuisine—from spicy jambalaya and buttery crawfish étouffee to powdered sugar-dusted beignets—reflects the city's complex cultural heritage spanning French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean influences.

Days 2 - 4

Days two through four delve deeper into New Orleans' mystical neighborhoods and haunting history, revealing layers of culture that make this city America's most European and Caribbean destination.

Your second day explores the elegant Garden District, where magnificent antebellum mansions built by wealthy Americans in the 1840s showcase Greek Revival and Victorian architecture along oak-shaded streets draped in Spanish moss, creating an almost fairy-tale atmosphere of Southern Gothic romance. These palatial homes, including the famous Buckner Mansion from "American Horror Story," tell stories of cotton fortunes and sugar wealth built on plantation labor. Continue to the haunting St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, established in 1789, where above-ground tombs necessitated by the below-sea-level location create a mesmerizing "city of the dead" that includes the supposed resting place of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, whose grave still draws pilgrims leaving offerings and scrawling X marks seeking her supernatural intervention.

Day three immerses you deeper in the French Quarter's hidden corners, from the bustling French Market operating since the 1790s where vendors sell everything from Creole spices to handmade pralines, to intimate jazz clubs like Preservation Hall where traditional New Orleans jazz is performed nightly in a timeless setting that transports you back to the music's golden age. Your fourth day explores the trendy Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods, where colorful Creole cottages house artists, musicians, and young professionals who've breathed new life into these historic areas while maintaining their authentic neighborhood character, culminating with sunset cocktails on the Mississippi River levee as massive cargo ships navigate the muddy waters that connect New Orleans to the world.

Days 5 - 6

The final days reveal New Orleans' spiritual mysteries and culinary mastery, showcasing why this sultry city captivates visitors with its unique blend of hedonism and history.

Day five dives into New Orleans' legendary supernatural side with guided tours through the city's most haunted locations, from the LaLaurie Mansion on Royal Street—site of horrific 19th-century atrocities—to atmospheric above-ground cemeteries where Voodoo practitioners still perform rituals combining African spirituality with Catholic traditions. Learn about the city's complex relationship with death and the afterlife while sipping hurricanes in dimly lit bars that have served locals and visitors for generations.

Your sixth day provides the perfect culinary finale with cooking classes learning to prepare authentic Creole and Cajun dishes like gumbo, red beans and rice, and bread pudding with whiskey sauce, followed by a final evening in the French Quarter where live jazz spills from every doorway, street performers entertain crowds with magic and music, and the intoxicating atmosphere of America's most hedonistic city provides an unforgettable farewell to this place where every moment feels like a celebration of life's most sensual pleasures.

BEST TIME

TAILORED TRIPS

from £2500 pp, per night

Discover New Orleans

Day 1

The Big Easy

Days 2 - 4

Spirituality & Culture

Days 5 - 6

A Culinary Finale

Trip Highlights

Wander the French Quarter’s cobblestone streets and wrought-iron balconies, where jazz was born and Creole flavors like jambalaya and beignets steal the show.

Step into Southern Gothic grandeur in the Garden District, then visit St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 to find the tomb of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau.

Dive deeper into the French Market’s sensory bustle, then feel the soul of the city at Preservation Hall’s live jazz performances.

Discover the bohemian spirit of Marigny and Bywater, where colorful cottages, local art, and sunset cocktails on the levee meet.

End with a Creole cooking class, learning gumbo and bread pudding before a final night where live jazz spills into the streets of the French Quarter.

This Itinerary Begins With You

The Deep South Luxury Travel: A Sample Itinerary

Days 1 - 3

Days 4 - 7

Days 8 - 12

New Orleans - Memphis - Nashville - Charleston

Days 1 - 3

New Orleans & Beyond

Days 4 - 7

Musical Heritage

Days 8 - 12

History in the Streets

Trip Highlights

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