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Next door is the Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the USA. It features more animals than any other aquarium in more than ten million gallons of water.
Across the street is a great place to relax, the Atlanta Centennial Olympic Park. The Fountain of Rings is the centerpiece and is one of the most recognised and photographed landmarks in Georgia. It’s free to view the Fountain of Rings show,which plays four times a day, 365 days a year.
Minutes from the park is CNN Headquarters. Journey into the heart of CNN Worldwide for an exciting glimpse of news and broadcasting in action. The Inside CNN Studio Tour takes you behind the scenes of the Global Headquarters of CNN in Atlanta. Advance reservations are highly recommended.
Next visit the Margaret Mitchell House a turn of the century, three-story, Tudor revival building which features a guided tour of the apartment where the author wrote Gone With the Wind.
Distance: 220 miles
Before departing Atlanta you’ll certainly want to drive to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site where you can learn about Dr. King's life and his influence on others.This afternoon we recommend a drive through Cades Cove, a 6,800-acre valley found in the Smoky Mountains National Park. Here you will find a 4,000 open acre area to observe diverse wildlife, nineteenth century historic buildings including churches and pioneer log cabins.
Distance: 310 miles
Instead of driving directly to Nashville, we suggest a detour through some lovely areas of middle Tennessee and make a stop in the quaint village of Lynchburg, TN, which also happens to be the home of the Jack Daniels Distillery. All the Jack Daniels bourbon distributed throughout the worlds comes from here. You can take the free tour of the Jack Daniel’s Distillery in little Lynchburg (where alcohol cannot be sold or consumed, since it is dry county, except the State of TN Legislature passed a special law allowing them to sell only one special bottle of Jack Daniels).We recommend a lunch stop in downtown Lynchburg at their quaint small town square. Then drive on to Shelbyville which is home country for Tennessee Walking Horses. If you love horses, then you must stop at Waterfall Farms, 2395 Highway 64 E, Shelbyville, TN 37160, where you can take a free tour and see these magnificent horses. Continue to Nashville and check-in at your hotel.
Tonight you will attend a performance of the Grand Ole Opry. Showcasing the best in country, blue grass and more the Opry is an American experience like no other. Immediately after the show you will be assembled and taken on a private backstage tour of the Opry House, which is the place where the magic has happened for more than 35 years. Overnight Nashville.
Distance: 129 miles
This morning depart for Tuscumbia, in the Muscle Shoals area of north Alabama. Just outside of Nashville, the Old Tennessee Trail is waiting for you. A scenic drive as rich in history as it is in fresh air, gentle rolling hills, and down-home charm. Get a glimpse of the original Tennessee, a time when Native Americans hunted on this land, and later found themselves nose to nose with the settlers arriving to lay claim to the Revolutionary War land grants they would shape into homesteads and farmlands. In Springhill you can tour Rippavilla Plantation home built in the 1850’s. In Columbia you can tour US President James K. Polk’s home.Arrive Tuscumbia mid afternoon in time to tour the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, a wonderful hidden gem that few tourists find. At this time there are 32 Inductees to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. The Popular Music section is the beginning of the main exhibit hall. It is marked by a 12 foot jukebox playing pop, classical and opera tunes by Alabamians. The tour continues through a 16 foot guitar into the Country Music section and to more showcases of personal memorabilia. Then you enter the Muscle Shoals section, which highlights the studios that made Northwest Alabama world famous. A video recaps the history of the Shoals music industry. The newest addition to the museum exhibits features the Songwriters of Alabama. The Wurlitzer jukebox provides hundreds of chart topping songs by Alabama songwriters. Billy Sherrill composer of Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man anchors one end of the exhibit while Curly Putman, who gave us Green,Green Grass of Home and He Stopped Loving Her Today anchors the other side.
Next enjoy a private tour of Fame Recording Studio, the heartbeat of the Muscle Shoals sound. FAME Music was established in 1959 in Florence, Alabama and has gone on to be the heartbeat of the Muscle Shoals Sound FAME has worked in the studio with some of the greatest artists in Rock music history. Artists such as Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Otis Redding, the Osmonds, and many others. Check-in to your hotel. Overnight Tuscumbia/Muscle Shoals Area.
Distance: 275 miles
This morning depart for Memphis, along the beautiful Natchez Trace Parkway which stretches from the Mississippi River in Natchez through the Shoals area in Alabama and across the Tennessee Valley to Nashville. The 444-mile National Scenic Byway and All-American Road has emerged as one of America's most important examples of natural and cultural heritage. Administered by the National Park Service, the road's non-commercial environment coupled with a wide variety of historic sites, wayside exhibits and beautiful venues make it a memorable destination for an unhurried trip that both reveals and explains a unique time in America's history.Next we suggest you eat lunch at the legendary FourwayGrill, rarely found by tourists, and it services the tastiest soul food in town.
Next stop is Sun Studio, which is the birthplace of Rock'n'Roll. Today the studio, where Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Rufus Thomas, Howlin' Wolf, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and many others launched their careers, is open to the public for tours daily while still operating as a studio by night.
This afternoon tour the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Soulsville is a 17,000-square-foot museum on the original site of Stax Records and houses more than 2,000 cultural artifacts, celebrating the music made famous by Otis Redding, Booker T. and the MGs, Isaac Hayes, the Bar-Kays, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Earth, Wind & Fire and more. In addition to Stax music and memorabilia, you’ll also find exhibits dedicated to the artists of Muscle Shoals, Motown, Atlantic and Memphis’ own Hi Records. Tonight is the last night in Memphis and the last opportunity of enjoying the live music on Beale Street. Overnight Memphis.
Distance: 128 miles
Today depart for Greenwood, but first drive-by the National Civil Rights Museum and see where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Leave Memphis on the famous Highway 61, known as America’s Blues Alley where your first stop is in Clarksdale. From the 30's on through the 50's Clarksdale was a major blues town. John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, Little Junior Parker and Sam Cooke were born here. We suggest you visit the old train station and the Delta Blues Museum. Next door is the Ground Zero restaurant & bar owned by the famous actor, Morgan Freeman.Arrive in Greenwood and drive to a nearby juke joint. For much of the last century, juke joints were the main night spots for rural blacks. In the Delta of northwest Mississippi juke joints were condemned by preachers as the houses of the devil, but they offered welcome relief from drudgery. Touring these clubs in the early 20th century, men like Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson pioneered the blues as a seminal art form. Overnight Greenwood.
Distance: 174 miles
Today continue through the rich Delta farmland to the famous river city of Natchez. En route stop in Vicksburg and tour the Old Courthouse Museum, Vicksburg's most historic building, constructed by slaves in 1858, has hosted such great Americans as Jefferson Davis, Theodore Roosevelt, John Breckinridge, Booker T. Washington, William McKinley, and U.S. Grant.Distance: 134 miles
This morning depart for Lafayette, but first tour the beautiful antebellum home, Monmouth Plantation. Monmouth is listed as a National Historic Landmark. A 'Breathtaking beauty' marks both the 'lovely grounds' and 'magnificent' 1818 Greek Revival estate, built by John Hankinson in 1818, Monmouth was purchased by General John A. Quitman, a hero of the Mexican War, in 1826 and remained in his family for nearly a century.Distance: 168 miles
Today you depart for New Orleans. En route to New Orleans drive through Cajun back country and make a stop at Avery Island and tour the one and only original, Tabasco Factory. Your next stop will be near Houma for a Cajun Man’s Swamp Cruise operated by a real Cajun character, Black Guidry, who is not only a singer, but a former army green beret and Louisiana state trooper. Just before you get to New Orleans and as you drive along river road, stop and tour Oak Alley Plantation Home. Located on the Mississippi River between the historic Louisiana cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Oak Alley Plantation has been called the Grande Dame of the Great River Road. Nowhere else in the south will you find such a spectacular setting. The quarter-mile canopy of giant live oak trees, believed to be nearly 300 years old, forms an impressive avenue leading to the classic Greek-revival style antebellum home.
Then continue onto New Orleans and check-in to your downtown / French Quarter hotel. Tonight is free to explore the famous French Quarter. At the heart of New Orleans' enduring allure are the hundred-odd squares of the French Quarter. Alive with history, myth, music and a joie de vivre, the Vieux Carre attracts visitors from around the world to its time worn streets. Overnight New Orleans.
This afternoon is free for you to further explore the French Quarter and for Duty Free shopping. Tonight have a wonderful experience with the New Orleans Steamboat Dinner Jazz Cruise on the mighty Mississippi River. It is one of the last remaining authentic steam driven paddle wheelers featuring live jazz music by the Grammy nominated Dukes of Dixieland Band. Overnight New Orleans.
Distance: 308 miles
This morning depart for Montgomery, Alabama and check-in to your hotel. This afternoon take a tour of the Hank Williams Museum, the Hank Williams statue and the Hank Williams gravesite. The Hank Williams Museum houses the most complete collection of Hank Williams' Memorabilia. Over 35 Showcases filled with personal artifacts, Signed Programs And Books, Sheet Music, Song Books, and more. There are 4 sterling records, albums, 78 RPM records, 45 RPM records, 16 Inch records and Box Sets, lyrics to Men With Broken Hearts, plus autographed records, platinum records, awards and proclamations. Overnight Montgomery.Distance: 186 miles
Before departing Montgomery this morning tour the Dexter Ave King Memorial Baptist Church, which is the church where Dr. Martin Luther, King, Jr. pastored from 1954-1960 and began his quest for civil rights. In this National Historic Landmark, see the modest pulpit where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. first preached his message of hope and brotherhood. This church was also a centerpoint of the Montgomery bus boycott. A large mural in the church depicts King’s civil rights crusade from Montgomery to Memphis.Call the USA travel experts at Bon Voyage to discuss your perfect Ultimate Music and Heritage Tour of the Deep South.