Battlefields & Blues - The Deep South Road Trip

Eleven nights from Atlanta to New Orleans, self-guided, through the Civil War battlefields, the civil rights sites and the blues.

Three subjects run through this one and the itinerary gives each of them proper time rather than driving past. The history in particular is handled as history: these are battlefields, a plantation and a motel balcony, not attractions.

Atlanta opens it for two nights at the Waldorf Astoria Buckhead, with the Center for Civil and Human Rights, Martin Luther King’s birth home and the Coca-Cola museum. Nashville follows for two by way of Chickamauga, one of the bloodiest battles of the war in 1863, with a private guided day, the Country Music Hall of Fame, RCA Studio B, a distillery and an evening at the Grand Ole Opry. Memphis comes next for two, reached by Carnton and the Franklin battlefield and Shiloh National Military Park, with the Lorraine Motel and the National Civil Rights Museum, Graceland, Stax and Sun Studio. Natchez follows for a night, then the Blues Trail by Clarksdale and the BB King Museum at Indianola, and Breaux Bridge for two in Cajun country.

A mid-range hire car for twelve days, room-only accommodation, a full day’s private guiding in Nashville, a private guided boat trip in the bayou and a cooking class are included; flights, meals, entrance fees and gratuities are not. The Natchez inn has a minimum age of 21. The price shown is per person sharing. Spring and autumn are the seasons, since the Gulf states in high summer are hot and humid. Twelve days covering this much ground means some long legs, but the two-night stays keep it from becoming a procession.