Bluegrass And Blue Ridges: Louisville To Nashville

Depart the UK on your chosen flight to Louisville. A transfer is included from Louisville International Airport to The Brown Hotel, a landmark in the heart of downtown Louisville near the theatre district. Since 1923, this gracious hotel has entertained celebrities and dignitaries with its opulence, charm, and impeccable Southern hospitality, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. A welcome reception and dinner is held at the hotel this evening.

Drive to Federal Hill, the inspiration for Stephen Foster’s “My Old Kentucky Home,” for a tour of the lovely mansion and gardens. After lunch, enjoy a guided tour and tasting at the Makers Mark Distillery, famous for its Kentucky bourbon. Spend the evening as you wish in Louisville.

Get the inside track about the Kentucky Derby on a Tauck Exclusive tour of the Starting Gate Suites at Churchill Downs. Meet a professional jockey who shares stories about the track’s history and daily operation while the horses take their morning exercise and later this afternoon visit a working horse farm. Tonight, enjoy an exclusive “Bluegrass” evening with dinner and a live band.

Once you’ve stood at the Cumberland Gap you’ll never forget it. You’re standing at the first frontier, the first gateway to the west. Off the beaten pathway, it was a break in the Appalachian Mountains that provided a gateway to the west for migrating buffalo herds, American Indian tribes, and restless pioneers – including Daniel Boone, who blazed a trail known as the Wilderness Road here in 1775. And today you will join that long list of travellers when you pass through the gap yourself. Explore its rich history and cultural currents at a private presentation at the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park visitors’ centre. The park also features unique geologic sandstone formations, magnificent underground caverns, and restored log cabins from an early 20th-century pioneer settlement. Next, its on to Asheville, North Carolina, where your accommodation is both historic and gracious, exemplifying the best of Southern hospitality. Asheville has emerged as one of America’s top culinary destinations – a ‘foodie haven’ with many new twists on traditional southern cuisine.

Back in 1895 George Vanderbilt II, grandson of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, decided to build himself ‘a little mountain escape’ in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. The result was the Biltmore Estate, a fabulous 250-room French château for which he employed architect Richard Morris Hunt for the castle design and Frederick Law Olmsted (the designer of Central Park) to lay out the woodlands and formal gardens. You’ll have an opportunity to learn more about this magnificent estate on tours of both the estate grounds and through the mansion itself. See Antler Hill Village, a town built to house the employees who worked on the estate and tended its crops and livestock. After lunch on the estate, return to Asheville where the remainder of the day is free to spend as you please.

Today you’ll experience one of the most beautiful, and one of the oldest, places on Earth – Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the US. Historically, it is known as a place of refuge; the fascinating story of its creation includes the heroic efforts of Horace Kephart, George Masa and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Ecologically, it is one of the world’s best examples of a deciduous hardwood forest – a UNESCO World Heritage Site with one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, it is dedicated as an international biosphere reserve. Scenically, the grandeur and beauty of the Southern Appalachians is at its very core – from mist-shrouded mountains with their wide range of elevations to fresh streams and miles of forests; it is the very definition of the word ‘vista’. In Cherokee, North Carolina, you’ll explore 19th-century wilderness settlement life with period interpreters at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park visitors’ centre. You’ll also visit the Museum of the Cherokee Indian for a guided tour and exclusive private viewing of its archival collection of artefacts. A catered private lunch at the museum includes samples of traditional Cherokee flavours and is accompanied by a Cherokee flute musician. You arrive into Knoxville late afternoon.

You’ll travel today to what has emerged as the music capital of America, the infamous Nashville, Tennessee. First up is a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame, where you’ll truly get a behind-the-scenes look at the industry during lunch with a Nashville songwriter. Enjoy time on your own to explore the museum, then head to the Ryman Auditorium for a private front-of-house and backstage tour. The venerable hall is best known as the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, from 1943 to 1974, having hosted the biggest country stars of its day. Your downtown hotel is a palatial Beaux-Arts landmark built in 1910.

Today you will visit The Hermitage, the plantation home of Andrew Jackson, military hero, populist, and 7th President of the United States. Dayton Duncan notes that you can understand Andrew Jackson by his own words – “I was born for a storm. And a calm does not suit me.” Jackson lived here until his death in 1845 and his brick mansion is considered the most accurately preserved presidential home in the US, with restored décor and original furnishings. Drive along Music Row to your hotel and enjoy some free time to explore Nashville as you please. After dinner, join a lively performance at
the Grand Ole Opry, schedule permitting, or the Ryman Auditorium’s live Country Classics show.

A transfer is included from the hotel to Nashville International Airport, where you check in for your flight back to the UK.