Our first vacation to USA from Uk, itineracy advice please!

[davielovesgravy]

Hi All

My girlfriend and I are currently finalizing our itinerary for our first trip to USA next September for our dream holiday. We have booked our flights to and from the US from UK but nothing else yet.

Below is our itinerary as it stands, we have thought long and hard for months over where we want to go and what we really want to do so we think this is perfect for us but it would be very much appreciated if you lovely people could take a look at it and offer any advice you think may be useful for our trip. Safety tips, Any cool places to visit, any travel tips, anything we simply MUST see etc...

One thing we really need help with in this itinerary is getting to the Grand Canyon from either Memphis or Nashville

So here is the itinerary as it stands:

We fly to New York on the 14th Sept 2015 for 3 nights, this is predominantly my girlfriends part of the holiday so she will want to stay in a nice hotel or boutique apartment. We plan to see Phantom of the Opera on my birthday which is 15th Sep.

Then we plan to fly to either Nashville or Memphis (this will depend where we can get to Grand Canyon best from) for 2 nights where will hire a car. We want to stay somewhere cheap and cheerful in Nashville but somewhere nice in Memphis.

We will spend 2 nights in Memphis or Nashville then head to Clarksdale for 2 nights, on the Saturday and Sunday, for my part of the holiday where we hope to stay at the Shack up Inn or similar rustic accommodation, any other recommendations?? I am a delta blues fanatic so I want to go to the Crossroads, the Delta blues museum and we will spend the two nights at Reds Lounge and Ground Zero blues clubs, I simply cannot wait!!! I would like to know if we stay at the Shack Up Inn whether the 2 blues clubs are within walking distance?

From Clarksdale we will drive to either Nashville or Memphis for 2 nights, we would much prefer to do Memphis so that my girlfriend can go to Graceland on her birthday which is the 21st Sept.

Then is our biggest problem, Ideally we want to fly to the Grand Canyon from here and spend one night but we are struggling to find flights from Memphis.

We will then drive from Grand Canyon to Vegas, soaking in some sights on the way, we would ideally like to hire a nice convertible car for the drive and would also like to drop onto Route 66 if possible.

Whilst in Vegas we want to stay somewhere luxurious where we feel we are being really looked after, any recommendations? We will spend the remainder of our hols, which will be 4 or 5 nights depending on whether we stay at the Grand Canyon for 1 or 2 nights. And who knows... there may just be a Vegas wedding to look forward to as well... Watch this space!


So as I already mentioned we are open to any advice that you feel in relevant to our trip, any changes you would make, car hire tips, should we get trains instead of flying between places? Places to eat, any good music venues or festivals, any cool vintage clothes shops, anything at all folks.

Thank you in advance just for reading this and for any help you can give us, we are so excited, it can't come soon enough.