Cornelius Amann
October 06, 2026
5/5
Civil Rights Trail: Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma, Birmingham and Memphis
8 days from Atlanta to Memphis: two nights each in Atlanta, Montgomery and Memphis, Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the road, and a night in Birmingham.
8 days · Atlanta to Memphis · up to 12 guests
The marker outside the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, on the spot where she was arrested Photo: Ron Cogswell, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rosa_Parks_Bus_Boycott_Marker,_Montgomery,_Alabama_(March_2019).jpg)
The facts
At a glance
- Length
- 8 days, 7 nights
- Start and end
- Atlanta to Memphis
- Group size
- 7 to 12 guests
- Longest drive
- 4 h on day 6No drive day is longer than 4 hours.
- Activity level
Easy
Easy: town and museum walking on pavements, about 3 to 5 km a day, with up to three hours on your feet in the larger museums. Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge is a walk of under 1 km with a slope. The longest drive, on day 6, is about three and three-quarter hours with a break. Some exhibits are emotionally hard, and you can step out or sit any visit out.
- Meals included
- 7 breakfasts, 5 lunches, 3 dinners
- Room of your own
- + CAD 940 (estimated price)
- Season
- March to May and October to November
Highlights
Why this trip
- Ebenezer Baptist Church and the tomb of Dr. and Mrs. King on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta
- The Tuskegee Airmen's training field and Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute on the road to Alabama
- The Rosa Parks Museum on the corner where she was arrested, and Dexter Avenue church, where Dr. King was pastor
- An unhurried afternoon at the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice
- Walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma with a local guide
- The 16th Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
- The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel at opening time, then the Stax Museum
What makes this trip different
Short drives, all published
Every drive is listed day by day, and none is longer than 4 hours.
Free time is part of the plan
Free time and choices are marked on the days they fall.
Solo without the penalty
A room of your own is + CAD 940 (estimated price).
Day by day
Itinerary
The longest drive is 4 h, on day 6.
Tap any stop on the map to open that dayClick any stop on the map to open that day
Arrive in Atlanta
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to your hotel downtown
- Welcome dinner
- Stay in Atlanta
- Drive about 20 min
Fly into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), about 16 km south of downtown, where a driver meets you in arrivals for the ride to the hotel.
Evening
Plan to land by about 3 pm; the group meets at 5:30 pm, and late arrivals are met and brought to dinner. Your See Sight Tours guide runs through the week ahead: three states and six places, the order of the museums and the two days that carry the hardest history. People come on this trip for different reasons, some with family stories of their own, and the guide explains how the days are paced so there is always room to step out, sit down or talk it over. Then we walk to a welcome dinner nearby. Atlanta is on Eastern time; from day 3 we are in Alabama and Tennessee on Central time, an hour behind, and the guide reminds you when we cross the state line.
Included
- Pick-up at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
- Welcome briefing with your guide
- Welcome dinner
Free time: Free until the 5:30 pm meeting
Activity: Plan to land by about 3 pm.
Sweet Auburn and the Center for Civil and Human Rights
Auburn Avenue and the King National Historical Park, then the National Center for Civil and Human Rights
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Atlanta
- Drive about 15 min
We start at 9 am on Auburn Avenue, the Sweet Auburn district where Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929, and which in the first half of the twentieth century was one of the most prosperous Black business streets in the country. The National Park Service visitor centre sets the scene. Then we walk to the house where he was born, seen from outside or with a ranger where tours are running, past Fire Station No. 6 to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he was baptised and where he and his father preached. Across the street at The King Center, Dr. King and Coretta Scott King lie in a tomb set in a reflecting pool beside an eternal flame.
Afternoon
Lunch is at a local restaurant on or near the avenue. In the afternoon we drive ten minutes to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights beside Centennial Olympic Park, which links the American movement to human rights struggles around the world; many people find its lunch-counter exhibit hard to sit through. Allow about two hours.
Evening
The evening is free.
Included
- Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park with your guide: the visitor centre, the King birth home (outside, or a ranger tour where running), Fire Station No. 6 and Ebenezer Baptist Church
- The King Center and the tomb of Dr. and Mrs. King
- Lunch on Sweet Auburn
- National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Easier option: Rest at the hotel after lunch and visit the Center for Civil and Human Rights for an hour later in the afternoon, or skip it.
More active option: In the free evening, walk or cycle the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail, which passes close to the Old Fourth Ward where Sweet Auburn begins.
Free time: Evening free in Atlanta
Activity: About 3 km on foot in the morning on pavements, then two hours standing in the museum.
Tuskegee, then the Rosa Parks Museum
Atlanta to Tuskegee on Interstate 85, then Montgomery
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Montgomery
- Drive about 3 h
We leave Atlanta at about 8:30 am and drive southwest on Interstate 85 into Alabama, about 200 km and two and a quarter hours, setting watches back an hour at the state line.
Morning
In Tuskegee we spend the late morning at two National Park Service sites: Tuskegee Institute, the school Booker T. Washington led from its founding in 1881, with The Oaks, his home, and the George Washington Carver Museum; and Moton Field, where the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black military pilots in the US armed forces, trained during the Second World War.
Afternoon
Lunch is in Tuskegee or nearby Auburn, then it is under an hour to Montgomery. In the early afternoon we visit the Rosa Parks Museum, built by Troy University on the corner where she was arrested on 1 December 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat, and which tells the story of the 381-day boycott that followed. Afterwards your guide walks the group from Court Square up Dexter Avenue to the steps of the Alabama State Capitol, where the Selma to Montgomery march ended in 1965.
Evening
The evening is free.
Included
- Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site: The Oaks and the George Washington Carver Museum
- Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Moton Field
- Lunch in Tuskegee or Auburn
- Rosa Parks Museum
- A walk up Dexter Avenue to the Alabama State Capitol with your guide
Free time: Evening free in Montgomery
Activity: Two drives of about two and a quarter hours and 45 minutes, with short walks at Tuskegee and an hour in the Rosa Parks Museum.
Dexter Avenue, the Legacy Museum and the Memorial
A day in Montgomery: Dexter Avenue church and parsonage, the Legacy Museum, then the National Memorial for Peace and Justice
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Montgomery
- Drive about 15 min
This is the heaviest day of the trip, and we pace it that way.
Morning
In the morning, at the time the church gives us when we book the group visit, we tour Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, a block from the Capitol, where Dr. King was pastor from 1954 to 1960 and where local leaders met to plan the bus boycott. Then the Dexter Parsonage Museum, the King family's home, whose porch was bombed in January 1956 while Coretta Scott King and their baby daughter were inside.
Afternoon
Lunch together downtown. In the early afternoon we go to the Legacy Museum of the Equal Justice Initiative, on the site of a warehouse where enslaved people were held, which traces a line from slavery through lynching and segregation to mass incarceration. Give it about three hours; photography is not allowed inside. Then the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, where more than 800 steel monuments, one for each county where racial terror lynchings were documented, hang above the walkway. We go in the late-afternoon light and leave the pace to you.
Evening
Dinner together is quiet and unhurried, a chance to talk the day over, or not.
Included
- Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church tour (a group visit booked with the church)
- Dexter Parsonage Museum
- Lunch in downtown Montgomery
- The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration
- National Memorial for Peace and Justice
- Dinner together
Optional experiences
- Freedom Monument Sculpture Park (Equal Justice Initiative), where time and opening days allow
- Civil Rights Memorial Center
Easier option: Go back to the hotel after the Legacy Museum to rest, and visit the Memorial with your guide the next morning before we leave for Selma.
Free time: An hour free between the museum and the Memorial
Activity: About three hours on your feet in the Legacy Museum and an hour at the Memorial, on paths with a gentle slope. The content is hard; step out whenever you need to.
Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge
Montgomery west on US 80 to the Lowndes Interpretive Center and Selma, then north to Birmingham
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Birmingham
- Drive about 3 h
We leave Montgomery at 8:30 am and drive west on US 80, the route of the 1965 march and now the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, travelling it in reverse. About 40 minutes out, the Lowndes Interpretive Center tells the story of the marchers' camps along the road and of the tent city where Black sharecropping families, evicted for registering to vote, lived through the months that followed. In Selma we meet a local guide from the community and start at Brown Chapel AME Church, where the marchers gathered on 7 March 1965, then follow their route through town to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. We cross it on foot, as they did before state troopers attacked them on the far side on what became known as Bloody Sunday. At the foot of the bridge, the community-run National Voting Rights Museum, opened for our group by appointment, keeps the marchers' own stories.
Afternoon
Lunch is in Selma.
Evening
Mid-afternoon we drive north about two hours to Birmingham, check in by about 5:30 pm and have dinner together.
Included
- Drive along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail with your guide
- Lowndes Interpretive Center
- A walk through Selma with a local guide: Brown Chapel AME Church and the march route
- Walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge
- National Voting Rights Museum
- Lunch in Selma
- Dinner in Birmingham
Easier option: Ride across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the vehicle and meet the group on the far side.
Activity: About 3 km on foot in Selma, including the bridge, which rises over the Alabama River; drives of 40 minutes, 45 minutes and two hours.
Birmingham, then west to Memphis
Birmingham Civil Rights District, then Interstate 22 by way of Tupelo to Memphis
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Memphis
- Drive about 4 h
Evening
Birmingham in the morning, Memphis by evening. We start in Kelly Ingram Park, where in May 1963 police turned dogs and fire hoses on the children and teenagers of the Children's Crusade; sculptures along its paths show what happened. Across the street stands the 16th Street Baptist Church, where a Klan bomb killed four girls, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair, on 15 September 1963. A church guide tells its story, and we keep the order of the morning to the church's tour times. Then the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute on the corner, where we spend about two hours. These blocks are now the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. After lunch nearby we leave at about 1:30 pm for Memphis, about 385 km and three and three-quarter hours on Interstate 22 through northwest Alabama and Mississippi, with a 30-minute break in Tupelo, where Elvis Presley was born. We reach Memphis by about 5:45 pm. The evening is free, and Beale Street is a short walk from the hotel.
Included
- Kelly Ingram Park with your guide
- 16th Street Baptist Church tour
- Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
- Lunch in Birmingham
- Drive to Memphis with a 30-minute break in Tupelo
Free time: Evening free in Memphis
Activity: About three hours on foot in the morning, then an afternoon on the road in two legs of about two hours with a 30-minute break.
The Lorraine Motel and Stax
National Civil Rights Museum, Clayborn Temple and Mason Temple, then the Stax Museum in Soulsville
- Breakfast and dinner
- Stay in Memphis
- Drive about 20 min
The National Civil Rights Museum opens at 9 am and we are there for it. It is built around the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was shot on the balcony outside Room 306 on 4 April 1968, and its galleries run from slavery and resistance through the boycotts, sit-ins and Freedom Rides to the sanitation workers' strike that brought him to Memphis; across the street, the Legacy Building follows the investigation of his killing. Allow about three hours. After a week on the trail much of it will be familiar, and here it comes together.
Afternoon
Lunch is your choice nearby. In the early afternoon your guide takes us past Clayborn Temple, where the striking sanitation workers set off with their I AM A MAN signs, and past Mason Temple, a working church busy with Sunday services, where Dr.
Evening
King gave his last speech the night before he died. Then the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Soulsville, on the site of the studio where Black and white musicians recorded together in a segregated city. Farewell dinner in the evening.
Included
- National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, with the Legacy Building
- Clayborn Temple and I AM A MAN Plaza with your guide
- Mason Temple (outside)
- Stax Museum of American Soul Music
- Farewell dinner
Optional experiences
- Live blues on Beale Street
- Sun Studio tour
Easier option: Skip the afternoon and rest at the hotel; the museum is within walking distance of downtown.
More active option: In the late afternoon, walk the Big River Crossing, a path on the Harahan Bridge, across the Mississippi into Arkansas and back.
Free time: Lunch free; an hour free before dinner
Activity: About three hours standing and walking in the museum, with benches along the way, then an hour at Stax.
Graceland and home
Downtown Memphis to Graceland in Whitehaven, then Memphis International Airport (MEM)
- Breakfast
- Drive about 30 min
Morning
Check out after breakfast. Graceland lies about 10 km from Memphis International Airport, so the trip ends there: we take the first entry of the morning, at about 9 am, for the mansion tour. Elvis bought the house in 1957 at the age of 22, and the rooms are kept as they were in the 1970s, from the white living room with its peacock stained glass to the Jungle Room. The tour ends in the Meditation Garden, where he and his parents are buried. It is a lighter last morning after a week of hard history, and a reminder of how much American music grew out of the same streets. By about 11:30 am our driver takes you to Memphis International Airport (MEM), and your guide sees the group to departures and checks your flight. Book a flight leaving after about 1:30 pm. If yours leaves earlier, we arrange the transfer from the hotel at the time you need and you skip Graceland. Extra nights in Memphis can be added on request.
Included
- Graceland mansion tour at the first entry of the day
- Drop-off at Memphis International Airport (MEM)
Optional experiences
- Extra nights in Memphis, booked on request
Activity: About an hour and a half on foot at Graceland. Book a flight leaving after about 1:30 pm.
- Atlanta2 nights
- Montgomery2 nights
- Birmingham1 night
- Memphis2 nights
- Overnight stop
- Day trip
- By boat or train
Wildlife and weather: Spring and autumn bring warm, mostly dry days that suit the outdoor sites: the Memorial, the Pettus Bridge and Kelly Ingram Park. From June to September it is hot and humid, so outdoor visits move to the early morning; spring storms can bring heavy rain for an afternoon.
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Before you book
Right for you?
Good for you if you want
- Travellers who want to understand the civil rights movement in the places where it happened, in order, from Atlanta to Memphis
- Anyone who has wanted to see the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial and take the time they need
- Teachers, readers of history and families with older teenagers
- Solo travellers who would rather not take on the heavier sites alone
- A one-way trip, Atlanta in and Memphis out
Not for you if you want
- A music-led holiday: Nashville, the Delta blues and New Orleans are on our separate Nashville to New Orleans trip
- Children under about 12, for whom the Legacy Museum and parts of the Birmingham story may be too much
- Travellers who dislike heat, humidity or museum days
- Anyone wanting beaches or resort time
Book flights after we confirm your seat.
7 nights
Where you'll stay
Your hotels are named in your trip confirmation.
- Atlanta2 nights
- Montgomery2 nights
- Birmingham1 night
- Memphis2 nights
One price
What's in the price
Included
Accommodation
- 7 nights: 2 in Atlanta, 2 in Montgomery, 1 in Birmingham, 2 in Memphis, in central hotels
- Rooms shared, or your own for a supplement
Transport
- Pick-up at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) and drop-off at Memphis International Airport (MEM)
- Our own air-conditioned vehicle and driver for the group, with a seat for every guest and room for luggage
- The shuttle between the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial in Montgomery
Your guide
- A See Sight Tours guide with the group for the whole trip, with local guides where the sites provide them: National Park Service rangers in Atlanta and Tuskegee, church guides at Dexter Avenue and 16th Street, and a local guide from the community in Selma, all paid a fair fee for their time
Activities
- Atlanta: Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park and Ebenezer Baptist Church, The King Center, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights
- Tuskegee: Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site and the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
- Montgomery: the Rosa Parks Museum, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, the Dexter Parsonage Museum, the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a walk to the Alabama State Capitol
- Selma: the Lowndes Interpretive Center, Brown Chapel AME Church, walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the National Voting Rights Museum
- Birmingham: Kelly Ingram Park, the 16th Street Baptist Church, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
- Memphis: the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, Clayborn Temple and Mason Temple, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, a Graceland mansion tour
Meals
- Breakfast daily (7)
- Lunch on days 2 to 6 (5), in local, family-run places
- Welcome dinner in Atlanta, dinners in Montgomery and Birmingham, and a farewell dinner in Memphis (4)
Not included
- International flights to Atlanta and home from Memphis
- US visa or ESTA
- Travel insurance
- Lunches on days 7 and 8
- Dinners on days 2, 3 and 6
- Drinks
- Tips for your guide and driver
- Optional activities: the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, the Civil Rights Memorial Center, Sun Studio, live music on Beale Street
- Graceland ticket upgrades
- Personal expenses
Extras
- Room of your own
- CAD 940 (estimated price)
When you can go
Dates and prices
Pick your start date when you request to book. We check that date and confirm it in your quote.
Prefer to travel without a group or guide? Ask us about arranging hotels, transport and city tours for you to travel independently.
Before you book
Booking terms
Nothing is charged now. Full terms and the cancellation schedule come with your quote, before you accept.
Business addresses
See Sight Tours Trips (USA): 3172 N Rainbow Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89108, United StatesSee Sight Tours Trips (Canada): 5305 50 Avenue, #1091, Red Deer, AB T4N 4B6, Canada+1-888-961-6584Guest reviews
What guests say
Reviews from guests on our day tours.
Jane
October 06, 2026
5/5
Susan
October 06, 2026
5/5
Tom L
October 05, 2026
5/5
MandL83
October 05, 2026
5/5
Darren O
October 05, 2026
5/5
Good to know
Questions
What does the Civil Rights Trail tour price include?
Seven central hotel nights, breakfast daily, five lunches and four dinners, airport transfers at both ends, our own vehicle and driver, your See Sight Tours guide throughout, local guides in Selma and at the churches, and every visit in the day plan: the King sites, the Legacy Museum and Memorial, the Rosa Parks Museum, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the National Civil Rights Museum, Stax and Graceland.
How big is the group?
The small-group trip runs with 7 to 12 guests, so we fit into a church sanctuary, the Dexter parsonage and a Selma café without queuing behind a coach, and there is room at dinner to talk over what you have seen.
Who leads the trip?
A See Sight Tours guide travels with the group from Atlanta to Memphis and handles tickets, timings and the pace of each day. Local voices join where they belong: rangers at the National Park Service sites, church guides at Dexter Avenue and 16th Street, and a guide from the community in Selma. Local guides are paid a fair fee for their time.
How fit do I need to be?
Not very. Most days are museum and town walking on pavements, about 3 to 5 km, with up to three hours on your feet in the larger museums. Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge is a short walk with a slope, and you can ride across instead. Benches are available in the big museums, and you can sit out any visit.
Is the trip emotionally hard, and is it suitable for children?
Parts of it are. The Legacy Museum, the National Memorial and the 16th Street Baptist Church deal directly with lynching and the killing of children. Your guide prepares the group each morning and you can step out at any time. We suggest the trip for ages 12 and over; ask us about younger children.
What is the daily pace like, and are the first days heavy?
The pace is steady, not rushed: one or two main visits a day, usually a 9 am start, lunch together, and a free evening in each city. Days 4 to 6, at the Legacy Museum, Selma and Birmingham, carry the hardest history, so we leave time between visits and your guide talks each one through in advance.
I'm travelling solo. Do I have to pay a single supplement?
Only if you want a room of your own, which is from CAD 940 more. If you would rather share, tell us when you request to book and we will try to pair you with another solo traveller of the same gender. Meals and visits are with the group, so you never take on the hardest sites alone.
When is the best time to go?
March to May and October to November, when days are warm rather than steamy for the outdoor sites. June to September is hot and humid, so we visit outdoor sites early. The Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee in early March and the King holiday in January bring big crowds, and we plan departures around them.
Why does the trip end in Memphis and not go back to Atlanta?
Because the story does. Dr. King was killed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis in 1968, during the sanitation workers' strike, and the National Civil Rights Museum there draws the whole trail together. Ending in Memphis also saves a return drive on the last morning: you fly home from Memphis International Airport after a Graceland tour.
Do I need a visa to visit the US?
Canadian citizens do not normally need one. Most other visitors need an approved ESTA or a US visa before they fly, so check your own requirements early. The visa or ESTA is not in the price.
How does booking work?
Pick a start date and request to book; no payment is taken at that point. We confirm your place, your room and the price within 24 hours, then send the day-by-day plan and, once confirmed, the hotel names. Prices are per person sharing a room, with taxes, from CAD 5,530 for the small group.
Can we travel privately or on our own dates?
Yes. Besides the small group, the trip runs as a private trip for your party only, on a date you choose, from CAD 9,955 per person. If you would rather travel independently on your own dates, ask us from the dates section and we will quote the same hotels, tickets and transfers.
See Sight Tours has been providing travel services across North America since 2006. Operating in 20 cities across Canada and the USA, the company specializes in small group tours that offer personalized, high-quality experiences for travelers.
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