48 HOURS IN FLORENCE

Badlands geology and American History

1. Nashville, Tennessee, has great bars for country and blues. See the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (countrymusichalloffame.org), and the Ryman Auditorium (ryman.com) to learn about the Grand Ole Opry. Nearby Broadway has bars for real live music till late.

2. Memphis – blues, gospel, country, rock’n’roll, barbecue. Stay for Wild Bill’s Juke Joint, Graceland and Sun Studios, and on Sunday listen to the Reverend Al Green lead the choir in Full Gospel Tabernacle Church on Hale Road.

3. Following Route 61 south you reach the Mississippi Delta region. Stop for dinner at Tunica – which has lots of casinos – or opt for fried chicken or creole catfish at the Blue and White Diner (blueandwhiterestaurant.com) and a ride on the Tunica Queen riverboat. 4. Clarksdale, Mississippi, for juke joints, the Delta Blues Museum in the old train station and a night at the Shack Up Inn (shackupinn.com, from $75), with boutique rooms in old sharecropper shacks, at the Hopson Plantation, which hosts live blues.

5. Dockery Farms (dockeryfarms. org), where blues is said to have been invented by cotton picker Charley Patton in the early 1900s.

6. Lafayette, Louisiana, is one of America’s greatest music towns, where you can hear Cajun, Creole and zydeco music in the dancehalls, or listen out for “swamp pop” . The Blue Moon Saloon and Guesthouse (bluemoonpresents.com, $18 bunks, doubles from $75) has live roots music on the back porch – local bands often record live albums there.

7. Finally, go wild in New Orleans at the dozens of jazz and blues clubs. 776 miles, 14 hours’ driving, one week minimum

New York State and Niagra

1. First spend a few days in New York City, exploring Brooklyn, Williamsburg and the galleries of Manhattan.

2. Montauk, on the east of Long Island, has become a favourite hangout of celebs, with trendy bars, restaurants and places to stay (in summer, try the Ruschmeyers, (ruschmeyers.com), which is a bit like a summer camp for adults).

3. Woodstock (woodstockny.org) has been an artists’ colony since 1902, so spend a day touring the galleries.

4. The Catskills (visitthecatskills.com) are great for hiking in summer, or skiing and snowshoeing in winter – try the town of Hunter for both.

5. Beautiful in autumn (until midOctober), the Adirondacks mountains are full of forests, micro-breweries and bistros; in summer there’s the vintage-style 56 Auto Drive-in Theater (jscinemas.com/56auto).

6. Lake Ontario – there’s a 518-mile Great Lakes Seaway Trail (seawaytrail. com) along its southern rim, but highlights are Niagara Falls in the west and the Thousand Island Park in the east.

7 & 8. The Finger Lakes region (fingerlakes.org) near Ithaca has wonderful vineyards, Amish farms (you might have to brake for the haywagons), craft markets and long blue glacier lakes.

9. Return to New York City. 1,305 miles, 26 hours of driving, 2½-3 weeks minimum

978 miles, 20 hours’ driving, two weeks minimum

Badlands Geology and American History

1. Fly into and out of Rapid City (with Delta via Minneapolis from Heathrow, around £500). Hiring an RV could be a good idea for this road trip through remote areas with little accommodation, see visitrapidcity.com/ planyourtrip/rentalvehicles.

2. South Dakota’s Badlands National Park is a vast rocky landscape of ridges, layered rock, fossils, towers and ravines. Make a stop at Wall Drug (walldrug. com), a 1930s store and attraction which sells sheriffs’ badges and cowboy boots. 3. Then at Pierre (don’t miss the State Capitol Building and Cultural Heritage Centre), at the south of Lake Oahe, get on the Native American Scenic Byway, through Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nations.

4. The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe (lowerbrulesiouxtribe.com) welcomes to the reservation visitors who want to learn about their culture and offers many tours.

5. The byway passes through Standing Rock reservation (standingrock.org) for monuments, Sitting Bull’s burial ground, and places to stay. Its traditional annual powwow is open to visitors.

6. Visit North Dakota’s cowboy town, Medora, to stay at the historic 1884 Rough Riders Hotel (medora.com/roughriders, from $135) and try the Pitchfork Steak Fondue for steak threaded onto a pitchfork and grilled.

7. North Dakota’s badlands have hilly terrain, red rocks and petrified woods. Hire a log cabin and explore on horseback with Badlands Trail Rides (badlandstrailrides.com).

8. In Black Hills National Forest, Custer state park (custerstatepark.info) covers 71,000 acres of prairie, pine, granite, bison and bighorn sheep. Jewel Cave and Wind Cave are worth a stop.

9 & 10. After visiting Mount Rushmore, see the Native American equivalent, the Crazy Horse Memorial (crazyhorsememorial.org), which will be the largest mountain carving in the world when finished, and the Indian Museum of North America.

11. Return to Rapid City.