Already months ahead, I was looking forward to visiting the CMA Fest in Nashville. Not just that I fell in love to “Music City” during my first visit in 2017 – the country music festival annually impresses with an outstanding line-up. Summing it up, you can say that all stars of the genre gather in the magical Tennessee city.
In line with my 2018 series during having Six Intercontinental Flights in 72 Hours and following Weird Al Yankovic on his 2018 tour, I decided to write another Trip Report about these days. This travel diary format will tell you about the stories and side stories of that travel. Of course, there will be a lot of spin-offs dealing with the major attractions I visited en route later on Flyctory.com. The trip report will end with arriving in Nashville. The CMA Fest is massive, you can have country music from roughly 11a.m. to 2a.m. in the night four days in a row, so that I will concentrate on enjoying the music rather than blogging about it.
On The Road to CMA Fest 2019 – My Trip
I had a quite interesting booking with a lot of flights and interesting connections for that route. However, there plenty of rebookings. My final booking was, including the return service:
Date | Flight | from | to |
---|---|---|---|
31.05.2019 | BA 935 | Dusseldorf DUS | London LHR |
31.05.2019 | BA 217 | London LHR | Washington IAD |
02.06.2019 | AA 5309 | Washington DCA | Chattanooga CHA |
10.06.2019 | AA 3714 | Chattanooga CHA | Dallas DFW |
10.06.2019 | AA 78 | Dallas DFW | London LHR |
11.06.2019 | AA 6514 | London LHR | Dusseldorf DUS |
The original booking was
Date | Flight | from | to |
---|---|---|---|
31.05.2019 | AA 6364 | Dusseldorf DUS | London LHR |
31.05.2019 | AA 6207 | London LHR | Toronto YYZ |
31.05.2019 | AA 5542 | Toronto YYZ | Washington DCA |
02.06.2019 | AA 5309 | Washington DCA | Chattanooga CHA |
10.06.2019 | AA 4910 | Chattanooga CHA | Philadelphia PHL |
10.06.2019 | AA 6216 | Philadelphia PHL | London LHR |
11.06.2019 | AA 6514 | London LHR | Dusseldorf DUS |
All intercontinental legs are Premium Economy. This was one cause of the multiple rebookings, as the original schedule was quite sensitive against minor schedule changes. On the other hand, American refused to upgrade to Business for services which do not have Premium Economy service. The rebooking service was very kind in all cases, even if some discussions were needed here and there. Unfortunately, the itinerary changes lead to the fact that I did not land in Ronald Reagan DCA airport any more. Due to the CMA Fest, reasonable returns from Nashville were tough to get. Thus I decided to go for Chattanooga, which I already visited on the second day of my Weird Al Tour 2018 trip.
There are dedicated reviews of the following flights:
- BA 217 from Heathrow to Washington-Dulles on 31st May 2019
- AA 5309 from Washington-Reagan to Chattanooga on 2nd June 2019
Places and Stays.
After two days in Washington I majorly aimed to visit some places closely linked to Elvis Presley, namely his birthplace Tupelo and Graceland in Memphis. However, there are also some other additonal places along the road.
I opted for the following hotels during my trip:
- 31.05.2019: Doubletree Washington Crystal City (2 nights)
- 02.06.2019: Hilton Garden Inn Tupelo
- 03.06.2019: Holiday Inn Express & Suites Memphis Elvis Presley Blvd (2 nights)
- 05.06.2019: Hampton Inn & Suites Nashville Airport (5 nights)
There will be a lot of sights during the trip. Between Chattanooga and Nashville. After leaving Washington, I will focus on music-related attractions.
A Musical Trip to CMA Fest 2019 – Day by Day
Here are the links to the daily postings (link will be added once posting is published):
- A Musical Trip to CMA Fest 2019 – Overview Posting
- Day 1, 31st May 2019: From Germany to Washington D.C.
- Day 2, 1st June 2019: Day in Washington D.C.
- Day 3, 2nd June 2019: Chattanooga and Tupelo
- Day 4, 3rd June 2019: From Elvis’s place of birth to his place of death
- Day 5, 4th June 2019: (Not just) Walking in Memphis
- Day 6, 5th June 2019: Driving “Home” to Music City
Flyctory.com about Country Music
Here are all Country Music-related postings on Flyctory.com:
Trip Reports
Here are all (other) Trip Report postings:
Flight map generated by the Great Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
Looks like you have a great tour lined up! Safe travels, and I hope to be able to go to one of your events!
Thanks!