The Sun Studio tour is a must!

You have to hit Beale Street, start off around 4pm, and them make a night of it. Amazing atmosphere, a bit of a tourist haunt, can be a lil corn ball-y but its totally worth it. So is Graceland, just do the quickie tour. Its remarkable how unremarkable the mansion is.

Beale Street! Fantastic music. I love the Elvis impersonators on the street there more than the idea of going to Graceland. Also walk along the Mississippi river.

The next time I go, I intend to check out the Civil Rights Museum.

Beale, of course. If there is a show at the New Daisy, that’s an wesome place to hit (it’s on Beale and really easy to spot).
In Mississippi, it really depends on when you come. Southaven is probably your best bet any kind of entertainment…check out Snowden Grove on the web.

If you’re going to be hanging around Memphis for the day, I’d recommend taking the Main Street trolley loop around downtown. It’s about an hour ride, it’s cheap, and will give you a good look at downtown and the Mississippi River. At the south end of the loop is a great restaurant called The Arcade, which has great pizza, and I think it’s the oldest diner in Memphis. There is also Central Station (Amtrak train station) across the street, as well as some art galleries in that area. Going back up towards the middle of downtown, there’s the Orpheum Theater and the Peabody Hotel, which are worth checking out. Nearby is Huey’s, which is a great, fun, local burger joint if you’re in the mood for that. A couple of newer additions to downtown are the Redbirds baseball stadium (across from the Peabody Hotel), the FedEx Forum (basketball arena) and Peabody Place, which is a good place to hang out if you just want to be inside for a while (it’s kind of a shopping/entertainment mall downtown, between the Peabody Hotel and Beale Street).

Here are some links:
www.matatransit.com/RidingMATA/TrolleyService/tabid/64/Default.aspx

www.arcaderestaurant.com

www.southmainmemphis.org

www.orpheum-memphis.com

www.peabodymemphis.com

www.hueyburger.com

www.belz.com/shopping/peabodyplace.aspx

www.memphisredbirds.com

www.fedexforum.com

Though I really enjoyed Graceland (much more so than I thought I would), my favorite thing in Memphis was Mud Island’s river walk. It’s a scale model of the lower Mississippi (it’s much cooler than it sounds, honest). More info here:

www.mudisland.com/riverwalk.asp

Graceland is fun, but make sure to get there early. Otherwise you could be spending valuable time waiting for your tour. Good, goofy fun done Elvis style.

Beale Street is fun, but really is a nighttime thing to see. Especially when they’re having the block party. Pay the cover, it’s worth it.

Though the W.C. Handy House, which is a Beale Street daytime attraction, is an interesting look at the shotgun shack owned by the father of the blues, W.C. Handy. That was not at all busy with tourists when we went.

Oxford, MS, home of Ole Miss, is a manageable day trip out of Memphis. You could probably cram it into a half-day if you wanted to.

I would like to say it’s okay to visit Beale Street, but there is so very much more to Memphis, even old Memphis. Take a walk over to Front Street and go inside the Cotton Exchange, where I believe the traders still do business. Across the street from the Cotton Exchange is a deli where you can sit and watch the life of one of the oldest byways along the Mississippi. Just a short half block to the north is a library with a fountain in front. This is a nice place to eat a snack and enjoy a cold Coca Cola.

If Mongo’s Planet Zambodia is still in the night club biz, go there to enjoy some cold ones and a slice of the night life, where university students, military, and an assortment of characters from bargemen to bounty hunters congregate. Tell Mongo that jean pierre says hello.

One off the beaten tour very worth the time is to cruise, by wheels or foot, Madison Avenue in the Midtown area. There is a pleasant old neighbourhood bar on Madison and Evergreen, one block east of the Piggly Wiggly. Madison is well known for its variety of small and medium sized businesses including all night doughnut shops (x fr. the PIg), high end thrift or vintage clothing boutiques, CD music shops, gay incl. lesbian bars or clubs, “straight” bars (down Overton Square), art galleries, and much more.

Enjoy some of the oldest growth forest at Overton Park on Poplar Avenue. Nearby is the Memphis Zoo and the Memphis College of Art, both worth a trip.

For you bargain hunters, head further east and a jog north to Summer Avenue, where you can visit the Amvets and Junior League thrift shops, pawn shops, and explore a distinct neighbourhood of middle class and working class whites, including Greek and Slavic Orthodox, Irish, and more.

Did anyone mention the Pink Palace? This is further south from Summer… Google it. I recall you could get there by the Peabody bus (No. 50?) It houses a museum, and was home to a man who was on his way to making his third million after making and losing twice. He is the man who started the Piggly Wiggly.

Not too far from there is the Memphis Botanical Gardens, one of my favourite Memphis spots.

If you are truly adventurous, you might get a kayak and explore the Wolf or one of the other rivers. There are places you can rent a kayak or canoe.

Oh, of course Memphis is known not just for her blues and Elvis but also for great rock, folk, country music. Don’t hesitate to pick up a newspaper to check the venue, or listen to WEVL the community (non-commercial) radio station.

I envy you the opportunity to explore one of America’s greatest cities.

What everyone else said…

...and I can’t believe no one mentioned Charlie Vargas’ Rendezvous!!!

OMG if you like BBQ you TOTALLY have to check it out. A back alley subterranean hideaway just north of the Peabody, this place has the best damn barbecue around!

Order the ribs with dry rub and the pulld pork shoulder smothered in their signature sauce. Buy some of the sauce and the rub to take home with you. The best souvenir of Memphis bar none!

Enjoy!!!

Eat some BBQ, and check out the memphis zoo. One of only a handful of locations in the US that have Pandas.