Quick Day Trips From Memphis
Memphis’s own music-and-history core, Beale Street, Sun Studio, Stax, Graceland, and the National Civil Rights Museum, fills two to four solid days. Past that, the smartest move is a day trip into the Mid-South, since the city sits almost exactly where Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas meet. A car is essential for every option below.
Tunica, Mississippi (30-45 minutes south)
The closest and easiest add-on. Tunica’s casino corridor sits just across the state line, alongside the Gateway to the Blues Museum and the Tunica RiverPark. It works well as a half-day out-and-back if gambling or a change of scenery is the goal.
Clarksdale, Mississippi (75-95 minutes south via Highway 61)
This is the standout day trip, and arguably the best single excursion from Memphis. Clarksdale sits at the legendary Crossroads of Highways 61 and 49, and it holds the Delta Blues Museum, Red’s Juke Joint, and the Ground Zero Blues Club, part-owned by actor Morgan Freeman. Because it’s close to a two-hour round trip before you’ve seen anything, consider staying the night at the Shack Up Inn, a former sharecropper-shack lodging on an old cotton plantation, rather than rushing back to Memphis the same evening.
Oxford, Mississippi (80-90 minutes southeast)
A literary-and-college day: the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), William Faulkner’s home at Rowan Oak, and Square Books on the town square. It pairs well with a relaxed lunch and an afternoon of browsing rather than a packed sightseeing schedule.
Shiloh National Military Park (2-2.3 hours east)
One of the best-preserved Civil War battlefields in the country, site of the major 1862 battle. It’s a long day trip, so plan to leave early if Civil War history matters to your itinerary.
What’s too far
Nashville is a genuine 3-3.5 hours away by car, six to seven hours round trip, which makes it a poor fit for a single day. Treat it as a separate leg of a longer Tennessee trip instead.
A free option inside the city
Big River Crossing, a roughly 1-mile pedestrian and bike bridge from downtown Memphis into West Memphis, Arkansas, isn’t really a day trip since it takes an hour or two at most, but it’s the easiest way to set foot in a second state without a car.
Before you go
Check the weather and your fuel gauge before any of these, and confirm hours for museums and smaller attractions directly on their own sites since they change. For the full day-by-day version of a Memphis trip that leans into these excursions rather than treating them as an afterthought, see our 4-day and 7-day itineraries, or start with the main Memphis guide for the city core itself.