Memphis, Tennessee is a big city with a country, small town flair. Known for blues, barbecue, and soul, Memphis is down home friendly with a rich heritage ripe for visitors to explore. In the style of many Southern cities, life moves slowly with an effort made to enjoy every minute of it. You’ll find you have plenty of time to listen to a little Elvis, savor some barbecue ribs, and walk along the Mississippi River, which lies to the west of the city.

The home of blues music, Memphis offers many wonderful live music venues. Beale Street is the heart of it all and closes to car traffic at night. You can wander up and down Beale Street with a drink (it’s legal in this area) and pop into live blues sessions every night of the week.

Elvis Presley’s mansion Graceland is also in Memphis and many fans come here just to tour it. Tour the house and imagine what it would have been like when the King was in residence. You’ll find plenty of authentic Elvis memorabilia here like costumes and records. His love of automobiles is displayed at the Elvis Presley Car Museum where you can see his famous pink Cadillac.

The Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum tells the story of music in Memphis. Don a headset to listen to music as you navigate the exhibits on the music of rural America like country and gospel, the youth culture of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s, the role of soul music in the 1960s, and much more.

The culture of soul has many components other than music and one them is food. Soul food is an African American style of cooking heavily influenced by Southern traditions. Typical soul dishes are hush puppies, smoked ham hock, sweet potato pie, and black-eyed peas. There are many good restaurants serving up soul food in Memphis. You’re unlikely to go wrong popping into a place just because it looks friendly and you can smell the bacon frying from outside.

Memphis is also known for barbecue. The two most popular dishes are ribs and pulled pork sandwiches. You can get your ribs wet or dry meaning served with barbecue sauce or dry rubbed in spices before cooking and served without additional sauce respectively. Pulled pork sandwiches are a messy but delicious affair featuring smoked pork chopped in small pieces and tossed with barbecue sauce then slapped on a bun, sometimes with coleslaw.

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