Memphis 5 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Honest framing up front: Memphis’s city core is genuinely done by day four. This itinerary covers that core properly over four days, then uses day five for a single Mid-South day trip rather than manufacturing a fifth day of in-city filler. A car or rideshare covers most of this trip, only the downtown cluster is walkable.
Day 1: Downtown and the Civil Rights Museum
The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel (450 Mulberry St) is the centerpiece, built around the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968. Give it real time, it’s one of the most significant history museums in the country, not a quick stop. About $25 adult / $22 child / $23 senior-student, 9am-6pm, last entry 5pm, closed Tuesdays.
Lunch at Central BBQ, then Beale Street by day for the historical markers and back after dark for live music at B.B. King’s Blues Club, Rum Boogie Cafe and its Blues Hall, King’s Palace Cafe, Silky O’Sullivan’s, or Alfred’s on Beale, all currently operating. Weekend nights after 9pm bring a $5 security fee at some entrances plus ID checks and metal detectors.
Worth knowing for the whole trip: Memphis’s citywide crime rate runs above the US average but concentrates outside the tourist core, and 2026 has actually been the lowest violent-crime half-year on record here. Your real risk as a visitor is car break-ins, not violence, hence the local police campaign “Stow It, Don’t Show It.” Nothing visible in the car, garages over street spots at night.
Day 2: Graceland and Sun Studio
Book Graceland ahead, it’s timed entry. The standard Elvis Experience tour (mansion, entertainment complex, and jets) runs about $85 adult / $49 youth; the entry-level Elvis Presley’s Memphis tier without mansion access is around $53. Give it a genuine half-day, then Sun Studio (706 Union Ave) in the afternoon, still a working studio, tours run 40-50 minutes and fill fast, about $15 adult / $10 ages 5-11.
Day 3: Stax and the river
Stax Museum of American Soul Music (926 E. McLemore Ave, Soulsville) sits on the original Stax Records site. About $20 adult / $16 concession, 10am-5pm Tuesday through Sunday, closed Mondays. Spend the afternoon in Overton Park, then walk Big River Crossing, a free, roughly one-mile pedestrian bridge into West Memphis, Arkansas.
Day 4: Midtown and Shelby Farms
Morning in Cooper-Young and Overton Square, Midtown’s walkable cluster of shops and restaurants. In the afternoon, head to Shelby Farms Park, at 4,500 acres one of the largest urban parks in the country with over 40 miles of trails. Time your evening for the Peabody Duck March (149 Union Ave, free, since 1933) at 5pm before dinner.
Day 5: One Mid-South day trip
With the city itself covered, use this last day for a single trip out of town rather than scraping for a fifth day of Memphis sights. Tunica, Mississippi is the easiest add-on, about 30-45 minutes south, with the casino corridor and the Gateway to the Blues Museum. It’s a lighter, closer option than committing a full trip to the Delta blues towns further south, which is really its own kind of trip.
Concrete tip: Stax and the Civil Rights Museum close on different days (Monday and Tuesday), map all five days against both before locking the itinerary. Book ahead: Graceland’s timed tickets, and hotel rates near Graceland during Elvis Week (August 8-16 2026). For a tighter city trip, see the 4-day itinerary , and the 6-day itinerary adds a second day trip beyond Tunica.