Memphis: 4 Day Trips Worth the Drive
Memphis sits right where Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas meet, and that corner is the whole reason to treat it as a base instead of a two-day city stop. Four trips earn a full day away from downtown: Clarksdale for the Delta blues, Tunica for an easy casino stop, Oxford for a literary change of pace, and Shiloh for a serious Civil War battlefield. All four need a car, there’s no realistic way to reach any of them without one.
Clarksdale, Mississippi: the one to prioritize
About 75-95 minutes south on Highway 61, Clarksdale is the actual Delta blues pilgrimage, not a watered-down version of one. The Crossroads where Highways 61 and 49 meet is the obvious photo stop, but the real substance is the Delta Blues Museum, Ground Zero Blues Club (Morgan Freeman is a co-owner), and Red’s Juke Joint, an unpolished, still-authentic live-music room. If you can only fit one day trip into a Memphis stay, this is it. Push it to an overnight at the Shack Up Inn, sharecropper shacks converted into rooms, and it stops being a rushed there-and-back. If your dates line up with April 11, 2026, that’s Clarksdale’s Juke Joint Festival, worth planning a whole visit around.
Tunica, Mississippi: the easy one
Tunica is closer, about 30-45 minutes south of Memphis, and lighter: a casino corridor, the Gateway to the Blues Museum, and Tunica RiverPark. It works well stacked onto the back half of a Clarksdale trip, since Tunica sits almost directly between Clarksdale and Memphis on the drive home, or as its own half-day if the Delta’s grittier stops aren’t what you’re after.
Oxford, Mississippi: the change of pace
About 80-90 minutes southeast, Oxford is a genuinely different day: Ole Miss, Rowan Oak (William Faulkner’s home), Square Books, and a walkable town square. Neither blues town nor battlefield, just a college-town day that breaks up a trip otherwise built around music history.
Shiloh National Military Park: the long one
Shiloh is 2 to 2.3 hours east, a major, well-preserved 1862 Civil War battlefield with an interpretive center. It’s the longest single drive on this list, so give it its own day rather than trying to combine it with anything else.
Two that aren’t really day trips
Nashville is roughly 3-3.5 hours east, a 6-7 hour round trip that doesn’t work as a day trip; treat it as its own overnight instead. Big River Crossing, the free, roughly one-mile pedestrian bridge from downtown Memphis into West Memphis, Arkansas, is worth doing but is closer to an afternoon walk than a day trip, easy to fold into a city day.
| Day trip | Drive from Memphis | Best as |
|---|---|---|
| Clarksdale, MS | 75-95min | Overnight, if you can |
| Tunica, MS | 30-45min | Half-day, pairs with Clarksdale |
| Oxford, MS | 80-90min | Full day, different pace |
| Shiloh Nat’l Military Park | 2-2.3hrs | Its own full day |
Memphis is the northern gateway to the Mississippi Blues Trail, and Clarksdale is one of the Trail’s central hubs, so the two towns really do connect as one story rather than a city plus a side trip. For the full picture of how these fit into a longer stay, see the Memphis, Tennessee guide , and for a ready-made schedule, the 4-day and 6-day itineraries both work all four of these in.