One Day In Memphis Itinerary: 24 Hours In Memphis, Tennessee

A timestamped one day in Memphis itinerary to help you make the most of 24 hours in Memphis, Tennessee. 

Every city has a soul, but Memphis is soul. Memphis soul sounds like Aretha Franklin, Carla Thomas, and Otis Redding. It sounds like old studio hits shuffling in downtown. Memphis and music slide into a groove. Welcome to the city of Elvis and B.B. King, songs and songbirds, and Beale Street blues.

Over the next 24 hours, you’ll hit up one of the most iconic avenues in the United States, see the world-famous Peabody Ducks, and get acquainted with Memphis’ history.

Memphis Travel Guide

About

The land was taken from the Chickasaw Nation and then took the name Memphis [source]. Memphis, the old capital of Egypt, was flanked by a river to the west, and so was Tennessee’s patch of forest, where oak and hickory were cleared to carve a city.

A giant pyramid landmarks Memphis today. The pyramid is a Bass Pro Shops with an elevator that glides 28 stories up to an observation deck. From here, you can see sprawling roadways, homes linked in neighborhoods, the silt-grey waters of the Mississippi River, and the sharpest angles of Memphis’ skyline.

Memphis is a big city. Over 600,000 people reside across 300-plus square miles.

Is Memphis Safe?

Like many big cities in America, Memphis is restless, a place that yearns for the kind of carefree environment its infrastructure doesn’t provide. 

At nightfall, gun violence is common (Tennessee is a state lax with firearm laws), as are car break-ins and vehicle thefts. So, the city is known for being one of the most dangerous in America.

But that doesn’t mean Memphis isn’t visitable. Over 11 million people travel to Memphis each year for tourism. And when you spend a day (or weekend) here, you’ll see Memphis at its most passionate, a place that loves music and dance, wears its history on its sleeve, and pours its heart into making some of the best BBQ in America.

Over the years, the home of the blues has become one of my go-to stopovers in the US (for a late lunch at Global Cafe, in particular). I usually visit with my partner, and we use the same precautions in Memphis as any other city in the United States (remain vigilant of our surroundings, tuck away our belongings when we park, and skip any areas that give us bad gut feelings).

Best Time To Visit Memphis

Fridays and Saturdays are the best times to visit Memphis. Homestyle restaurants are closed on Sundays and many Memphis-area museums shut their doors on Mondays (or Tuesdays).

Winter brings a freezing chill, but it’s still one of my favorite seasons to visit the city. Leaves have long shaken themselves off trees, so you can see through the branches to the color-splashed walls, pinstripe awnings, and freckled shutters that summer hides with seams of green. 

And then there’s May, when Memphis fills those last days of spring with a heavy lineup of events: RiverBeat (a musicfest), the Great American River Run (a half marathon), and Smoke Slam (a BBQ showdown). There’s even a Memphis Vegan Festival (with local vegan food and music).  

One Day In Memphis Itinerary

One weekend ago, my husband, Vyas, and I went on a brunch date in Memphis. We sat at a little table for two, where the view drew me in: a street stretched across three windowpanes saturated with warm, bright sunlight. Buildings bricked in red and dappled with shadows. Tramway tracks incised a road. A trolley station pinned to the pavement. Memphis’ trolleys no longer run but once slid past this margin of downtown. Steps away is Arcade Cafe, where Elvis dined, and across the lane, a hotel labeled ARRIVE stands five floors high.

We were in the South Main Historic Arts District, one of Memphis’ first suburbs revived into a tourist tract. South Main is the neighborhood of the National Civil Rights Museum and the Blues Hall Of Fame. So, it’s here we’ll start our one day in Memphis itinerary.

Brunch At The Garden Brunch Cafe

9 a.m.

You might be tempted to stay in bed and order room service from ARRIVE’s on-site bread bakery, Hustle & Dough, but The Garden Brunch Cafe is worth slipping on shoes (and walking across the street) for. Jennifer Carpenter (and her partner Karl) first opened The Garden Brunch in Nashville in 2009. The original location shuttered in 2020, but the Carpenters rebuilt the cafe in Memphis in 2023. And this South Main Historic District eatery is vibey. Think: statement walls papered in floral designs, boho lamps, fabric chandeliers (that look like rumpled mini-skirts), black-and-white portraiture on brick, and little water-filled vases with floating flowers.  

Meals are made in-house, and the plates are generously filled. From the bananas foster sauce pooled around a short stack of pancakes to the sweet, eggy French toast crusts tilted above thick cream cheese-style syrup. Sides include a choice of bacon or turkey sausage (and turkey sausage is the way to go. These mini-patties are grilled like nuggets and peppered with dry herbs).   

Visit The National Civil Rights Museum

11 a.m.

A two-minute walk away is the National Civil Rights Museum, a labyrinth of exhibits about The Civil Rights Movement. Security screens bags when you enter, then directs you to an admission table.

Over a dozen permanent exhibitions introduce history from 1619 to the early 2000s. Pay attention to the audio when you step onto the Montgomery bus, to the projections behind a lunch counter, to Martin Luther King Jr’s voice drifting past bars as he reads his Letter From Birmingham Jail, to the short film that curls around a garbage truck in a display covering the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike. Every exhibit adds context to the final one, a room that walks you through Martin Luther King Jr’s last hours. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. This motel is where the National Civil Rights Museum is housed.

Block Out A Few Hours To Just Explore Memphis

1 p.m.

The National Civil Rights Museum is heavy with information, so I wouldn’t recommend stacking another museum visit afterward. Give yourself the space to see some Memphis highlights through different mediums.

Free Time Options (Choose One):

• Central BBQ, a Memphis-style barbecue spot (a short walk from the National Civil Rights Museum), serves pork rinds and dry-rubbed slabs of ribs.
• Sun Studio, a five-minute drive away, hosts one of Memphis’ best music history tours. A guide shares little stories about the corner building where Elvis and blues artist B.B. King once recorded (tours are available at 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30 PM. Arrive early to get tickets).
• Memphis Mojo, a goofy, 90-minute, music-filled sightseeing bus tour, wheels past Memphis’ most well-known locations at 1:30 PM (travel tip: when you reserve this tour, deselect the Sun Studio add-on).
• Hop into Wiseacre (one of my favorite taprooms in Memphis) or MFS for pizza and beer. Both these breweries are near the National Civil Rights Museum (if you want to taste the city’s craft beer scene).  

See The Peabody Duck March

4:15 p.m.

Every morning, at The Peabody Hotel, five mallard ducks exit their rooftop Duck Palace and head to the lobby. In the evening, they return to their mansion to lounge and soak and frolic.

The duck march is a twice-a-day (11 AM and 5 PM) snapshot of their journey, a 30-second, duckmaster-led waddle that follows the ducks’ red carpeted jaunt from the lobby fountain to an elevator.

The event is over before you can blink, but it’s adorable. Grand music sweeps the hall. A duckmaster announces the history of The Peabody ducks. Everyone grins from ear to ear (this is The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody meets Duck Tales crossover that nobody asked for but everybody needs).

Walk Through Beale Street

6:00 p.m.

Beale Street is one of the most iconic places in Memphis. In the early 20th century, Beale Street anchored Black-owned businesses, Ida B. Wells Free Speech newspaper, and a freedman’s church [source]. Blues hits were drafted here; Louis Armstrong played his trumpet on Beale. In 1968, sanitation workers marched down this road to protest working conditions; each activist clad in a sign that read “I Am A Man.”

Today, Beale Street is a party lane, a trio of blocks composed of bars, clubs, and diners. The best time to walk down the avenue is in the evening when the street is washed in sunset orange. Six PM on Beale Street is a pre-party hour (so you can duck out after thirty minutes if you’re an introvert like me).

After 8 PM, Beale Street is a 21-plus zone. After 9 PM, on weekends, there’s a security charge ($5). Some bars have a cover charge too, depending on the night.

Grab Dinner At Crosstown Concourse

7:00 p.m.

Crosstown Concourse is a place to unwind. Picture high ceilings, lots of seating (upstairs and downstairs), and quiet alcoves (if you want to spend some time reading). My partner and I usually stop by this mixed-use development when we drive from Nashville to Dallas to stretch our legs and grab a bite from one of our favorite casual restaurants in Memphis (Global Cafe).

Global Cafe empowers refugees looking to start food-based businesses, so each line on the menu is inspired by homelands. The food is incredible, and the atmosphere is relaxed (so if you’re interested in trying dishes from Sudan, Venezuela, and Syria, this is the place to go).

Some other spots to note in Crosstown Concourse are the Art Bar (for mocktails), Sweet Magnolia Gelato (for the affogato made with French Truck Coffee’s espresso), and Memphis Listening Lab (which closes at 5 PM, but if you have the time to visit, don’t hesitate. The sound space is a public audio library with a turntable, long-play records, and speakers. A little reminder that you can always hear Memphis’ soul).  

Did you find this one day in Memphis itinerary helpful? What would you do during your one day in Memphis? Let me know in the comments below! I love hearing from you.