World City Guide

Tours of the City

Walking Tours
Like most American cities, Memphis is not really geared towards pedestrians and it is only the Downtown area visitors can successfully explore on foot. Memphis Explorations (tel: (901) 761 1838; website: http://memphisexplorations.com) offers customised tours, including a ‘Downtown Elvis-style’ walking tour every Saturday, April-October, for groups over two, by reservation. The Elvis tour lasts three hours and includes more than 20 Elvis sites, including his teenage home at Lauderdale Courts. Tours depart from the Elvis statue on Beale Street, at 1000. Contact the Memphis CVB (tel: (901) 543 5300; www.memphistravel.com) for other self-guided walking tours.

Bus Tours
Blues City Tours (tel: (901) 522 9229; website: www.memphisite.com/bluescity) operates a variety of daily bus tours of Memphis. The three-hour ‘Memphis City Tour’ takes in all the major sights, including Downtown, Beale Street, the Lorraine Hotel, Graceland, The Peabody Duck March and the Pyramid. Free hotel pick-up is arranged. Similarly, Coach USA (tel: (901) 382 6366; website: www.coachusa.us) offers a variety of tours, including a ‘Memphis City Tour’ and an ‘Elvis Platinum Tour’. Pick-up is available from all Memphis hotels. Both tours last three hours. All Points USA (tel: (901) 432 9042 or (877) 892 3883) and Crown Coach Charters & Tours (tel: (901) 384 9988 or (800) 617 8224) offer a variety of bus tours around Memphis and the surrounding region, for both groups and individuals.

Other Tours
A trip on the Mississippi is one of the most relaxing tours available. Memphis Queen Line (tel: (800) 221 6197 or (901) 527 5694; website: www.memphisqueen.com) operates sightseeing cruises in traditional paddle-wheel boats. Tours operate from 1 March to 30 November, departing from Memphis Harbour, at the foot of Union Avenue on the river.

American Dream Safari (tel: (901) 527 8870; website: www.americandreamsafari.com) runs speciality tours of Memphis in a 1955 Cadillac. Tours range from a three-hour city tour to the eight-hour Delta Day Trip. The meeting point is usually at the fountain in The Peabody Hotel lobby, 149 Union Avenue, although hotel pick-up can be arranged – a surcharge may apply if the hotel is out of the Downtown area.

Memphis Explorations (tel: (901) 761 1838; website: http://memphisexplorations.com) offers driving tours of the city and a full-day trip to Tupelo, to see Elvis’ birthplace. Hotel pick-up is arranged.

Driving tours are also available from several other companies: Destination King (website: www.destinationking.com); Experience Memphis, Inc. (tel: (901) 218 5787); Heritage Tours (tel: (901) 527 3427; website: www.hertitagetoursmemphis.com); See Memphis Inc. (tel: (901) 525 4617 or (800) 235 7311); Sweet Magnolia Tours (tel: (901) 525 2842; (866) 320 5295; website: www.SweetMagnoliaTours.com).

Downtown horse-drawn carriage tours parade the streets nightly, only minutes from every Downtown hotspot and about an hour from Midtown Memphis attractions such as the Memphis Zoo, Brooks Museum and Overton Square. Carriage tours also run on a shortened daytime schedule (tel: (901) 527 7542 or (888) 267 9100; website: www.carriagetoursofmemphis.com).

See Memphis by land and water. The newest option for sightseeing in Memphis is Ride the Ducks, an amphibious vehicle holding 30-40 passengers that drives past the principal Downtown sights before descending into the river for a cruise up the Mississippi! Departures from outside AutoZone Park on the corner of Third Street and Union Avenue (tel: (901) 521 3825 (DUCK); website: www.memphisducks.com).