- 1. Tunica, Mississippi (about 40 minutes)
- 2. Oxford, Mississippi (about 1 hour 15 minutes)
- 3. Clarksdale and the Delta (about 1 hour 20 minutes)
- 4. Crowley’s Ridge, Arkansas (about 1 hour 30 minutes)
- 5. Tupelo and the Natchez Trace (about 1 hour 45 minutes)
- 6. Shiloh National Military Park (about 2 hours)
- 7. Little Rock (about 2 hours 15 minutes)
- 8. Nashville (about 3 hours)
- 9. Jackson, Mississippi (about 3 hours 15 minutes)
- 10. Vicksburg (about 3 hours 30 minutes)
- 11. Hot Springs, Arkansas (about 4 hours)
- 12. St. Louis (about 4 hours 30 minutes)
- Getting out of Memphis without a car
- Cheap weekend getaways from Memphis by car
- Last-minute weekend getaways from Memphis
Memphis sits within a comfortable drive of more variety than most people give it credit for, and the twelve below are ordered by how long it takes to get there. Drive times are for clear roads, so add to them for a Friday evening start.
1. Tunica, Mississippi (about 40 minutes)
Casinos on the river are the obvious draw, but the Tunica RiverPark and the Gateway to the Blues museum in an old railway depot are the better reasons to make the drive.
2. Oxford, Mississippi (about 1 hour 15 minutes)
A courthouse square that works as a town centre should, Faulkner’s house at Rowan Oak kept as he left it, and Square Books, which is one of the best independent bookshops in the South.
3. Clarksdale and the Delta (about 1 hour 20 minutes)
The crossroads of the blues, with juke joints that still operate and the Delta Blues Museum in the old freight depot. Flat cotton country the whole way down Highway 61.
4. Crowley’s Ridge, Arkansas (about 1 hour 30 minutes)
A narrow wooded ridge standing two hundred feet above the Delta for 150 miles, geologically unlike anything around it. The scenic byway along it is the trip.
5. Tupelo and the Natchez Trace (about 1 hour 45 minutes)
Elvis’s birthplace is a two-room house you can walk through in ten minutes, and the Natchez Trace Parkway starts nearby: no commercial traffic, no billboards, 444 miles of it.
6. Shiloh National Military Park (about 2 hours)
One of the best preserved Civil War battlefields anywhere, quiet and lightly visited, with the Indian Mounds above the Tennessee River at the far end of the tour road.
7. Little Rock (about 2 hours 15 minutes)
Central High School is a national historic site and the reason to come. Add the Clinton Presidential Center and the River Market district.
8. Nashville (about 3 hours)
The Country Music Hall of Fame, the Ryman and Broadway. A different Tennessee entirely, and worth the drive at least once.
9. Jackson, Mississippi (about 3 hours 15 minutes)
The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Museum of Mississippi History share a building and are among the best in the country. Medgar Evers’s home is preserved nearby.
10. Vicksburg (about 3 hours 30 minutes)
The siege lines are laid out across the hills above the Mississippi, and the raised gunboat USS Cairo sits under a canopy in the middle of the park.
11. Hot Springs, Arkansas (about 4 hours)
A national park wrapped around a bathhouse row, where you can still take the waters in a restored 1912 building. The surrounding Ouachitas handle the walking.
12. St. Louis (about 4 hours 30 minutes)
The Arch, Forest Park, and a zoo and art museum that are both free. Better as three days than two.
Getting out of Memphis without a car
Better than most Southern cities. Amtrak’s City of New Orleans runs daily through Memphis between Chicago and New Orleans, which puts Jackson and the Mississippi corridor within reach without driving. Nothing serves the Delta towns, Shiloh or the Arkansas side, so those all assume a car.
Cheap weekend getaways from Memphis by car
- Shiloh: a national military park with no entrance fee
- Clarksdale: cheap beds and the music is the budget line
- Crowley’s Ridge: a scenic byway costs only the petrol
- Natchez Trace: free parkway, free pull-offs, cheap campgrounds
Last-minute weekend getaways from Memphis
- Tunica, forty minutes and rooms almost always available
- Oxford, outside home football weekends
- Shiloh, which never sells out because nothing is booked
- Little Rock, large enough for a same-day room
If you are deciding on the day, work backwards from the drive rather than the destination: anything under two hours leaves you a genuine Saturday, and anything past four is really a three-day trip wearing a weekend label.
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Written by
John Morrison is the founder and lead travel writer at Packzup. Over the past decade he has explored destinations across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania — always self-funded, never on a press trip.
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