Memphis: the home of the blues, the birthplace of the king of Rock n Roll, assassination place of Martin Luther King, fried food galore and sweet southern hospitality.

During our week stay, we resided in the famous Heartbreak hotel, where Elvis movies are played 24 hours a day, Elvis gift shops are abundant and the pool was heart shaped! The hotel is directly opposite Elvis's home, Gracelands and is owned by the Elvis estate.

On the third night we stayed in one of the four themed rooms, the "Graceland" suite, this was a gift for my dad, and we only stayed in here for one night, retaining our other rooms. This cost around $300.00, and was superb. You can hire any of the rooms out for one night during your stay, including the Hollywood suite and the Burning Love suite.

The hotel also boasted a gym, however this need severe updating, although it proclaimed not to be a gym but just an exercise centre, the cycling machine was broken, only three weights were left on the stand and only the running machine seemed modern and working efficiently. The sink also did not work and there was no towels or any tissue for use also.

On our free shuttle bus service, the tour guide told us that The number of visitors to Memphis and Gracelands increases every year, so the heartbreak hotel was attempting to build another down the road, to update its facilities and extend its room numbers. It seems everybody wants the true Elvis experience.

There is additional accommodation in Memphis including other hotels, motels, B&Bs and also near Gracelands that offer competitive rates compared to the heartbreak hotel, however I did not visit these so I cannot comment on the general quality and service of them.

Our flight to Memphis was not direct, we flied with American Airlines and first stopped at Chicago. This flight was about six hours, with a three hour break in the middle, and then a two hour flight to Memphis airport. Airport security in America was very tight and can take a while to get through, please remember under no circumstances is bottles allowed on the planes. I got told off at security for accidentally having a bottle of unopened water, even though I had just bought it at that airport five minutes previously and had the receipt! Also with medications I highly recommend taking a letter from your doctor and the packaging with them, my mum being a diabetic with insulin got stopped every time.

There is plenty of parking for guests and visitors at the heartbreak hotel and around the Presley estate, so you can easily drive here from the airport which is less than a 10 minute ride away.
However you do not need a car to visit this place!!
There are regular airport shuttles to the heartbreak hotel and there are regular bus shuttles to downtown Memphis and run from 7am to 11pm at night from the hotel itself and they are all free. The drivers are all very welcoming, will give you additional information of the local area on your trip and will answer any question you have. Just be sure to tip your driver!!

There are many ways to experience and travel around the city of Memphis. The most popular was the tram service at the top of the famous 'Beale street', that travels around downtown Memphis, past the National Civil Rights museum, past the Memphis "pyramid" and down to the Mississippi river where you can catch an original showboat and cruise. This had a reasonable price of $1.00 per ride per person, be sure to have the exact change only!! We found that on a Sunday that the trams stop at 6pm, so we had to walk back from the Mississippi River to Beale Street, which was quiet a feat uphill!

Weather and Your Health in Gracelands and Memphis

Tupelo - The Birth Place of Elvis and Where he Bought his first guitar

The drive was over an hour to get to Tupelo and once we arrived first visited his school where he completed 7th grade. We stood on the same steps where Elvis had his pictures taken as a student, although we could not visit inside the building you could get an essence of the 1920s and 30s of Elvis being a young boy.

We then went and had lunch in Elvis's favourite place to eat as a teenager known as "Johnny's" which was in the middle of nowhere. I had the same burger Elvis would have ordered, the "all meat burger", which was fabulous. The waitress told us he would sometimes order 20 of these in one sitting, and it was not difficult to see why, as they were light, really yummy and tasty. I could have easily sat down and have eaten two or three more. Furthermore you could sit in the same spot as the King, and the proof is in the picture next to the seat of Elvis staring right back at you. The place also boasts a "drive through" style takeout service. You drive up, a waitress takes your order and then returns with the goods. The place itself has not been updated since Elvis has been here and therefore is grubby, and there were flies everywhere. However this was a great insight into the life Elvis lead and I felt privileged to have visited this place.

Our next stop in our large air conditioned car, was to his home that he was born in. The complex also includes his parents car of the 1920s and 30s, the chapel Elvis worshipped in, statues, dedications, a gallery museum of his life as a child and his parents beginnings and of course another Elvis shop. The tour costs $10.00 per person and you are required to check in your cameras just for the museum part of the tour.

At the time of our visit we were unable to see the Chapel or the car of Elvis's parents because these were being cleaned and renovated for Elvis's birthday anniversary, so unfortunately I cannot comment on these parts of the tour. Our return journey took around an hour and included a little goodie bag of tupelo from our friendly driver.

If you are visiting Memphis, a look inside the Kings home is an absolute must. There are a variety of passes into the home, and the more you pay the more you get to see, ranging from the basic package of just his home to a VIP exclusive, allowing to enter the house, see his Lisa Marie and Hound Dog II planes, exhibits of his gold awards and 70s costumes and his enormous collection of cars (including his famous pink Cadillac) as many times as you like during your whole visit. We opted for the platinum pass, where we could visit his home, planes, cars, costumes and other exhibits in one day.

Inside the house and estates (including the Elvis complex on the other side of road where you get your shuttle bus from) there is absolutely no video cameras or flash photography! You are made to check your cameras into security lockers and beware every time you visit them you have to replace the money. (I believe it was a $1 ago) We had already booked our tickets in the UK for the Gracelands experience through Thomas Cook, when we got there was no queues to buy a ticket (either because we got their reasonable early at about 9am or because everybody else had bought there's either online or from their home country). We also found the tickets was cheaper to buy on the day and had been charged an additional £50 on top for all four tickets by Thomas cook.

The bus took us out of the complex and across the road and through the famous musical gates of Gracelands and up the drive. We stopped outside the front entrance and once again all shuffled out of the bus, and queued to be let into the house with other audio geared up tourists. There are plenty of security and lots of staff outside the house, and they were very entertaining in telling the story of the house before even Elvis got his hands on the estate. This is also a great time for a photo opportunity, we had accidentally got into a good spot into the queue where we could take a direct picture of ourselves outside Elvis's front door.

Following the other photographing tourists you pass into his bar and lounge areas, including his kitchen, which for the era of the 1970s was completely mod cons. Compared to Elvis's first home as a child, where it was two small rooms as the whole house, this really was luxury. You get to see his snooker room, the jungle room and his bar and tele area.

After leaving this building you very slowly progress towards the meditation garden and walk around the graves of Elvis, his mother, father, grandmother and a memorial plaque to his twin brother whom died at birth. There are floral tributes, dedications, artwork and candles from fans all over the world. The Elvis estate receive these daily from fans worldwide and place them on his grave site for them until they deteriorate due to the weather. You are allowed to take photos in this part of the estate, allow some people did not approve in the queue.

The first exhibit we visited with his 1970 costumes from his Las Vegas tours, the galleries were dimly light and there once again is no flash photograph allowed. Glass cases preserve and protect his costumes, but due to the lighting was very difficult to take any decent photographs. This exhibit was very short as it seems most of his earlier costumes were not preserved, until his later years. All his seventies jumpsuits were heavily adorned in stitching and jewels, with eccentric capes, animal designs and flared trousers. There are famous quotes and costume designs adorned the glass and background of the costumes.

Pictures of Memphis

Elvis, Beale Street, Memphis

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You could also get food on this establishment, including an ice cream parlour. The food was a little over priced here for what you got, but we did get our discount with our loyalty card. You can also get a refillable Elvis cup for during your day at the Elvis complex.

Memphis's 1950 era is evident from the architecture and streets, and the many shops that have been abandoned have some modern boutiques that have taken its place, but they look really out of location. Further down to the river, it has been re-modernised and is being updated, even further along there are modern developments such as the Memphis pyramid and shopping centres. However these also appear to have been abandoned, the modern shopping centre with Gap, Victoria Secret and others, once fully of booming shops have all been closed, and those that remain open practically pounce on you for a sale.

Memphis is also pretty cheap to buy in, though I did get ripped off when buying one tourist photograph. A chap next to me wanted his photo and spoke with a southern accent to the seller, attaining his two photos for $5.00, after finding mine, requesting two as well and speaking with my London accent, the seller promptly charged me $10.00. This was the only real incident I had in Memphis and no other place did this occur.

However I highly recommend trying the local cuisine, partially Beale's Street BB Kings fried green tomatoes starter, catfish main meal and their soup. All the food in here is too an incredibly high standard, fantastic value, with free live entertainment of soul and blues music. I also recommend visiting the deli in the main street of Memphis, where Tom Cruise famously filmed "The Firm", having your picture taken outside and grabbing a great baguette to go.

A trip to Memphis is not complete without a visit to the famous "Beale Street" at night, where home of the blues gets its true meaning from. Although you can visit, have lunch, shop and meet up for a drink during the day, the real excitement begins when the sun goes down. The Vegas style street, lit up with colourful enticing blues and jazz signs, buzzes with different music and beats, with live bands and actors on the street. The outside staff of each establishment attempt to pull you inside, and before you know it your eating a large rack of ribs, with a beer and dancing to "shake a tail feather".

Hard Rock Café on Beale Street - Elvis's Jailhouse Rock Jacket

The food here was also very good, service was excellent and the waitresses kept refilling our soft drink glasses without even asking. The food range was also impressive, including more than the local cuisine, including items such as fajitas and nachos. The food and drink was also inexpensive compared to the Hard Rock Café in London. We paid about $75.00 for four people, having starters and a main and a range of drinks. This was less than £50.00!! I highly, highly recommend a lunch here. They also have a shop and a bar if you just want a sneaky peak, and they also encourage filming and photography of their extensive collection.

No trip to Memphis is complete without a tour of Sun Records. This building is the most famous in Rock and Roll history, signing up the likes of not only Elvis, but Jerry Lee Lewis and Jonny Cash. This building is now an American national heritage site and under no circumstances can anything be removed or changed, so it will be preserved for all time. The tour is only $10.00 per person and waiting around for the tour to begin you can sit down and have a soda in a bar like fifties diner, looking out onto the door where Elvis first walked in, or wishing you owned the fabulous red fifties convertible that sits period correct outside. On the other hand, you could shop around the entrance for other souvenir goodies to add to your, by this point, growing collection including t-shirts, mugs, records and endless postcards.

At the end of the tour, you can have the opportunity to record for $30.00 a song on a CD in full karaoke style to endless choice of song, or as my sister did without any backing music and sung on her own. You get to go into a recording booth, where you put on the big headphones and record straight onto CD. My sister being the big Elvis fan and also a musical theatre student, found this a wonderful opportunity and was (after a bit of encouragement) ecstatic to have recorded a song in the same studio, barely two metres away where Elvis recorded his first number one hit.

Exiting off the famous Beale street is two great museums for an afternoon's activities of getting out of the hot Memphis sun, on the opposite side of the road to each other.

The outside of the museum, is the original motel that has been restored to the time period of Martin Luther King and has a plaque and memorial reef where he was shot. There is no access to this part, but photography is permitted on the outside.

After visiting the National Civil Rights Museum we continued our trip by catching the tram line down to the Mississippi river for a famous riverboat ride. This riverboat trip was an hour and a half in total and cost around $10.00 each. For another $30 or so dollars, you could take the evening dinner tour, that served a three course fish meal. You get your tickets in the riverboat shop, which also has a café and very very clean toilets, (I was actually quiet surprised considering the rest of the place looked like it was about to fall apart) and of course plenty of souvenirs to take home.