Road trips by city

Road trips from Memphis

13 back-roads routes start within a 4.5-hour drive of Memphis, including 3 day trips and 9 weekend drives; 7 ready-made itineraries begin nearby.

Drive times are estimates to the nearer end of each route (straight-line miles plus a quarter, at 50 mph); the atlas itself never routes you onto an interstate once the drive begins.

Open the interactive map →

Day trips from Memphis

• The Bootheel: US 61 North
  Starts in Memphis
  Memphis → Cape Girardeau · ~175 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-55
• The Hill Country Ramble
  Starts in Memphis
  Memphis → Tupelo · ~130 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-22
• The Arkansas Delta
  About 1 h 20 min to Helena
  Helena → Lake Village · ~150 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-40 / I-55

Weekend road trips from Memphis

• US 70: Broadway of America
  Starts in Memphis
  Memphis → Nashville · ~210 mi · 2 days · skips I-40
• Highway 64: Shiloh to Lookout Mountain
  Starts in Memphis
  Memphis → Chattanooga · ~340 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-40 / I-24
• Crowley's Ridge Parkway
  About 1 h 20 min to Helena
  Piggott → Helena · ~200 mi · 2 days · skips I-55
• The Shoals
  About 2 h 10 min to Corinth
  Corinth → Huntsville · ~150 mi · 2 days · skips I-22 / I-65
• The Middle Tennessee Pike
  About 3 h 25 min to Muscle Shoals
  Nashville → Muscle Shoals · ~140 mi · 2 days · skips I-65
• US 60: The Mutton Line
  About 3 h 55 min to Paducah
  Louisville → Paducah · ~220 mi · 2 days · skips I-64 / the parkways
• Poverty Point & the Delta Parishes
  About 4 h 20 min to Lake Providence
  Vidalia → Lake Providence · ~130 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-20
• Arkansas 7: The Scenic Seven
  About 4 h 25 min to Hot Springs
  Hot Springs → Harrison · ~160 mi · 2 days · skips I-49 (by 80 miles)
• Talimena & the Ouachitas
  About 4 h 25 min to Hot Springs
  Hot Springs → Talihina, OK · ~130 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-30

Named parkways and scenic byways within reach

• Crowley's Ridge Parkway
  About 1 h 20 min to Helena
  Piggott → Helena · ~200 mi · 2 days · skips I-55
• Arkansas 7: The Scenic Seven
  About 4 h 25 min to Hot Springs
  Hot Springs → Harrison · ~160 mi · 2 days · skips I-49 (by 80 miles)

Longer itineraries starting near Memphis

• Delta 101
  3 days · ~420 mi · from Memphis
  The essential first taste: down the Blues Highway to the Crossroads and the Delta's shrines, back through Faulkner's Oxford. Music every night if…
• The Civil Rights Pilgrimage
  7 days · ~900 mi · from Memphis
  Memphis to Birmingham through the movement's ground truth. The most important week in this atlas — built with rest stops, because it asks a lot.
• The Deep South Grand Circle
  14 days · ~1700 mi · from Memphis
  The whole lower South in one loop: Delta blues, Grant's campaign, River Road reckonings, Cajun Saturdays, the Gulf at porch speed, Hank's highway…
• White Sauce & Dry Rub: the Barbecue Belt
  3 days · ~320 mi · from Memphis
  Three barbecue nations in one diagonal: Memphis dry-rub ribs, North Alabama's mayonnaise heresy (it works), and Birmingham's modern pit renaissance…
• The Whole Hog
  28 days · ~4300 mi · from Memphis (loop)
  The full perimeter: Delta → River Road → Cajun country → the whole Gulf → up the Atlantic from St. Augustine's kitsch to Blackbeard's inlet → the…
• Memphis to New Orleans on US 61
  4 days · ~500 mi · from Memphis
  The full Highway 61 run, river to river: the Delta's jukes and shrines, Vicksburg's bluffs, Natchez's mansions and the Felicianas, then the levee…
• The Great River Road, Southern Act
  6 days · ~650 mi · from Memphis
  The Mississippi's last 700 miles by its levee roads: Delta blues country on MS 1, Vicksburg and Natchez on the bluffs, the Felicianas, the…

Other cities: Atlanta · Nashville · New Orleans · Houston · Dallas · Austin · San Antonio · Charlotte · Birmingham · Charleston · Miami · Orlando · Tampa · Jacksonville · Louisville · Raleigh · Richmond · Knoxville · Chattanooga · Savannah · Little Rock · Baton Rouge · Mobile · Pensacola · Greenville, SC · Asheville · Virginia Beach · Columbia, SC · Washington, DC · Lexington, KY · Jackson, MS · Huntsville · Montgomery · Tallahassee · Myrtle Beach · Wilmington, NC · Oklahoma City.