Graceland

Graceland: The House That Actually Delivers

Graceland sits at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard, 9 miles south of downtown Memphis. Elvis bought it in 1957 for $102,500. He was 22. He died there in 1977. The house opened to the public in 1982 and has been one of the most-visited private homes in America ever since.

It delivers. That’s the thing worth saying upfront. You expect kitsch and you get something more complicated: a genuine record of a specific life at a specific level of 1970s excess, preserved with odd fidelity. The Jungle Room (green shag carpet on the floors and ceiling, Polynesian furniture, an indoor waterfall) is even more strange in person than in photographs. The TV Room has three televisions side by side in a row, because Elvis reportedly read that President Johnson watched three networks simultaneously. The media room has a fabric ceiling and an enormous jukebox. None of it looks like anywhere else.

The Tours

The Mansion Tour is the core experience. It takes around 90 minutes with the audio guide (narrated in part by Priscilla Presley). You move through the main floor rooms and the back garden. The upstairs, where Elvis died, remains closed.

The Meditation Garden is where Elvis is buried, alongside his parents and grandmother. People leave messages and flowers on the grave. More affecting than you’d expect.

The Elvis Presley’s Memphis entertainment complex across the road holds the car collection (including a pink Cadillac and a Stutz Blackhawk), the airplanes (the Hound Dog II and the Lisa Marie, worth the add-on), stage costumes, gold records, and a reasonable collection of personal memorabilia. The Lisa Marie was fitted out as a private jet in the mid-1970s and the interior is extraordinary.

Tickets: The mansion-only entry costs around $45. Various packages bundle in the Elvis Presley’s Memphis complex, the airplane tour, and the automobile museum. The full Graceland access pass runs around $75-85. Buy online to skip the gate queue.

Memphis Beyond Graceland

Beale Street is the obvious next stop: a 1.8-mile stretch through downtown historically central to Memphis blues. Today it’s heavily tourist-oriented, but the live music at places like BB King’s Blues Club and Blues City Cafe is consistent and worth a couple of hours.

Sun Studio on Union Avenue is a 20-minute drive from Graceland. This is where Elvis recorded his first tracks in 1954, and where Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and others cut their earliest sessions. The tours run every hour and are considerably more interesting than they have any right to be. Budget 1.5 hours.

The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel on Mulberry Street is where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot on April 4, 1968. The museum built around the preserved motel rooms is serious and important. Allow 2-3 hours and don’t rush it.

Where to Eat

Cozy Corner on North Parkway does slow-cooked barbecue in a small room. The whole Cornish hen is the local recommendation. Cash only, closes when the food runs out.

The Rendezvous on General Washburn Alley has been serving dry-rub ribs since 1948. The alley entrance and the wood-panelled basement room feel like stepping back several decades. Reservations make sense on weekends.

The Arcade Restaurant on South Main (since 1919, Memphis’s oldest café) makes decent diner food including the peanut butter and banana sandwich Elvis famously favoured. More a pilgrimage stop than a great restaurant.

Staying Near Graceland

The Guest House at Graceland is the hotel directly on the property. 450 rooms, Elvis-themed décor that ranges from tasteful to full commitment, and a pool with a stage for outdoor concerts. Rates typically run $150-250/night. Convenient, but staying downtown and driving out gives you better access to the city’s restaurant and music scene.