In my quest to see all 50 states, I keep a map as a visual representation of the states I’ve already visited. Because I’m a native Southerner, most of the South and east coast has been filled for a long time, but the Southeast has been habitually stained by one huge gap: Mississippi.
Sadly, Mississippi isn’t nearly as accessible as the rest of the region. There’s no major airport like Atlanta to make it an easy flight, and the drive time from my home in Central Florida puts it out of reach for a quick trip. There’s not a lot to do in Mississippi, either, so an extended visit was pretty much out of the question. As a result, I resigned Mississippi to just being a gaping void on my map until I could find a way to do it easily.
Through a convergence of factors, though, I finally filled that void and only committed to a quick weekend trip.
How I did Mississippi in a Weekend (and still had time for Memphis)
As of fall 2023, not a lot of airlines offer easy turn-around trips to anywhere near Mississippi. Sure, a flight to New Orleans followed by a drive through most of Louisiana could get me there, but the objective is to see Mississippi, not the Louisiana bayous.
After some searching, though, I found a combination of routes that made a weekend trip easily accessible. An outbound flight from Orlando to Memphis early on a Saturday afternoon rang in at just $110 on Southwest, and the return trip (via Frontier) departed Memphis International Airport around 8:00 PM Central Time on Sunday evening. The price tag for the Frontier flight? Just $28.
Memphis is in Tennessee, though, not Mississippi, so a rental car was a requirement for this trip. I had accumulated a free rental day from National Car Rentals through my past travels, and only needed the car for one day, so I cashed that in to make the drive free. Had I not had the free day, rental car costs would have been just a shade over $50 plus about $30 in gas. Thanks to an Ole Miss football game on the day of my arrival, the rental car selection was pretty limited; somehow, though, I still ended up with a pretty sexy ride for the weekend.
Because there aren’t a lot of tourist attractions in Mississippi, I chose to drive to Tupelo: the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Much like the rental car, I cashed in Wyndham Rewards points for a free night at the Wingate Tupelo. This hotel—which I later found to be a former Microtel—wasn’t exactly luxurious, but it was more than sufficient for my needs. Had I not used points, lodging costs would have been around $90.
In the end, my out-of-pocket costs for this trip were just under $200, plus food and a spontaneous Uber ride downtown Memphis. Without the benefit of points and free days, the costs would have been closer to $350.
Bonus Memphis Exploration
Because my inbound flight arrived in the early afternoon, the return flight didn’t leave until well into the evening, and I only had the rental car for one day, there was a gap that could have me potentially stranded at the airport for almost seven hours. Delta Sky Club aside, there is no lounge in MEM, so that could have meant a lot of unused downtime.
Not a big fan of whiling away an entire day at the airport gate, I decided to return the rental car on time and catch an Uber into downtown Memphis. The ride from MEM airport to Beale Street initially priced out at nearly $50, but the peak pricing subsided pretty quickly and the final cost was under $20. The return trip—at 5:30 PM on a Sunday, apparently not a prime time for Memphis traffic—cost about $15.
My very friendly Uber driver–completely exemplifying that Southern hospitality–dropped me off at Beale Street, where many of Memphis’s most historic landmarks, famous bars and hot blues joints are within easy walking distance. Just a block off of Beale, a streetcar provides easy transportation to the rest of downtown, including to the former Lorraine Motel, presently home to the National Civil Rights Museum.
Memphis is renowned for its blues music, and the soulful sounds wafted out of almost every juke joint on Beale street—even at midday on a Sunday. The streetcar is a great way to see downtown’s beauty with almost no effort, and Central Barbecue—just across the street from the Civil Rights Museum—is home to some of the most delicious barbecue I’ve ever tasted.
If Mississippi is on your list, Tupelo is a great place to visit and say you’ve seen The Magnolia State. You’ll likely run out of things to do very quickly, though, but Memphis is an easy drive away and more than happy to fill in the gaps. For some ideas on things to do in the area, check out my blog post “7 Memorable Things to do in Memphis.”