Memphis: City Tour, Riverboat Cruise & Sun Studio Options

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/6

Duration2h–7h

GroupUp to 42

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Ducks march down a hotel lobby while Elvis's first recording waits upstairs

You ride a narrated bus through Memphis's music and civil rights landmarks, stop to watch the Peabody Hotel's famous ducks descend to the lobby, and pass Victorian homes and Beale Street. Add a paddlewheel cruise on the Mississippi River or a visit to Sun Studio where Elvis recorded his first song — both available as paid upgrades at checkout. Hotel pickup and drop-off are included.

2h–7h

Step-by-step itinerary

Memphis city sightseeing tour

Start at downtown Memphis hotel
See Elvis Presley and BB King statues
Pass National Civil Rights Museum
Stop at Schwab general store
Pass St Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Pass Pyramid Arena
Stop at Peabody Hotel for duck march
Cruise down Beale Street and Cotton Row
Travel through Victorian Village
Optional Memphis Riverboats cruise
Optional visit to Sun Studio
Return to hotel

The Experience

A small group boards a mini-coach outside a downtown Memphis hotel, and within minutes the guide is pointing out statues of Elvis and BB King as the bus rolls past the Lorraine Hotel, where the National Civil Rights Museum now stands. The Memphis city tour moves through neighborhoods that matter — Victorian Village with homes built in the 1800s, Cotton Row, the stretch of Beale Street where the music still lives. You pass the Pyramid Arena, a 20,142-seat structure that looks exactly like what its name says, and stop at A. Schwab, a general store that has been there for 120 years and still smells like a general store should.

The Peabody Hotel stop is the one people talk about afterward. Every day at a set time, ducks that live on the rooftop make their way down to the lobby in what the hotel calls the March of the Ducks, and you're there to see it — it's brief, it's real, and it's the kind of thing that makes no sense until you're standing there watching it happen. If you've added the riverboat upgrade, you board a paddlewheel boat and cruise the Mississippi River with the captain pointing out Tom Lee Park and explaining how the river shaped Memphis commerce. The narration is the kind that sticks — not a script read fast, but actual information delivered by someone who knows the route.

Sun Studio, where an 18-year-old Elvis recorded his first song, is an optional add-on you can select at checkout. The studio itself is small, exact, preserved — the kind of place that doesn't need to be bigger to matter. After the tour wraps, the driver takes you back to your hotel. The whole day runs on a fixed schedule, which means you're not deciding when to move or how long to linger; the bus moves when it moves, and you see what's on the route.

What’s included

Hotel pickup and drop-off at select downtown Memphis hotels, narrated mini-coach tour of Memphis landmarks including Beale Street, Victorian Village, the Lorraine Hotel (National Civil Rights Museum), A.
Schwab general store, and the Pyramid Arena, stop at the Peabody Hotel to watch the March of the Ducks, views of Elvis and BB King statues.
Optional upgrades available at checkout: Memphis Riverboats cruise down the Mississippi River with captain commentary, or admission to Sun Studio where Elvis recorded his first song.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyPublic transport nearby

Operated by Memphis Best Tours

Is this one for you?Book this if you want Memphis's main sights and stories in one guided morning or afternoon without arranging transport or timing yourself — the fixed schedule and included pickup handle both, and the optional add-ons let you go deeper into music or river history if you want to.