10 Spots That Memphis Locals Love
Beale Street and Graceland get all the headlines, but if you venture a little off the tourist trail you’ll discover a deeper, stranger, more soulful side of the Bluff City that most visitors never see. These are the spots that Memphis locals love: the places that inspire genuine civic pride and the “you have to see this” texts to out-of-town friends.
Here are 10 hidden gems that Memphis locals love, and that you should add to your itinerary right now.
1. Crystal Shrine Grotto
Memorial Park Cemetery, East Memphis | Free
Tucked inside a quiet East Memphis cemetery is one of the most extraordinary and unexpected places in Tennessee. The Crystal Shrine Grotto is a man-made cave carved into a hillside by Mexican artist Dionicio Rodriguez, who spent nearly 50 years filling it with sparkling quartz crystals and intricate sculptures depicting the life of Christ. Walking through feels genuinely otherworldly; light bouncing off crystal formations, the faint sound of harp music drifting through the air, biblical scenes emerging from the rock walls.
It’s simultaneously serene and surreal. The grotto is open to the public during daylight hours and free to visit, which makes it one of the most remarkable free experiences in all of Memphis. Use GPS to navigate through the cemetery grounds because it can be tricky to find on your first visit.
Local tip: Sign the guestbook. Entries from visitors all over the world make for unexpectedly touching reading.
2. Crosstown Concourse
1350 Concourse Ave, Midtown Memphis | Free to explore
Few urban revitalization stories in America are more inspiring than Crosstown Concourse. What was once a massive Sears, Roebuck & Co. distribution center, opened in 1927 and shuttered in the 1990s, has been reborn as a breathtaking 1.5 million square-foot “vertical urban village” in the heart of Midtown.
Today, Crosstown houses over 40 restaurants and businesses, a craft brewery, art galleries, a performing arts center, a YMCA, a high school, apartments, and its own radio station (WYXR 91.7 FM, broadcasting live from the atrium). The Memphis Listening Lab on the second floor lets visitors browse and listen to thousands of albums on a world-class speaker system, completely free. On any given weekend afternoon, the soaring central atrium hums with the energy of a city that knows it built something special.
Crosstown isn’t just a pit stop. It’s a whole day. Grab coffee at French Truck, tour the galleries, catch a show at the Green Room, and let the building reveal itself to you one floor at a time.
Local tip: Keep an eye out for the art hidden in unexpected corners throughout the building. There’s more than you’d think.
3. Big River Crossing
South of Downtown Memphis | Free
Standing in the middle of the Mississippi River, watching a barge drift beneath you while a freight train rolls by on the parallel tracks and the Memphis skyline glows in the distance; That’s the kind of experience that stays with you. Big River Crossing (BRX) opened in 2016 on the historic Harahan Bridge, built in 1916, converting an old automobile roadway into the longest public pedestrian and cycling bridge across the Mississippi River.
The crossing is nearly a mile long, connecting downtown Memphis to the floodplains of West Memphis, Arkansas. It’s free to walk or bike, open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and connects to over 70 miles of the Big River Trail system on the Arkansas side. At night, the bridge comes alive with seasonal LED lighting that coordinates with the Mighty Lights show on the nearby Hernando de Soto Bridge; a spectacle that’s fully free and runs hourly from sundown to 10 p.m.
Come early morning for solitude and golden light on the river. Come at dusk for sunset and the light show.
Local tip: Rent a bike from one of the stations near the entrance to cover more ground on the Arkansas side.
4. Shelby Farms Park
Germantown Blvd, East Memphis | Free
Most visitors to Memphis don’t realize the city is home to one of the largest urban parks in the country. At 4,500 acres, five times the size of New York City’s Central Park, Shelby Farms Park is a sprawling natural playground that locals treat as their collective backyard.
The park features more than 20 lakes, wildlife including a resident herd of bison, the only horse-riding operation in the Mid-South, miles of hiking and biking trails, paddleboards and kayak rentals, and the Go Ape Treetop Adventure with zip lines and rope courses above the tree canopy. The Woodland Discovery Playground is legendary among Memphis families, and the Wolf River Greenway connects Shelby Farms directly to Midtown, making it accessible on two wheels.
It’s free to enter, endlessly expansive, and genuinely beautiful. Locals visit year-round and somehow never seem to run out of new corners to explore.
Local tip: Get there early on weekend mornings before the trails fill up. Fall is particularly stunning when the park’s tree canopy turns gold.
5. The Metal Museum
374 Metal Museum Drive, South of Downtown | Paid admission
If you haven’t heard of the Metal Museum, you’re not alone, but you should fix that immediately. Perched on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River just south of downtown, this is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to the art and craft of fine metalworking. The 3.2-acre grounds include a sculpture garden, a fully functioning blacksmith shop and foundry, a permanent collection of over 3,500 pieces spanning 20 countries, and a gazebo with jaw-dropping views of the Mississippi.
On weekends, visitors can watch live blacksmithing and aluminum casting demonstrations. The museum also offers hands-on workshops in welding, casting, and enameling; one of the more unusual and memorable ways to spend an afternoon in Memphis.
Don’t let the niche subject matter deter you. The combination of world-class craftsmanship, stunning river views, and a relaxed pace makes this one of the most genuinely enjoyable afternoons the city has to offer.
Local tip: Visit on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to catch the live blacksmithing demonstrations.
6. Stax Museum of American Soul Music
926 E. McLemore Ave, Soulsville | Paid admission
While Sun Studio gets the rock ‘n’ roll pilgrims, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music quietly delivers one of the most powerful and immersive music experiences in the country, and it’s still not on enough visitors’ radars. Built on the exact site of the original Stax Records studio in South Memphis, the museum celebrates the artists who created the sound of American soul: Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the Staple Singers, Sam & Dave, and dozens more.
The exhibits are extraordinary. Highlights include Isaac Hayes’ iconic gold-trimmed 1972 Cadillac Eldorado, the reconstructed interior of the original recording studio, a circa-1906 Mississippi Delta church, and interactive exhibits where visitors can sing karaoke in the studio and play actual instruments. TIME magazine once named it the most authentic American experience in Tennessee.
What makes Stax special beyond the artifacts is the story of a recording studio in the segregated South where Black and white artists worked side by side to create music that changed the world.
Local tip: Pair this visit with a drive through the Soulsville neighborhood to see the ongoing revitalization of the community surrounding the museum.
7. Broad Avenue Arts District
Broad Avenue, Binghampton | Free to explore
Once a forgotten commercial strip, Broad Avenue has transformed into one of Memphis’s most creative and welcoming neighborhoods. The mile-long stretch between National and Tillman is home to art galleries, murals, craft breweries, locally owned shops, vintage stores, guitar shops, and some of the city’s most interesting food. Wiseacre Brewing Company anchors the east end, and the monthly First Fridays on Broad event draws a lively crowd of artists, musicians, and neighbors for open houses and drinks at local businesses.
It doesn’t have the polish of a trendy development, and that’s exactly the point. Broad Avenue feels authentically Memphis: scrappy, creative, welcoming, and proud. The surrounding Binghampton neighborhood has seen genuine revitalization here, and the arts district is a big part of the reason why.
Local tip: Visit on the first Friday of the month when galleries host open houses and the whole street comes alive.
8. Overton Park & the Levitt Shell
Poplar Ave, Midtown | Free
Midtown Memphis’s Overton Park is famous for housing the zoo and the Brooks Museum of Art, but its best-kept secret might be the Levitt Shell, a gorgeous outdoor amphitheater tucked into the park’s wooded interior. This is the stage where a 19-year-old Elvis Presley played one of his first public performances in 1954, and it’s been bringing free concerts to Memphians ever since.
The Levitt Shell hosts an extensive season of free concerts from spring through fall covering genres from country to blues to indie rock to classical. Bring a blanket, grab food from a nearby restaurant, and settle in under the trees for an evening that feels unmistakably like Memphis.
The surrounding park, with its old-growth forest, trails, disc golf, and dog park is equally worth a slow afternoon.
Local tip: Check the Levitt Shell schedule before your visit and plan your trip around a show. The free concerts are a genuine community treasure.
9. Cooper-Young Historic District
Cooper & Young Ave, Midtown | Free to explore
Every great city has a neighborhood that feels like the soul of the place; a walkable, human-scaled grid where the coffee shops and bookstores and dive bars know your name. In Memphis, that neighborhood is Cooper-Young. The historic district centered on the intersection of Cooper and Young avenues in Midtown is brimming with independent restaurants, vintage clothing boutiques, galleries, and music venues.
Burke’s Book Store, one of the oldest independent bookstores in the South, has been a fixture here for decades. The neighborhood hosts the massive Cooper-Young Festival every September, one of Tennessee’s largest outdoor festivals, drawing hundreds of artisans and thousands of visitors. Year-round, the neighborhood simply hums with the kind of everyday vitality that city planners everywhere try to manufacture but rarely achieve.
Local tip: Walk the rainbow crosswalk at the main intersection, a local icon and a great photo opportunity.
10. Elmwood Cemetery
824 S. Dudley St, South Memphis | Free
Elmwood Cemetery is one of Memphis’s most surprising and rewarding spots that Memphis locals love. Founded in 1852, this 80-acre Victorian garden cemetery is the resting place of tens of thousands of Memphians, including Civil War soldiers, yellow fever epidemic victims, famous musicians, governors, and ordinary citizens whose carved headstones tell extraordinary stories.
It’s the kind of place that reveals itself slowly: ornate Egyptian Revival monuments rising above ancient oaks, winding paths leading to unexpected views, a profound sense of the city’s long and complicated history. The cemetery offers guided walking tours, a self-guided audio tour, and a remarkable research archive for those tracing family history in the Mid-South.
Locals visit to walk, reflect, photograph, and connect with a Memphis that predates the tourist attractions by a century or more. There is nothing quite like it in the city.
Local tip: Download the self-guided audio tour before you arrive for the full experience.
The Real Memphis Awaits
The Memphis that most visitors see is extraordinary. But the Memphis that locals love is deeper, stranger, and more layered than any single tourist trail can capture. From a crystal-filled cave in a cemetery to a mile-long walk across the Mississippi, from a legendary soul music studio to a 4,500 acre nature escape, the city repays every bit of curiosity you bring to it.
