Mississippi is the birthplace of the blues, a land of mighty rivers, antebellum mansions, and some of the most soulful cooking in America. From the cotton fields of the Delta where Elvis Presley was born and B.B. King learned to play, to the white-sand beaches of the Gulf Coast and the grand antebellum homes of Natchez, Mississippi offers visitors an authentic dive into Southern culture, music, and history.
Top day trips
Handpicked excursions within easy reach.
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a full city day from the Mississippi coast: the French Quarter's grid of 18th- and 19th-century buildings, live jazz clubs, and Creole food culture make it a different world from Biloxi despite the short drive. One day gets you the Quarter and maybe a streetcar ride or a swamp tour, not the whole city.
Highlights: Jackson Square — the cathedral, artists along the fence, and the Mississippi River levee behind it · French Quarter (Bourbon, Royal, and Chartres Streets) — walk Royal for antiques and galleries, Bourbon for bars and music · Cafe du Monde — beignets and chicory coffee, order at the counter, expect a line most of the day · St. Louis Cathedral — the oldest continuously active Catholic cathedral in the US, free to step inside · St. Charles Avenue streetcar — ride it through the Garden District to see the mansions along the route
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is the day trip for music history out of the Mississippi Delta: Beale Street, Sun Studio, and Graceland are all here, and the drive up US-61 from Clarksdale retraces the same route Delta blues musicians took north. It rewards travelers who care about the blues and rock and roll lineage more than a generic city visit.
Highlights: Sun Studio — the working studio where Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis recorded, run as a short guided tour · Graceland — Elvis Presley's home, now a museum; the mansion tour is the core visit and takes a couple of hours · Beale Street — blues clubs and neon signage in a few compact blocks, best experienced in the evening · National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel — built around the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination
Natchez Trace Parkway — Natchez to Jackson
This stretch of the Natchez Trace Parkway is a low-speed, no-billboards drive along a route used by Native American traders and later the Kaintuck boatmen walking home from selling goods downriver at Natchez. The appeal is the pace itself — pull-offs with short walks to mounds, waterfalls, and preserved sections of the original sunken trace — rather than any single headline stop.
Highlights: Emerald Mound — one of the largest Native American ceremonial mounds in the country, a short walk from the parking area · Sunken Trace — a preserved section of the original trail worn several feet below grade by centuries of foot and hoof traffic · Mount Locust — a restored 1780s inn (one of the last surviving 'stands' on the old Trace) with a small visitor stop · Rocky Springs — the site of an abandoned town, now just a church and cemetery in the woods, reachable by a short trail
Natchez Historic District
Natchez sits on a bluff above the Mississippi River and has one of the largest concentrations of pre-Civil War mansions in the South, built on cotton wealth from plantations across the river in Louisiana. The historic district is compact enough to see on foot, mixing antebellum house-museum tours with a working river town below the bluff.
Highlights: Longwood — the largest octagonal house in the US, left unfinished when the Civil War stopped construction, with the interior still showing exposed framing on the upper floors · Under-the-Hill — the old riverfront saloon district at the base of the bluff, now a handful of bars and shops facing the Mississippi River · Natchez Bluff — a walking park along the top of the bluff with river views south toward Louisiana · The Briars — the plantation home where Jefferson Davis married Varina Howell, open for tours
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is Alabama's oldest city, built around a natural harbor on Mobile Bay, and reachable from Biloxi in about an hour along I-10. It's a lower-key alternative to New Orleans for a Gulf Coast city day, with its own French and Spanish colonial layers, a historic downtown, and Mardi Gras traditions that predate New Orleans' own.
Highlights: Mobile's Dauphin Street — the historic downtown entertainment strip with restaurants and bars in restored 19th-century buildings · USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park — a WWII battleship and submarine open for self-guided tours on the bay · Oakleigh Historic Complex — an antebellum house museum in the Oakleigh Garden District · Mobile Carnival Museum — covers Mobile's Mardi Gras history, which locals note predates New Orleans' celebration
Ship Island (Gulf Islands National Seashore)
Ship Island is a barrier island reachable only by ferry from Gulfport, with a wide undeveloped Gulf beach on one side and Fort Massachusetts, a Civil War-era brick fort, on the other. It's a beach day built around the ferry schedule rather than a drive-up destination, which keeps it far less crowded than the mainland beaches.
Highlights: Fort Massachusetts — a Civil War coastal fort at the ferry landing, with ranger-led tours covering its role guarding the Mississippi Sound · The Gulf-side beach — clear water and a sandbar that make it noticeably different from the Mississippi Sound side of the island · The ferry ride itself from Gulfport — about 50 minutes each way past the barrier islands
Vicksburg — Battlefield and History
Vicksburg National Military Park preserves the site of the 47-day Union siege in 1863 that split the Confederacy along the Mississippi River, and it's dense enough with monuments and terrain to fill most of a day on its own. The battlefield's 16-mile tour road and the raised USS Cairo ironclad make it one of the more substantial Civil War sites to visit as a single stop.
Highlights: The 16-mile battlefield tour road — winds past hundreds of state and unit monuments marking troop positions during the siege · USS Cairo Museum — the recovered Union ironclad gunboat, sunk in the Yazoo River in 1862 and raised a century later · Vicksburg National Cemetery — over 17,000 Union burials along the tour road, most of them unidentified · Downtown Vicksburg's murals along the floodwall — depicting the city's river and Civil War history
Oxford and Ole Miss
Oxford is a college town built around a classic Southern courthouse square, home to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and long associated with William Faulkner, who lived and wrote here. The day mixes the square's shops and restaurants with the university campus and Faulkner's home just south of town.
Highlights: Oxford Square — the courthouse-centered square with independent shops and restaurants, including Square Books · Rowan Oak — William Faulkner's home, preserved with his handwritten notes still on a study wall, open for self-guided tours · The Grove at Ole Miss — the shaded gathering space at the heart of campus, famous on football Saturdays but open to walk any day · University of Mississippi Museum — houses the university's art and Southern folk art collections
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Multi-day tours from Mississippi
If you have longer than a day, these are organised multi-day trips that start here.
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Day trip tips
Make the most of your excursions.
Drive the Blues Highway (US-61) from Natchez to Memphis for the most atmospheric Mississippi road trip — 420 miles of Delta history
Start day trips to New Orleans before 9 AM to arrive early enough for a full day; return by 8 PM to avoid late traffic on I-10
Ship Island ferry fills up on summer weekends — book online at gulfislandsferry.com at least 2-3 days in advance
The Natchez Trace Parkway has no commercial vehicles and a strict 50 mph limit — it is a scenic drive, not a fast highway; allow extra time