Ten Top Things to Do in the Southern States of the USA

You haven’t experienced hospitality until you’ve visited the USA’s South.

Welcoming guests has been elevated to an art form here. Southern society is built on a longstanding tradition of gracious manners that have well and truly weathered the changes in social convention that have swept the rest of the western world. It’s one of the things that makes the South such a wonderful travel destination.

Add to that an incredible cultural and musical heritage to explore, and superb Southern cuisine to enjoy, and you have all the makings of a once-in-a-lifetime holiday.

Here are ten top things to do in the southern states of the USA.

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1. Do a tour of Charleston in a horse and carriage

Charleston, South Carolina has been named the USA’s best travel destination by various prestigious travel publications. As one of the South’s oldest cities, it has an extraordinary history to uncover and a wealth of stunning antebellum (pre-Civil War) architecture that will take your breath away. However, like a true Southern belle, this town doesn’t give up its secrets easily. One way to burrow beneath what you’ll read in your guide book is to book a horse and carriage tour. Your horseman/guide will share their insider knowledge with you, and offer tips for other interesting things to do during your stay.

2. Visit Graceland

Elvis has well and truly left the building, but his legacy lives on at Graceland — the former home of The King, which is located in the city of Memphis. Despite the commercialisation (trust me, there’s not much you can’t put Elvis’ face on, as you’ll discover in the gift shop on your way out) the home itself is an intimate and touching memorial to the global star. It’s surprisingly modest, delightfully kitsch, and won’t fail to bring a smile to your face (perhaps even a tear or two for what is essentially quite a sad story).

Leave enough time to visit the museum that showcases Elvis’ gobsmacking collection of classic cars and two private jets. It’s situated on the opposite side of Elvis Presley Boulevard to the mansion. While you’re there, try a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich in the diner. Elvis, this one’s for you. Delicious!

3. Go on a Savannah ghost tour

Sister city to Charleston, and wonderfully historic in its own right, Savannah, Georgia, is also said to be one of the most haunted cities in the whole of the USA (the visitor centre is reputedly built on top of a yellow fever graveyard!). As night falls the city does take on an ethereal quality, and ghost tours are a popular tourist pastime. Old Savannah Tours offers two or three different options and visits sites like The Pirates’ House restaurant/bar and the historic Sorrel Weed House. As the locals say, ‘beware of the haints’.

4. Comfort eat at Hyman’s Seafood, Charleston

Southern cooking is comfort food pure and simple, and Charleston is packed with great restaurants where you can experience traditional fare, including fried chicken, shrimp n’ grits, she-crab soup and hush puppies. We stumbled upon Hyman’s Seafood and loved it. Clearly, so do numerous celebs judging by the signed photographs that adorn the walls, including Oprah and Hulk Hogan. I can’t say that the grits did a lot for me, but the rest of the deep-fried delights won’t fail to please.

5. Meet the famous Peabody Ducks

Ah, the strange case of the Peabody Ducks. Now we all know that the USA is the spiritual home of the weird and the wonderful. Well, at the five-star Peabody Memphis Hotel — at 11am sharp each day — the hotel’s ‘Duckmaster’ summons five resident ducks from their purpose-built rooftop penthouse to come down in the hotel lift and waddle along a red carpet to a fountain in the centre of the lobby. There they will spend their day frolicking in the water feature, before returning to their ducky-digs at 5pm. It’s been going on since 1940.

This spectacle draws quite a crowd so get there early for a prime possie. And be warned — once the lift doors open these down-covered divas move like lightning down the red carpet. You’ll need your camera on the sports setting.

6. Explore New Orleans’ French Quarter

New Orleans is a travel destination like no other. There’s so much to see and do, so we won’t go into too many specifics here — except to reiterate that sometimes the best things in life are free. Once you’ve had your fill of wandering the back streets of the fabulous French Quarter, grab a park bench on the Rue de Chartres in front of the St. Louis Cathedral and enjoy the passing parade. You won’t have to spend one penny to be totally entertained — although the street jazz musicians will no doubt appreciate a modest tip.

7. Step back in time at Frogmore Plantation

Our view of life on a Southern plantation during the infamous period of the slave trade (during the 18th and 19th centuries) may have been influenced by Hollywood’s Gone with the Wind, but in reality life for a slave was much more brutal. There are many surviving plantations to visit across the South, but Frogmore Plantation, located outside picturesque Natchez on the Mississippi River, provides perhaps the most complete picture of day-to-day life for a slave. It’s still possible to visit the slave quarters and Frogmore also has one of the oldest complete cotton gins in the USA. It’s a working cotton farm to this very day.

8. Tap along at a Nashville honky-tonk bar

Nashville is the place to be in the USA if you want to make it as a serious country music artist. The colourful District is lined with honky-tonk bars, where local musoes on the up play for tips, hoping to get that big break in the process. Legendary venues like Tootsies Orchid Lounge have given rise to some of the biggest names in the business. Pull up a pew, grab a beer, and if you like the act you leave a small donation. It’s as simple as that.

Many would-be performers struggle to get this far. You’ll often see those with just a guitar and a dream playing in the street just to get noticed. Some might call it busking; they call it an audition!

9. Hear the blues in Memphis

Country music aside, the South is the spiritual home of many music genres, including jazz, gospel and of course the blues, which originated in the African-American communities of the Deep South around the turn of the 20th century. Memphis is recognised as the heartland of blues music and to be honest there is a sort of melancholy that hangs over this slightly-rough-around-the-edges city. Spend an evening in downtown Beale Street with its bustling restaurants and ear-splitting blues bars.

10. Go backstage at the Grand Ole Opry

No visit to Nashville would be complete without a night at the Grand Ole Opry — the venerable country music venue and WSM radio show that’s been launching the careers of the legends of the genre since 1925. The Opry is hugely famous in the USA and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The hallowed performer’s circle in the centre of the stage has almost spiritual significance and first-time performers have been known to break down in tears just stepping into it. Take a back stage tour to see it up close.

For more inspiration, visit www.visittheusa.com.au.

Do you have any suggestions to add to our list of top things to do in the southern states of the USA? We would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.

Additional images: Bigstock

About the writer

Adam Ford is editor of Top Oz Tours and Travel Ideas, and a travel TV presenter, writer, blogger, and photographer. He has travelled extensively through Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, and the Middle East. Adam worked as a travel consultant for a number of years with Flight Centre before taking up the opportunity to travel the world himself as host of the TV series Tour the World on Network Ten. He loves to experience everything a new destination has to offer and is equally at home in a five-star Palazzo in Pisa or a home-stay in Hanoi.