Memphis: Arrival and getting around
Memphis International Airport is ten miles south of downtown - a long and complicated bus trip, but just fifteen minutes by the Yellow Cabs limo/van service ($10; tel 901/577-7777) or taxi ($20-25). Greyhound buses stop at 203 Union Ave in downtown, while the Amtrak station at 545 S Main St is in a particularly seedy and unsafe area on the southern edge of downtown.Slow and infrequent Memphis Area Transit Authority buses cover nearly all the city (tel 901/274-6282); more useful is the downtown trolley service (tel 901/274-6282) that runs along the Main Street Mall from the Pyramid to Beale Street and the Civil Rights Museum, until 6pm on Sundays and after midnight on all other days (60ยข flat fare; day pass $2.50).
Carriage tours at $30 per half-hour or $50 per hour (for 2 people) start from the Peabody and Crowne Plaza hotels, among others (Mon-Fri 5pm-1am, Sat & Sun 1pm-1am; tel 901/834-9945). American Dream Safari (tel 901/527-8870) offers driving tours in a 1955 Cadillac that range from a gospel service at Al Green's church ($60 including lunch) up to week-long blues pilgrimages into the Delta. Sternwheelers offer ninety-minute sightseeing trips of the mighty Mississippi for $12.50, leaving Riverside Drive at Monroe Avenue (March-Nov daily 2.30pm & 5.30pm as well as dinner cruises in season; tel 901/527-5694).
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