📍 Only the Best 10 in Memphis, TN

Graceland. Elvis Presley bought this mansion in 1957 at age 22 and lived here until his death in 1977 — the Jungle Room's green shag carpet, still original, tells you everything about how untouched the interior has been left. Seventy-seven dollars for the mansion tour package (iPad-guided, narrated in part by Elvis's own family), significantly more if adding the car museum and private jets across the street.

Rendezvous (Charlie Vergos'). Entered through a genuinely unmarked back alley off Monroe Avenue, a detail that's been part of the ritual since Charlie Vergos opened it in 1948 rather than a manufactured quirk added later. Eighteen dollars for a rack of dry-rub ribs — no sauce mixed in, just the rub, the style Memphis is most associated with nationally — smoked over charcoal in the same building the whole time.