Is Graceland Worth visiting?

Elvis Presley was born in 1935 and died in 1977 at the age of 42.  In between, he became the biggest selling artist of all-time with the biggest television broadcast in history (1.5 billion people; yes, billion), and basically the biggest pop culture icon there ever was. After his death, his private mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, the beautifully named Graceland, was shrewdly turned by his ex-wife Priscilla Presley into one of the biggest tourist attractions in the United States. It’s an impressive operation, and since we saw it first-hand today, my memories of it are pretty fresh.

Is Graceland Worth Visiting?

When you arrive, you have to pay a $10 parking fee (lame, but understandable), and then walk to the main administrative complex, which contains the box office as well as a large gift shop (more on this later). You can choose one of the 5 or 6 options they have, and they start from $38 (the cheapest) and go all the way to $80 (VIP). In my opinion, the VIP thing is useless and vastly overpriced. The difference between that and the cheapest tour is that you get to tour Elvis’ two airplanes (old and not very impressive looking) and get front of the line access to the Graceland Mansion tour (not that important), and extra two exhibits which aren’t really worth the extra $40.

Tip: When buying tickets, let them know if you are a AAA member – you’ll get a substantial discount if you show your idea at the window! 

We chose the Platinum Tour, which is the second cheapest option. We started our day by being handed an iPad and being shuffled into a shuttle bus, which took us across the street to Elvis’ Graceland mansion. Surprisingly, it’s located right off a normal-looking street, it is not some sort of secluded, deep in the country complex. The house is really the highlight of the entire Graceland experience, and the iPad is a nice touch. It provides narration by both John Stamos and Elvis himself and gives you a nice, high-level overview of the house and Elvis’ strong love for it. There’s plenty of photos and videos that accompany the iPad tour, which you’ll have time to go back to after the tour itself.

The house contains various rooms and I will name them, starting from the most interesting ones (at least, to me):

• Racquetball Room – Has some nice costumes and a tremendous amount of gold records plastered all over
• Jungle Room – Unique looking room, with some odd furniture and a fantastic green shag rug
• TV Room – I dig the bright yellow, Elvis; 8 TV, or however many there are, is also great
• Record Room – Pretty cool to see All Shook Up and other hit singles in here.
• Living Room – Nicely arranged room with peacock-stained glass doors.
• There are other rooms to see, like the kitchen, his parents’ bedroom, a billiards room, but those weren’t as interesting as the ones above.

The very last thing you see in the house tour is Elvis’ meditation garden, which is small but nice, and the tombstones of his parents, his stillborn twin brother, as well as his own. The inscription on Elvis’ stone is lovingly written and emotional to read, written by his father, Vernon Presley:

It took us about 90 minutes to tour the entire mansion, and then we were shuttled back to the main exhibit complex across the street, where they took the iPads back. We then viewed the following exhibits afterwards, all included with the Platinum ticket that you bought:

• Elvis’ Car Museum – Featured some nice cars and even a tractor!
• Elvis at Tupelo – More in-depth look at his birthplace of Tupelo, Mississippi, and how humble his beginning were.
• Elvis in Hawaii – Small exhibit which features Elvis’ love for Hawaii and shows his world-famous Aloha From Hawaii TV extravaganza, which is obviously great.
• Elvis Exhibits – A pretty cool, quirky exhibit which contains a documentary about the Elvis archives as well as other Elvis things like shoes and posters.

The lunch options are pretty standard fare (sandwiches, BBQ, ice-cream) and not too outrageously priced.

Overall, it took about 4.5 hours to complete the entire Graceland experience (lunch included) and even though it had some tacky tourist touches (at least 10 gift shops offering the same stuff, and the usual exit through the gift house routine). Overall, our visit and tour was a great experience, even if we are not die-hard Elvis Presley fans (we are an entirely different generation than him)!

So, is Graceland worth visiting? I guess for the kitschy approach to it, maybe, do it once if you’re in the area.  Is it enough for me to come back to it again and again: maybe even pay for a season pass? Heck, no.

Thank you. Thank you very much.