Memphis

[lmctrouble]

So we decided to go to Gatlinburg for spring break next year and I can't decide if I want to drive the 10 hours from MI to TN or take the train to Memphis and then rent a car. What's the neighborhood like around the station and is there someplace to hang out and eat breakfast while we wait for the car rental places to open?

 

[MrFSS]

So we decided to go to Gatlinburg for spring break next year and I can't decide if I want to drive the 10 hours from MI to TN or take the train to Memphis and then rent a car. What's the neighborhood like around the station and is there someplace to hang out and eat breakfast while we wait for the car rental places to open?

You understand it is almost a 8-9 hour drive from Memphis to Gatlinburg? And, you have to go through Nashville and Knoxville, two very busy cities to drive in if you hit them at the wrong time.

Tennessee is a very long state.

 

[I always rode the Southern]

Much closer to North and South Carolina. I think Greenville S. C. is the closest amtrak station to Gatlinburg

 

[abcnews]

Maybe try taking the Cardinal to the Beckley area (Thurmond Station) and drive down from there ....or try the milage from Hinton, WV, White Sulfur Springs or maybe Charleston WV? Nice scenic drive from there with lots of mountains. But still rather far.

Memphis is an easy drive - straight and level (fast highways too) and you could stop in Nashville for a night.

 

[JayPea]

As far as safe, a precinct (Downtown Memphis, I believe) of the Memphis police is housed either in the same building or right next door. FWIW, of course.

 

[LittleTuck]

So we decided to go to Gatlinburg for spring break next year and I can't decide if I want to drive the 10 hours from MI to TN or take the train to Memphis and then rent a car. What's the neighborhood like around the station and is there someplace to hang out and eat breakfast while we wait for the car rental places to open?

I have waited in the Memphis station many times for a few hours by myself and feel safe in the station. The police are very visible. I would not however, walk around the area by myself as I have been told by locals that the station is in a bad area.

There is an Enterprise phone in the Amtrak waiting room which makes me think that they would open early to accommodate the passengers arriving at 6:30 a.m. Hope this helps.

 

[George Harris]

The area around the Memphis station was not so great 60 years ago, and it sure has not improved over the intervening years. I do think it is somewhat better than a few years past due to teh police presence. If you are coming from the north, it will be early morning, the working day just getting started and most of the bad guys now back in their caves. there fore, you should be reasonably OK hunting up a place for breakfast. There may be some place close that is frequented by the police. In the evening, go to that place only and best only if it is in sight of the station and./or you have some of the police nearby. Otherwise, I would not go outside the building in the evening. There are many parts of Memphis that have descended to the don't yawn if you have gold fillings category.

 

[George Harris]

Memphis is an easy drive - straight and level (fast highways too) and you could stop in Nashville for a night.

"Straight and level"? This is not the I-40 that has been part of my life for its entire existance. It is fast, but it is hardly straight and level, and it is a major east-west truck route as well as having a high volume of cars, so it is a fairly busy highway as well.

There is the Casey Jones museum at the US 45 interchange just north of Jackson TN. It is worth a visit. The engine, or one of the same model is there.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

The only time I've taken the CONO I arrived over a half an hour early on #59, which gave me over an hour before departure from MEM, so after checking out the very nicely restored station, I headed out for a walk . It was a quiet Sunday summer morning and I followed the trolley tracks up Main Street towards downtown. Lots of old buildings in various states of repair. After a bit I came across a fire station on the right hand side of the road where a fireman was washing his car. I said 'Hello' and we started chatting. I asked him what was in the area and he casually mentioned that the Lorain Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot, is directly behind the fire station! When I acted surprised, he said, I know, its quiet now, but In a bit the tour busses and crowds will show up. I walked down, took a look at the infamous place and then, making sure I gave myself enough time, headed back towards the station. On the way back, Bluff City Coffee, which I had passd earlier, but was closed, had opened and I got a nice cup of coffee and some excellent pastries before heading back to the train.

 

[lmctrouble]

So we decided to go to Gatlinburg for spring break next year and I can't decide if I want to drive the 10 hours from MI to TN or take the train to Memphis and then rent a car. What's the neighborhood like around the station and is there someplace to hang out and eat breakfast while we wait for the car rental places to open?

You understand it is almost a 8-9 hour drive from Memphis to Gatlinburg? And, you have to go through Nashville and Knoxville, two very busy cities to drive in if you hit them at the wrong time.

Tennessee is a very long state.

So I see - but it is pretty narrow

Looks like I'll be taking 75 all the way and leaving Memphis for another day cuz I really don't want to go east (again) to go south

 

[Notelvis]

There is a restaurant right across the street from the front of the old Memphis Central Station Building that serves great southern breakfasts and looks like something straight out of the 1950's...... and not because they're going for that 1950's look either..... it's because that was about the last time the place was updated.

Still, if your plan is simply to save yourself a ten-hour drive to Gatlinburg, Memphis doesn't help you very much at all. You're literally 450 miles from Gatlinburg in downtown Memphis. Your drive to Gatlinburg once off the train would be 2-3 hours shorter if you took the Cardinal to Charleston, WV and did a car rental from there.