Tennessee

Tennessee stretches about 430 road miles from the Mississippi River at Memphis to the Great Smoky Mountains on the North Carolina line. Its east holds the most visited national park in the country, with 11,527,939 recreation visits in 2025. Its middle and west hold Nashville's country music stages and Elvis Presley's Memphis.

The state is long enough to cross a time zone. We read the figures below on 27 October 2026 on the National Park Service's pages, the attractions' and airports' own sites, the federal time-zone rules and NOAA's normals.

What brings visitors to Tennessee?

Visitors come to Tennessee for three things: the Smokies in the east, music in Nashville and Memphis, and the Civil War and mountain scenery around Chattanooga. The National Park Service's sites in the state are almost all free to enter.

The Natchez Trace Parkway had 7,994,783 visits in 2025, the fourth most of any unit of the Park Service, though it runs through Mississippi and Alabama too. Its speed limit is 50 mph and commercial vehicles are banned.

What is there to do in Nashville?

Nashville's sights are its music venues, and the three best known can all be visited by day. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opens daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and most visitors spend about two hours there. Our page about Nashville covers the airport bus, the taxi fare and the hotel tax.

The Grand Ole Opry began as a radio show on 28 November 1925 and is still performed live at the Grand Ole Opry House. Its backstage tours run by day, and the Opry's home page said its 2027 show tickets were on sale on 30 October 2026.

From 1943 to 1974 it was broadcast from the Ryman Auditorium, opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle and known as the Mother Church. The Ryman runs self-guided tours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day, free for children 12 and under with a paying adult.

The northern end of the Natchez Trace Parkway leaves I-40 west of Nashville at exit 192. Its Double Arch Bridge over Birdsong Hollow lies a short drive in. But the Park Service has closed mileposts 437 to 440 for bridge construction from April 2026 to May 2027, with a signed detour by Highways 96 and 100.

What is there to do in Memphis?

Memphis is Elvis Presley's city, and Beale Street is its night out. Graceland, Presley's home, is three minutes from the airport and ten from downtown, and opens daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Graceland's cheapest ticket that includes the mansion, the Elvis Experience, costs $85 for an adult and $49 for a child. It covers the exhibition complex and Presley's two aircraft. Tickets are sold online, by phone and at the gate.

Beale Street, downtown, is run by the Downtown Memphis Commission. After 8 p.m. under-21s must be with a parent, after 11 p.m. only those 21 and over may enter, and on busy Friday, Saturday and holiday nights a $5 charge applies from 9 p.m.

What is there to do around Chattanooga?

Chattanooga sits on the Tennessee River under Lookout Mountain, a few miles from the Georgia line. Ruby Falls, inside the mountain, calls itself the tallest underground waterfall open to the public in the United States. Its tickets are sold online only, for a timed entry, from $29.95 an adult.

Point Park, on the Tennessee side of Lookout Mountain, is the one paid part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields. It costs $10 a person aged 16 and over, by card only. Rock City, the garden with the "See Seven States" view, is just over the state line in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, about ten minutes from downtown. The Lookout Mountain Incline Railway, which calls itself the world's steepest passenger railway, reopened after a wildfire in December 2024.

Which time zone is Tennessee in?

Tennessee is split between two time zones by federal rule. The boundary runs north to south across the east of the state and down the western edge of Hamilton County. Chattanooga, Knoxville, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are therefore on Eastern Time, while Nashville, Memphis and Shiloh are on Central Time, an hour behind.

A drive from Nashville to the Smokies or to Chattanooga therefore loses an hour on the clock, and the return gains it. Both halves of the state change their clocks; in 2026 daylight saving time ended on 1 November. Big South Fork and Obed lie close to the line, so check which time a booking there uses.

How do you fly into Tennessee?

Nashville International has nonstop flights to Europe. Its route list for October 2026 shows British Airways to London Heathrow all year, and seasonal Aer Lingus flights to Dublin and Icelandair flights to Reykjavík; Air France is due to start flying to Paris on 14 May 2027. Visitors from elsewhere usually connect through a US hub such as Atlanta, which has Delta flights to Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga.

• Knoxville McGhee Tyson: 35 nonstop destinations, 12 miles south of Knoxville and about 45 miles from the Smokies' Gatlinburg entrance.
• Memphis: now named Frederick W. Smith International, with 37 nonstop destinations.
• Chattanooga: 14 nonstop destinations, including Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Washington.

The distances are our own routing without traffic or the time-zone change. The Park Service warns that GPS units can mislead in the mountains.

When is the best time to visit Tennessee?

Tennessee is at its best in spring and autumn. Summers are hot, especially in the west. Memphis averages 72 days a year at or above 90°F and Nashville 54, against about 10 in Gatlinburg at the foot of the Smokies. In the Smokies, autumn colour below 4,000 feet peaks between mid-October and early November, and October is the park's busiest month.

The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 average highs and lows. Rain falls in every month, 50 to 58 inches a year. In Middle Tennessee, the National Weather Service found that 66% of tornadoes between 1830 and 2003 came in March, April and May.

Tennessee adds sales tax at the till: 7% for the state, 4% on food, plus a local rate of up to 2.75%, which makes 9.75% in Nashville, by the Department of Revenue. Hotel rooms carry local occupancy taxes on top: in Chattanooga, 4% for the county and 4% for the city. Our guide to sales tax in the USA explains why prices are shown before tax.