I’ve always been an Elvis fan so when we decided to take a road trip to Memphis from our new home, Nashville, I knew that we HAD to visit Graceland! The Graceland mansion + estate was the home of the late and great Elvis Presley. When visiting Graceland, you can actually take a tour of his home and the property. We were lucky enough to score VIP tickets to see not only the mansion but his collection of costumes, gold records, cars, boats, planes and more Elvis memorobilia! It was such an awesome experience so I really wanted to share it in a blog post with you guys. For those of you looking to visit Graceland, this post should give you a lot of ideas about what to expect and what you shouldn’t miss!

After entering through the gates of Graceland from the main parking lot, you start off in The Graceland Plaza with lots of stores selling Elvis merchandise, Elvis themed restaurants, and tons of cool photos of the King himself. The main ticketing office is straight ahead in the photo above. From here a shuttle takes you over to the actual mansion itself which is located across the street on Elvis Presley Blvd.

THE MANSION

Elvis bought the Graceland estate for his family at only 22! On our VIP tour, we started off in a separate room with a cool video that kind of goes over Elvis’ rise to fame with footage of his shows and life. Then we walked over to the main entrance of the mansion where the tour starts in the living room. Elvis really wanted this royal blue color in is living room and dining which looks absolutely stunning with the cream, black, and gold accents. I learned that in the audio tour we got to listen too ;P

I love this photo of Priscilla and their daughter Lisa Marie Presley. She looks so stunning! Very glamorous. Everyone is given an interactive tablet with narration for each room (narrated by Elvis fan John Stamos!) and even voice recordings of Priscilla and Lisa.

This was Elvis’ parents bedroom. They lived in the Graceland mansion with him! Elvis loved this purple color that signifies royalty. We got to see several other rooms in the mansion as well; the Jungle room, his game room, the media room, kitchen, and more! I didn’t want to spoil too much by including all of those photos too ;P

Elvis’, his parents, and his grandmother were all buried in the zen garden next to the pool, so you actually get to see his tomb! On our way to the zen garden, we passed through several other buildings including the Trophy Building with galleries of trophies, photos, + info about Elvis’ life, including photos from his wedding and Priscilla’s wedding dress! I love facts and history so I really enjoyed that part of the tour!

The lighting was a bit harsh at this time of day in February but I had to get a photo in front of the mansion! 😉

TIP: The mansion had a ton of visitors so it did take quite a while for us to get through it, so I would definitely factor that into your schedule when visiting. We spent about 1-1/2 hours there but we definitely could have stayed much longer if we weren’t on a time crunch!

Tours start every couple minutes and there is always a rotation of shuttles going to and from the Graceland Plaza!

PRESLEY MOTORS

After our tour of the mansion, a shuttle took us back over to Graceland to start the next part of our tour, the Graceland museums! We visited Presley Motors, an automobile museum that houses all of Elvis’ cars, including ones he bought for Priscilla, Lisa, and other family members. The cars were absolutely stunning! We also got to see his collection of boats, motorcycles, buggies, and more! We had access to Presley Motor’s with our VIP tickets.

The vintage white Mercedes-Benz above is totally my dream car! I couldn’t resist a few sassy pics with the cars ;P

ELVIS THE ENTERTAINER CAREER MUSUEM

Elvis The Entertainer Career Museum was definitely my favorite part of our Graceland visit! This museum houses a huge collection of Elvis costumes worn on stage, costumes from his movies, guitars, gold records and so much more. Everything was so glamorous! I loved the sparkly costumes he wore on stage.

Even though I do consider myself an Elvis fan, I had no idea that he was in so many movies! It was insane. I loved seeing the photos and movie posters. We learned so much about his rise to fame and about Elvis in general.

How insane is this wall of all his gold records?! It makes sense that the King of Rock n’ Roll would have a collection this impressive.

The last room in the museum housed a collection of Elvis inspired costumes worn by other musicians like Justin Timberlake, Johnny Cash, Carrie Underwood and more on stage. It also included quotes from the musicians about how Elvis inspired or influenced them in some way. He really paved the way for so many others in the music world!

TIP: We spent about 1-1/2 hours in the museums but we could have spent so many more hours had we had the time! I would really recommend an entire day at Graceland if you are planning on visiting the mansion and al the museums and stores.

GRACELAND PLANES

Our last spot on the tour were the Graceland planes! There are two planes, one bigger then the other. The biggest plane was practically an RV in the sky! It had a conference room, sitting area, and bedroom. One plane was named after his daughter, Lisa Marie!

TIP: When booing your tickets for Graceland, make sure you book the right ones! We did the Ultimate VIP Tour (starts at $180) which gained us full access to Elvis Presley’s Memphis Entertainment Complex (all the museums). If you just want to visit the mansion, those tickets start at $42.50. For more info, book your tickets here.

THE GUESTHOUSE AT GRACELAND

If you are looking for somewhere to stay during your visit to Graceland, I definitely recommend The Guesthouse at Graceland, located down the street from Graceland on Elvis Presley Blvd. The hotel is very glamorous with a ton of Elvis inspiration! How gorgeous is this lobby?!

We stayed in a room with a king size bed overlooking the pool area but there are also rooms with two queens (photographed below) and suites one the top floor! I loved that the TV’s in the rooms have several channels playing live Elvis shows and music.

The luxurious suites have two beautiful bedrooms, en-suite bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen + bar area!

I got to see the glamorous suite Lisa Marie likes to stay in during her visits to Graceland! The suite was absolutely gorgeous with red and gold accents.

The hotel has several restaurants including the Shake Rattle & Go espresso bar + Delta’s Kitchen photographed above. Other restaurants not photographed are EP’s Bar + Grill and the Lobby Lounge bar. During our stay, they had S’mores at the poolside fireplace! Starting at 10 pm each night, the hotel offers a Peanut Butter + Jelly Sandwich bar, Elvis’ favorite treat. I thought that was a really fun touch!

Everyone at the hotel was so friendly and we really enjoyed our stay! You can book your stay at The Guesthouse here.

XOXO