Memphis

Memphis needs 2 days: touring the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, on the site of the legendary record label that launched Otis Redding, on one, and visiting the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum, tracing the evolution from blues to rock from the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, on the other. March-May and September-November bring the mildest weather. It's inexpensive for a major US city. It's the birthplace of the blues -born on Beale Street in the early 20th century- and of rock and roll, which Elvis Presley first recorded at the city's Sun Records studio in 1954, and its Graceland, the mansion where he lived and is buried, is the second most visited house museum in the US after the White House.