Best Road Trip Routes in Tennessee

Tennessee's road trips leverage its remarkable musical geography — Nashville for country, Memphis for blues and soul, Knoxville for mountain music — plus the Smokies and the historic Natchez Trace Parkway.

Music Highway (Nashville to Memphis)
Interstate 40 from Nashville to Memphis is only 3.5 hours — but the route through Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg, the Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, and down to Graceland and Beale Street in Memphis rewards a 3–4 day exploration. Detour south to the Natchez Trace for a much more scenic alternative.

Natchez Trace Parkway
The 444-mile scenic parkway from Nashville to Natchez, Mississippi follows a 10,000-year-old travel corridor used by Native Americans, settlers, and flatboatmen. No commercial trucks allowed; no billboards. The Tennessee section (northeastern third of the parkway) passes through pastoral farmland, cypress swamps, and river crossings. Stopping points include the Jackson Falls and the Meriwether Lewis grave site.

Smokies Loop (Gatlinburg-Cades Cove-Newfound Gap-Cherokee)
Enter the Smokies at Gatlinburg (the tourist hub), drive the loop road through Cades Cove (an 1850s mountain farming community with spectacular wildlife — black bears, white-tailed deer, wild turkeys — visible from the car), climb to Newfound Gap and the AT trailhead, and descend to Cherokee, NC. Then return via US-19 and US-441 north through the craft community of Maggie Valley. A 2-day loop with exceptional variety.

Chattanooga and the Cumberland Plateau
Chattanooga's waterfront, Tennessee Aquarium, and outdoor scene as base camp; drive to Lookout Mountain (Civil War battlefield, Ruby Falls, Rock City with a sweeping 7-state view), then explore the South Cumberland State Park gorges, Fall Creek Falls, and the Cumberland Caverns near McMinnville.