The Magnolia State is many things; it's the birthplace of the blues and a critical Civil Rights battle ground. It's natural beauty includes the sandy beaches of the Gulf and the famed waters of the Mighty Mississippi. It's a place where rural towns, seemingly untouched by time, exist alongside cities redefining modern Southern cuisine and culture.
We asked a panel of Mississippi travel writers and photographers to nominate their favorite state attractions. For the past four weeks, 10Best readers have been voting daily for their favorites.
The top 10 winners in the category Best Mississippi Attraction are as follows:
- B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center - Indianola
- Elvis Presley Birthplace - Tupelo
- Vicksburg National Military Park - Vicksburg
- GRAMMY Museum Mississippi - Cleveland
- Rock & Blues Museum - Clarksdale
- Mississippi Civil Rights Museum - Jackson
- Tupelo Automobile Museum - Tupelo
- Eudora Welty House and Garden - Jackson
- Shack Up Inn - Clarksdale
- Natchez Trace Parkway
A panel of experts partnered with 10Best editors to picked the initial 20 nominees, and the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote. Experts Marlo Kirkpatrick and Melissa Vincent were chosen based on their knowledge and experience of travel in Mississippi.
Congratulations to all these winning attractions.
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The Experts
Marlo Kirkpatrick
Marlo Kirkpatrick is a storyteller whose work... Read More
Marlo Kirkpatrick is a storyteller whose work evokes emotions from humor to sorrow, excitement to frustration, and uses those emotions to move audiences to action. She has won more than 300 local, regional, and national awards for creative excellence, including recognition as the Jackson Advertising Federation’s Writer of the Year five times. Marlo was named to the Mississippi Business Journal’s 2017 list of the Top 50 Business Women in Mississippi. Marlo also writes for travel and lifestyle magazines and is the author of several award-winning books, including It Happened in Mississippi, Sanctuary, Lost in the Amazon, Romancing the Rain, Wilder Mississippi and Mississippi Off the Beaten Path.
Marlo Kirkpatrick

Marlo Kirkpatrick is a storyteller whose work evokes emotions from humor to sorrow, excitement to frustration, and uses those emotions to move audiences to action. She has won more than 300 local, regional, and national awards for creative excellence, including recognition as the Jackson Advertising Federation’s Writer of the Year five times. Marlo was named to the Mississippi Business Journal’s 2017 list of the Top 50 Business Women in Mississippi. Marlo also writes for travel and lifestyle magazines and is the author of several award-winning books, including It Happened in Mississippi, Sanctuary, Lost in the Amazon, Romancing the Rain, Wilder Mississippi and Mississippi Off the Beaten Path.
Melissa Vincent
Melissa Vincent is a photographer born and raised... Read More
Melissa Vincent is a photographer born and raised in Mississippi whose images are inspired from her Southern roots. Her passion for creating mobile art using only an iPhone has allowed her to explore far from her small town. From a safari in Africa with Nat Geo WILD to petting the dire wolves from Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland, her audience on Instagram has been a part of the adventure since 2011. She was named one of the top 50 Instagram photographers to follow in 2015 by Time Magazine. Find Melissa’s surreal iPhone images on Instagram.
Melissa Vincent

Melissa Vincent is a photographer born and raised in Mississippi whose images are inspired from her Southern roots. Her passion for creating mobile art using only an iPhone has allowed her to explore far from her small town. From a safari in Africa with Nat Geo WILD to petting the dire wolves from Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland, her audience on Instagram has been a part of the adventure since 2011. She was named one of the top 50 Instagram photographers to follow in 2015 by Time Magazine. Find Melissa’s surreal iPhone images on Instagram.