Things I wish I knew before travelling to Nashville

Nashville, the capital of the US state of Tennessee, is home to far more than just its hot chicken and peach cobbler. Home to some of the most famous country music venues in the world, such as the Grand Ole Opry, Rymans Auditorium and the Bridgestone Arena, it also offers live music on tap, all day every day, at the famous Honky Tonks along Broadway. These include, Riley Greens’ Duck Blind Bar, Morgan Wallen’s This Bar, Luke Combs’ Category 10, and of course Jason Aldeans’ bar/restaraunt called…well… Jason Aldean.

We had the most amazing time when visiting Nashville in summer 2024, and did some super fun things such as the Nashville Trolley Tour, visiting the Gulch neighbourhood, seeing the Country Music Hall of Fame, and of course, visiting the Parthenon!!! (What else would you do in Nashville!). I have put together a list of some of the things I wish I knew before travelling to Nashville, and some things that may be of interest, all of which I hope will help you if you are planning on visiting for the first time!

1. If you don’t drink, then one day on the strip (Broadway) is enough; use another day to explore outside of the strip. In all honesty I travelled with my mum who is a non drinker so it was a Diet Coke in each bar for her! It is so hot in the summer that it is not really feasible to have an alcoholic drink at every honky tonk, you will be wasted before dinner! I’d say spend.a day here hopping from one honky took to another, taking a cold drink in each and stopping at one for lunch. It’s worth it for the live music and to be fair, the streets in the summer are fairly empty during the day due to the heat. Save your souvenir shopping until the evening when it is cooler. There are plenty of places to eat here too - we had dinner at Jason Aldeans’ enjoying the hot chicken and peach cobbler (Mum opted for a more sensible burger!). There is also a Margaritaville on Broadway which we ate at on our second evening, also with live music.

   
   

2. Go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. We purchased our tickets via Viator using their buy now pay later option where you can purchase in advance and the money is taken from your account 2 days before your visit. The tickets then become available in the App once you have paid. If you are a country music lover then this is the place for you. Tributes to all the big stars across the years are included here with outfits, lyrics, original guitars, photos and other memorabilia on display. When we visited Luke Combs had a whole area dedicated to him and his rise to fame. There are ample facilities here such as toilets, a cloakroom, bag store and a food court and a large shop where we got our standard purchase (several magnets) plus a guitar shaped dog toy for our dog and yes, a cowgirl hat, white and sparkly of course! As these are souvenirs they are much cheaper than buying on the strip in a boot / hat store. We paid around $45 for the hat whereby I believe you could easily leave without change from $200 if you purchase an authentic version on the strip. Entry to the museum is around $30 per adult for general admission/self guided tour and $53 if you wish to take the guided tour. If you are interested, there is a Music City Walk of Fame in Nashville, located opposite the Country Music Hall of Fame. Here you will find granite stars much like you would find on Hollywood Boulevard, honoring country music legends such as Elvis, Dolly Parton, Jimi Hendrix and more.

   
   

3. Visit the Gulch. The Gulch is a neighborhood in Nashville located in between Broadway and Music Row. Full of upscale hotels, restaurants, bars and cafes and home to the ‘What Lifts You’ Angel Wings - great for an insta pic. We just had to sample the 100 layer doughnuts at Five Daughters Bakery! Yum!

   
   

4. If you are staying for 4 or 5 days then I would definitely recommend taking a day trip across to Memphis and visiting Graceland. This is something I wish we had done on this trip but we really didn’t have enough time. Viator have a full day excursion which although pricey at just over $300 per person, does include a VIP pass to Graceland, a guided tour of Sun Studios and free time to explore. This is a mighty trip though and not for the faint hearted as it a 15 hour full day trip.

   
   

5. There is minimal public transport in Nashville. We opted for an uber to get us from the airport to our hotel which cost around $25. You can also get a taxi from the airport but bear in mind these cost $9 as a starting fare and then $2.50 per mile thereafter. A cheap alternative is to take the No 18 bus which will drop you in downtown central bus station or of course you can book a transfer online ahead of time. There are no trains serving Nashville.

   
   

6. Open drinks are not allowed in the streets. Considering you are on the Nashville strip, bar hopping, make sure you finish your drink before moving on to the next bar, because if you are found with an open drink, it will be taken from you. Security may even stop you from leaving the bar with your drink in your hand.

   
   

7. The local dish of hot chicken is ….. hot. I like spicy food, I can handle my heat. But Im also someone who gets a curry from a supermarket and is disappointed that it’s not as spicy as I want. Let me tell you, the spicy chicken I had in Jason Aldeans’ bar, was delicous, but had me reaching back for my drink after every few bites. My mum doesn’t like spicy food so she never tried it, so this is just something to make note of, even though it may be obvious!

   
   

8. Stay in a hotel on broadway. It is worth spending that little bit extra on a hotel along or just off of the main strip. We stayed at the Best Western Plus on Music Row and although this wasn’t too far away on paper, with the thermometer at almost 40 degrees, it really was too far to walk in, so we had to rely on Ubers there and back, every single time. It wasn’t expensive at only $7-8 each time, but we definitely could have saved a little money by staying a bit more central. Obviously if you watched our Nashville vlog, you will know that me and mama dont really drink, so the Ubers weren’t really an issue, but if you were on a girls holiday and all wanted to drink until the sun came up, its much better to walk to your hotel, than to have to rely on an uber.

   
   

9. Even if you buy boots from home, you WILL want to buy more in Boot Barn. Save some space in your suitcase, and some dollars for those essential sparkly boots. To this day I still think about those sparkly boots that I passed up on buying, and I WILL be returning to buy them !

   
   

10. I would definitely recommend the Nashville Trolley Tour . We booked this the day we arrived in Nashville for the very next day and got an Uber to the starting point. I believe we booked via Viator (of course) and paid around $44 each. This is a hop on hop off tour with commentary and we used it to see the sights and as transport to the County Music Hall of Fame and also to the farmers market and later on, to get dropped off in the Gulch. It’s entertaining and light hearted and really enjoyable. Tours run daily and cover 13 different stops and over 100 points of interest.

So, I hope you find the above tips helpful, we really did have the best time in Nashville. If I were to visit again I would definitely go when it was slightly cooler as day time walking around was hard work (especially for mama) and I would stay closer to Broadway.

If you enjoyed this blog, please check out our vlog on Nashville (and the rest of our US 2024 trip) over at Georgia Louise Travels on You Tube.

See you soon

Georgia and Tracey xx