Posted: 7/9/23 | July ninth, 2023

Dwelling to the Grand Ole Opry, the Nation Music Corridor of Fame, and the famed “the Honky Tonk Freeway” of downtown bars, Nashville is the middle of nation music (and, as of late, weekend bachelor and bachelorette events that take over town).

I’ve visited Nashville a handful of occasions. I believe Nashville is the right metropolis for a weekend getaway or a cease on a US highway journey. There’s a lot to do right here, a lot nice meals, a lot historical past, musical historical past, and only a actually good power to town.

Right here’s my superb Nashville itinerary based mostly on all my years of visiting:

Nashville Itinerary: Day 1

Take a Strolling Tour
The very first thing I do in a brand new vacation spot is take a strolling tour. I believe it’s one of the simplest ways to get the lay of the land, see the principle sights, and study concerning the historical past of a spot.

Whereas there aren’t any free strolling excursions in Nashville, there’s a self-guided audio tour you should purchase from Free Excursions By Foot ($2.99 USD) after which you may discover at your personal tempo. It contains 18 stops and often takes round two hours.

An alternative choice is to leap aboard the Hop-On, Hop-Off tour. It covers the principle highlights with out all of the strolling.

Go to the Ryman Auditorium
This music venue is hallowed floor for nation music lovers. It was the house of the Grand Ole Opry (a stay nation music radio present that’s the longest-running radio broadcast in US historical past) till 1974 and has been the stage for legendary performers like Garth Brooks, Johnny Money, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and extra. The self-guided tour is one of the simplest ways to go to. You’ll get a historical past of the auditorium and the musicians which have performed there.

116 fifth Ave N, +1 615-889-3060, ryman.com. Open each day 9am-4pm. Tickets are $35.50 USD.

Discover Nation Music Corridor of Fame and Museum
With over 2.5 million objects (together with data, devices, images, and many others.), that is the largest museum on this planet devoted to nation music. There are over 500,000 pictures, 900 devices, and even some well-known autos (resembling Elvis’ stable gold Cadillac limousine from 1960). Along with the exhibitions, additionally they host stay music and workshops. Even if you happen to’re not an enormous nation music fan (I’m not), the Corridor of Fame is price visiting because the style has had a huge effect on American tradition. The museum takes a pair hours to go to.

222 Rep. John Lewis Means S, +1 615-416-2001, countrymusichalloffame.org. Open each day 9am-5pm. Admission is $27.95 USD.

Get together on Broadway
After spending the day wandering round, sightseeing, and consuming, you may spend your evening partying on Broadway. The extensive avenue is flanked by multistory, neon-lit honky-tonks (bars and golf equipment the place stay nation music is performed), every with a special stay act, typically concurrently on completely different flooring. On the weekend, this place is wall to wall folks and will get actually, actually wild!

Nashville Itinerary: Day 2

Go to Nationwide Museum of African American Music
This informative establishment takes guests by means of the whole spectrum of Black music in the USA. Beginning in Africa and the centuries when Africans have been enslaved and delivered to the Americas, the displays then take a deep dive into the origins of soul, R&B, funk, and hip-hop. It’s top-of-the-line museums within the metropolis. I realized a ton.

510 Broadway, +1 615-301-8724, nmaam.org. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday-Monday 12pm-5pm. Admission is $24.95 USD.

Tour the Johnny Money Museum
Johnny Money is without doubt one of the biggest musicians of all time. He’s had a huge effect on music. This 18,000-square-foot museum homes the most important assortment of Johnny Money memorabilia and artifacts on the planet, resembling handwritten lyrics, letters, costumes, and extra. It’s a really interactive museum with plenty of multimedia, together with displays the place you may create your personal mixes of his songs, a inexperienced display screen the place you will get a photograph taken subsequent to Money, and mini-theaters to look at clips of his performances. That is one among my favourite museums within the metropolis and offers a very detailed look into the lifetime of probably the most well-known musicians who has ever lived.

119 third Ave S, +1 615-256-1777, johnnycashmuseum.com. Open each day 9am-7pm. Admission is $24.95 USD.

See the Grand Ole Opry
This legendary music venue, initially positioned on the Ryman Auditorium, was based in 1925. In 1974, the Grand Ole Opry Home, a 4,000-seat enchanting and intimate house east of downtown, opened. The theater pays tribute to its origins with a six-foot circle of wooden from the Ryman stage inlaid within the new stage, a spot that musicians performing right here revere because it connects them to all of the greats who’ve stood there earlier than. Make sure you take a behind-the-scenes tour so you may see the themed dressing rooms, hear tales about what it’s like for musicians to carry out right here, and actually stroll the trail that performers tackle their approach to the stage.

Performances occur usually on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

600 Opry Mills Dr, +1 615-871-6779, opry.com. Open each day 10am-4:40pm (with prolonged hours on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday). Excursions are $47 USD; live performance tickets begin at $50 USD.

Discover East Nashville
That is town’s “hippest” neighborhood and identified for its eclectic dive bars, bohemian golf equipment, and unbelievable eating places. Beginning within the early aughts, artists and musicians started to maneuver right here as a result of it was one of many extra reasonably priced locations within the metropolis. As extra locations opened up, extra folks got here. Now, that is the place you’ll discover all of the locals hanging out (they attempt to keep away from Broadway).

Head to the 5 Factors a part of the district, marvel on the avenue artwork, duck into classic outlets, cease for some third-wave espresso, and eat on the various vary of eating places (Hunter’s Level is a cool meals court docket with a bunch of various stalls). It’s an important a part of city.

Nashville Itinerary: Day 3

Chill out in Centennial Park
This 132-acre park is a calming oasis within the coronary heart of town, with tree-covered strolling paths, a tranquil pond, and loads of garden house that’s good for picnicking on. In good climate, there are at all times occasions happening right here, from town’s Shakespeare within the Park play collection to music festivals and movie-in-the-park nights.

The park was created as a part of the Tennessee Centennial and Worldwide Exposition in 1897, which celebrated the a hundredth anniversary of Tennessee’s entry into the union. An ideal full-scale reproduction of the Parthenon was constructed for the exposition, paying homage to town’s nickname as “the Athens of the South” (it boasted an immense variety of schools and universities and had a repute for larger studying). The Parthenon reproduction nonetheless stands within the park at the moment and is now an artwork museum and guests heart, exhibiting 63 work from Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century American artists.

2500 West Finish Ave, +1 615-862-8431, nashvilleparthenon.com. Open Monday-Thursday 9am-7pm, Friday-Saturday 9am-4:30pm, and Sundays 12:30pm-4:30pm. Admission is $10 USD.

Wander the Tennessee State Museum
This museum goes into nice element concerning the state’s historical past. It has exhibitions on First Peoples, pure historical past, the American Revolution, and the Civil Conflict. In addition they have a rotating listing of momentary displays (which you’ll learn extra about on their web site) in addition to a gallery for youths that additionally hosts occasions for kids. When you’re not from the state and don’t know a lot about its historical past, it is a good place to spend a pair hours. They renovated the displays a couple of years again to make them not so, let’s assume, one-sided.

1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd, +1 615-741-2692, tnmuseum.org. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm and Sundays from 1pm-5pm. Admission is free.

See Belmont Mansion
This historic antebellum dwelling was accomplished in 1853. Its house owners lived on plantations in Louisiana and visited Belmont (initially referred to as Belle Monte) in the summertime. The property spanned nearly 200 acres and was probably the most elaborate and lavish properties within the area (it was the most important home within the state earlier than the Civil Conflict). After the warfare, it turned a girls’s faculty. Right now, it’s a really underrated museum that you need to try. The world round it has plenty of eating places and bars to discover after.

1900 Belmont Blvd, +1 615-460-5459, belmontmansion.com. Open Monday-Saturday 10am-3:30pm, Sundays 11am-3:30pm. Self-guided admission is $18 USD; guided excursions are $22 USD.

Nashville Itinerary: Day 4

Take a day journey to Franklin
Positioned simply 25 minutes south of Nashville, Franklin is one among my favourite cities within the nation. It makes for an exquisite day journey or, if in case you have time, a good higher in a single day journey. The town has a stellar foods and drinks scene (it’s the place I found my favourite Bourbon, H Clark, now Firm Distilling), is stuffed with historical past (there was a serious Civil Conflict battle right here), and has one of many best-preserved historic fundamental streets within the nation that’s crammed with eating places, bars, and outlets, in addition to a movie show straight out of the Fifties.

There’s a lot to fill a day or weekend right here: take a couple of strolling excursions, go to the Civil Conflict museum, and luxuriate in some mountaineering and biking trails on the Natchez Hint, a historic forest path initially utilized by Native People. There’s additionally a whole lot of breweries, wineries, and distilleries within the space.

When you don’t have a automotive, there’s a bus to Franklin you will get that can drop you off downtown. Or, if you happen to’re seeking to discover all of the distilleries within the space, there’s a ton of corporations in Nashville that provide day excursions. They guide up prematurely so don’t attempt to do them final minute, particularly if you happen to’re happening a weekend.

I believe Nashville is a perfect vacation spot for 3-4-days. Whereas most individuals come right here to social gathering, Nashville is a metropolis that’s greater than only a weekend social gathering vacation spot. Spend a while right here doing the non-party stuff. I promise you’ll stroll away loving this metropolis much more.