This post is more than a little overdue, but I’m finally starting to get caught up!
Over the past couple of year’s, we have both, although separately, taken trips to Nashville, Tennessee. Deb and Mike went in the spring of 2017 for a conference and Jason and I went for a kid free weekend and football game in September 2018. Here are our experiences with the Country Music City, what we loved, what we disliked, and things we learned for our next visit.
First a little background… The most popular area in Nashville is Downtown, specifically Lower Broadway. Lower Broadway is an area surrounding Broadway Street which is roughly a five block stretch of bars and souvenir shops. This is the main tourist area where party goers head to let loose and hear live music. It is sandwiched between Bridgestone Arena; home to the Predators (NHL), and Nissan Stadium (across the river); home to the Titans (NFL), on the other.
Broadway is also flanked by the Country Music Hall of Fame, Ryman Auditorium, and the Johnny Cash Museum. This area is both an incredible location to stay and expensive. Deb and Mike stayed at the Omni Hotel, which by all accounts is WELL worth the price. The Omni Hotel is in an excellent location, one block off Broadway, connected to both the convention center and Country Music Hall of Fame (the extra cost to get the audio tour is worth it, if you decide to go).
A bit more budget conscious; we opted to stay on the opposite side of Broadway at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel. It still is a really good central location and the rooms were updated (although I would suggest bringing ear plugs for the noise that travelled through the hallway). Even though we saved 40% by booking early through Priceline (now Booking.com) we spent $340 USD a night. Regardless of where you stay in Lower Broadway you will be a short walk from all of the main attractions. Neither of us rented cars.
On a side note, Jason and I have had really great luck with VRBO’s and AirBnB’s when we travel and often prefer to stay in them. We find they offer a unique take on local living. Due to the busy football weekend, we weren’t able to find any when we booked but I did see a number of lofts in the area that looked great.
Away from the kids (and diabetes) for the first time in 2 years, we decided to do a self guided bar hop of the most notable places on Broadway. There are a lot of tour groups that offer these pub crawls along with transportation, but in my opinion, they are all close enough to walk to, easy to navigate, and although we were there on a busy weekend, we didn’t need to wait in line anywhere more that 5 minutes. I suggest taking a look at a few of these sites and coming up with your own list. Our favorite by far was Tootsie’s. It felt the most authentic; the atmosphere and bands were great.
We found food was hard to find at a lot of places later in the evening. If you are hungry head to one of the sports bars; they served food until late. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by how commercial most of the bars on Broadway felt. A lot of celebrities have or are opening “mega” bars, which are a fun to have a drink or dance in, but really lack the authentically country vibe I expected to find in Nashville. These bars still offer a good time and are amazing in shear size (most have 3 or 4 levels).
If you are looking for authentic, it has been suggested to me by many Nashville frequenters, that the place to find is the Bluebird Café. The Bluebird Cafe, is an unassuming little venue in a strip mall on the out skirts of town. You must have reservations and they are very hard to obtain (we can attest to this, we never were able to get them). Reservations need to be made through their website and open up usually one week in advance. Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift were “discovered” at the Bluebird Café and Keith Urban is apparently a regular in the audience.
We love walking tours, although Deb and Mike were the only ones to make it on one in Nashville. They are a nice way to explore a city and get some of the history and gossip without having to research it yourself. Some of the locations featured were the full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens (built in 1897), Printer’s Alley (where prohibition was ignored), and Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge (behind the Ryman) which saw the start of Willie, Patsy, Kris K., Waylon, Roger Miller and Teri Clark. We all highly recommend a walking or bicycle tour (the bike tours can be a little more approachable if you’re feeling a little sluggish from the night before) when visiting a new city with a depth of history that you might not be familiar with.
Being in the heart of country music, we decided to get tickets to the Grand Ole Opry. It certainly was an experience, although I would suggest taking a look at who is performing, especially if you aren’t the twangy country kind of person. Also, keep in mind that the Grand Ole Opry is a good drive from Broadway; it is out near the Opryland Mall and Hotel. Occasionally there are shows at the Ryman Auditorium, but in 1974 they moved to their current 10 miles from downtown Nashville.
Now on to my favorite part of travel, the food! I feel like the food experiences can make or break a trip for me. Tasting the food in a city is one of my favorite memories. Rome, San Francisco, Sydney, and New York. Heading to Nashville I was excited to try some Southern favorites like hot fried chicken, catfish, pimento cheese, shrimp and grits, or biscuits and gravy. Unfortunately for Jason and I, our experience with Nashville food wasn’t that wonderful, but we still managed to find a couple of gems! Deb and Mike
- For authentic Mexican street fare Bakersfield was a must.
- Nashville is known for its hot fried chicken and Hattie B’s Chicken (Midtown) didn’t disappoint. We waited two hours in the sun, very hungover, and I would do it all over again! If you don’t want to endure the wait, I would suggest going to one of their other locations in Nashville.
- Husk is finer fare, housed in a Rutledge Hill home built in 1880; a modern approach to local and southern ingredients.
- Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant dishes up large portions of home cooked southern food
Because everyone likes a good list here are our favorites, dislikes, and learned for next time.
Favorite Restaurants
Favorite Bars
- Tootsie’s for the overall experience
- Acme Seed and Feed for the view at night
- Luke Bryan’s, it was modern and not really country, but a lot of fun
Favorite must see
- Country Music Hall of Fame
- Have a drink (or more) on Broadway
- Titans Game
Dislikes
- Expensive: Hotels, flights, and even drinks were expensive.
- Commercial: It felt like the authentic roots of the city were slipping away from them as tourism becomes a more important industry. Compared to our last weekend away in New Orleans, Nashville underdelivered on both authenticity and culture.
Learned for next time
- Book ahead: Nashville (at least from Calgary) doesn’t get cheaper the closer you get to departure. Book well in advance and take advantage of sales
- Rent a car: If staying for more than 2 nights I would rent a car to explore some of the surrounding area. Lower Broadway doesn’t take that long to explore and there are some interesting venues surrounding Nashville, like the Jack Daniels Distillery which is a two-hour drive.
- Research restaurants: A lot of the restaurants we were looking forward to were either extremely hard to get into and we should have had reservations; or they were a bit of a let down. We also found that a number of higher end restaurants were closed on either Sunday or Monday night.
