Our Nashville Experience: A Visitors Guide

First Up… The Best Of Nashville Tours

“We visited Nashville for three full days in the middle of summer. Now, we have been to parts of Nashville for one reason or another, but never really visited as a “tourist” with the opportunity to explore the city. This time around we got some good sightseeing in and would love to share our Nashville experience as well as recommend things to do!

We did the walking tour with Joe Nashville as our very first experience in Nashville. The Walking tour itself was a great experience. We learned so much and got great recommendations for things to do the rest of our trip. This was an easy way to see many sights, without actually planning an excursion for each individual place. I would highly recommend this as a top thing to do when in Nashville. A big thank you to our tour guide.

We also did the Nashville Tractor tour.  It was a fun experience since they blast music and you can dance around but it was definitely overpriced and shorter than I expected. The drinks were also pricey. This would not be my first suggestion for something to do when in Nashville and our trip would have been just as fun without this experience. If you are looking for a unique, more lively, thing to do, than this is it.

The Main Event: Drinks and Grub!

For our first dinner we decided on Skull’s Rainbow Room in Printer’s Alley. It is very expensive!  However, the food and drinks were amazing and the portion sizes were great (not too small and not too big). The live music was a great experience and I highly recommend it for people who are willing to splurge a little more for the experience itself. You can even just grab a drink and listen to the music.

Bourbon Street Blues was our next stop as it is located right next to Skull’s in Printer’s Alley. It was such a cool place- do not miss this on your trip! The drinks were reasonably priced, and the New Orleans, blues vibes were awesome. This is not like any other bar in Nashville. I would suggest sitting up at the top level to watch the music down below for the best experience.

Martin’s BBQ: This was recommended to us by our Nashville Experience tour guide, and was hands down the best BBQ we had on the trip. Simply amazing! Very glad he recommended it and something I look forward to on our next trip to Nashville. Do not miss this!

Ruby Sunshine:  We randomly found this place for Brunch and it was amazing. Very good food and reasonably priced!  Puckett’s Grocery downtown was also very good food. It was reasonably priced and had live music, which made for a nice evening meal.

Rippy’s Honky Tonk: The food was more like cafeteria food and the drinks were very sweet. This is a bar atmosphere that ranks high in the music and Nashville vibes area. I recommend eating elsewhere beforehand and visiting for a few drinks and live music.

Nudie’s Honky Tonk: So, we are not huge country music fans. Which is why we enjoyed Nudie’s Honkey Tonk the best of the bar and music scene. Most of the bands played Rock n’ Roll or Pop Punk covers and the venue itself is huge with plenty of room to roam and dance.  It seemed like each level was its own bar, which we really enjoyed.

Excursion Experiences

Frist Art Museum: This is a sight worth mentioning. It was a nice experience if you like modern art. They have different sections dedicated to different artists and mediums, very informative However, if you want more historical artifacts and Nashville-specific topics, the State Museum would be a better fit.

The Parthenon: Located in a rather large park and picnic area not far from downtown. It was cool to see but I would not go out of my way for it to be honest. If you are only in Nashville for a few days, I would say pass on this one.

Next time we go back to Nashville, we want to try the ziplining adventure our tour guide also mentioned and possibly get some hiking in- I hear the surrounding parks are beautiful!

Conclusion

There is so much more to this city than the downtown aspect; and for us it was very special to be able to split our time between Broadway and Off-Broadway. Overall, the food and music completely made this trip the experience it was.

We love Nashville and will be back!”