Nashville

To take advantage of a long weekend, Chris and I flew to Nashville. It's just an over 3 hour flight from Phoenix and we found non-stop flights through Southwest.

Where We Stayed

We took a Lyft from the airport to our hotel after arriving- Hyatt Place Nashville Downtown. I really liked the hotel and the location. You could walk to Broadway, the epicenter of entertainment. But it wasn't so close that you could hear the bands. You did hear the party bikes and buses riding around (which there were a ton of!), but that sound wasn't too bad since we were on the 14th floor.

Lower Broadway

I didn't have much of an itinerary for this trip and figured the main scene was Broadway, or "Lower Broad" as the locals call it. A few blocks from the hotel made it an easy walk, but there were also scooters everywhere such as Bird that you could rent, which we did a few times (before having any drinks!).

On Lower Broad, there is just bar after bar after bar of entertainment. At night, they shut down the main portion to traffic to allow visitors to walk in the open road. Most bars are "honky tonks." We learned that there are 3 rules required in order to qualify as a honky tonk: 1) sell beer, 2) have live music from open until close, and 3) must have a dance floor. Most bars were multi-story and you'd find a different band on every one! I have never seen entertainment like this.

We heard from our food tour guide that Robert's is the local fave and the most true to the traditional Nashville music scene.

Being a holiday weekend, it was busy, but there was plenty of room for everyone. There were lines at the big names, but it was just so security could check IDs on the way in. Took no time at all. All of the bands were very good. It was akin to going to a concert each time we walked into a new place. Something we learned is that these bands are not paid by the establishment, they rely solely on tips. We were given a tip lesson by our food tour guide: if you listen to a couple songs and walk out, throw a couple $1s in their tip bucket. Generally, you should tip $5 per person per hour. The band typically walks around with a bucket every hour giving you a good time to throw that $5 in there. They're happy to give you change back as well. The bands play in 4 hour blocks, so if you listen to the whole set, drop a $20 each. Song requests are $20. But there are a few songs that every band requires $100 for. The Devil Went Down to Georgia is one of them.

The theory is if they played it every time someone requested the song normally, they'd play those non-stop, so they require the higher tip for those. You can crowd fund the tips to make it more manageable.

Lower Broad is just something to be seen; it was amazing. I've never experienced nightlife like that before. And everything is close together (not super spread out like Vegas), which makes bar hopping easy. Have a drink or 2, and then move onto the next.

Many of the places have rooftop bars.

If you get hungry, there's BBQ to be had, some food trucks, and late night hot dog stands to choose from.

Printer's Alley

My SIL told me about Printer's Alley, which is just a quick jaunt from Lower Broad. I liked this area. Much quieter than Lower Broad and more of a speakeasy feel to it. But still awesome bands and bars. I should mention no bars have cover charges here or on Lower Broad; have cash and give your money to your bartender and the band!

Food Tour

As I've mentioned before, I like doing food tours in new places. The guides are locals who can give you some great tips. We took a tour through Dabble Tours and Events. I decided I didn't want to do a downtown tour since I figured we'd get enough of that on our own. So I chose the Taste of Nashville Tour by Van. It was the right decision. This tour was above and beyond what I expected. Our guide, Scott, was amazing. He was full of information and stories about the area and we learned a TON. He also drove us by some top sights in Nashville as we made our way to the next food stop: Germantown, Vanderbilt, Belmont University, The Parthenon, the American Pickers store, Antique Archaeology, to name a few.

As for the food, that was great too! We started at a chocolate shop in Germantown, Tempered Fine Chocolates. Such good chocolate. We each got to try the chocolate covered pretzels and pick out one specialty truffle. Then I bought a chocolate covered pretzel stick and a bar for the road. Germantown was definitely a cool area and if I had more time, we would've gone back to check it out.

Next up was the Springwater Supper Club.

This is the oldest and continuously operated bar in Tennessee. The state apparently had Prohibition much longer than the rest of the U.S. due to their state laws. This bar operated illegally for many years. We grabbed a table inside and food from next door- some hot chicken- was brought in for us. Now, there are many hot chicken places in Nashville. But Red's has been voted best hot chicken by the locals for like 17 years in a row. There are many different spice levels. I had mild, and Chris had medium. There was a definite difference there and I'm glad I went with the mild.

Next up was Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint. Scott chose this place because his friend from Texas says it's the only BBQ joint she'll take her TX friends when they visit. So it must be good, right?

We ended at Christie Cookie Co, the local company that provides all the cookies for Doubletree hotels. I chose the butter pecan cookie- it was the best cookie I've ever eaten! Seriously, it was that good.

This store was in the area called 12 South. It was a cool area as well, and we ended up heading back the next day.

The tour ended back at the tour store, which shares an area with a small distillery. We were given a tasting at the end.

12 South

The next day we hopped in a Lyft and headed back to the 12 South area. There are some cute shops and restaurants there that we checked out. The area is extremely dog friendly and all the stores welcome them in with open arms. I bought some trinkets and snapped some pics. It was worth the time for sure.

Ryman Auditorium

We had some time to kill before our food tour got started, so we decided to tour the Ryman Auditorium. It ended up being a great stop. There is so much history at this space and it was such an awesome venue. It would be amazing to see a show there.

Assembly Food Hall

Downtown has the Assembly Food Hall, which is a cool spot.

It's home to a Hattie B's which is probably the most well known Nashville hot chicken spot. But, as we learned on our food tour, it is not the original. In fact, Hattie B's apparently stole the recipe from the actual original--Prince's. Thankfully, there's also a Prince's in the Food Hall so we headed there to check it out. This is a local spot and only has 2 storefronts. So it felt good to support local too.