Things to Do in Nashville

Known as the “Mother Church of Country Music,” Ryman Auditorium helped transform Nashville into a legendary music destination. Since 1892, the venue has hosted notable stars such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Van Morrison, and Minnie Pearl. Today, visitors can tour the 2,362-seat auditorium, visit the museum, or catch a live show. 

Travelers can visit independently or on a Nashville tour. Ride a hop-on hop-off trolley with flexible start times throughout the day and stop here for a self-guided tour to explore on your own, or take a guided backstage tour to see dressing rooms that have hosted countless stars, peruse the music venue’s exhibits and multimedia presentations, and check out an array of historic memorabilia and artifacts. Music history buffs can visit the auditorium on a walking tour of downtown Nashville, during which a tour guide tells tells stories of the city’s must-see sites. Foodies can stop by the Ryman on a culinary tour and sample local cuisine along the way, or, for a special treat, combine a visit with an evening tour of Nashville featuring live music and a traditional barbecue dinner.

The Ryman is centrally located in the heart of downtown Nashville, at the junction of Broadway and Fourth Avenue. The entrance is located on the Fourth Avenue side of the building. The site does not have a dedicated public parking lot.

The Ryman Auditorium and museum are open year-round except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Tours are offered daily between 9am and 4pm. The most popular time to visit is from April through October, when warm weather brings Music City to life. Winter is the city’s low season, when visitors may find cheaper prices.

Although it’s the original home of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry country music concerts, the Ryman stage has seen superstars of every genre. Artists such as Paul Simon, the Pixies, MGMT, and even Houdini have performed here, in addition to comedians Joe Rogan and Bill Burr.

Since 2006 the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville has been honoring musical super stars of all genres with displays, galleries and exhibitions highlighting one of the city’s main attractions: Live music. And while this destination has been a hot ticket since its inception, the museum relocated in 2010 to an even more impressive spot—the historic Nashville Municipal Auditorium—part exhibition hall, part convention center and part major music museum.

Visitors can spend several hours combing through interactive displays that showcase the best of music. An impressive Grammy exhibit pays homage to some of the world’s top performers, and an excellent audio tour offers passionate travelers an even deeper look into the collection at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.

Travelers can check out the museum on its own, or combine it with an evening catching live music on the city’s main strip. A tour of the museum can also be included as part of a larger exploration of Nashville’s scene, including the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Tennessee State Capitol stands tall on Nashville’s highest hill as a symbol of its time, virtually unchanged since its construction in 1859. The structure is the masterpiece of notable architect William Strickland, who passed away during construction and was laid to rest in the building. The National Historic Landmark was built in Greek Revival style and is one of few state capitols without a dome. It was modeled after an Ionic Greek temple. Though classic in design, at the time it was considered innovative in construction. 

The capitol building is beautiful to see and historic to visit, with statues of many important political figures as well as the graves of President James K. Polk and his wife. Its walls are lined with beautiful murals, frescoes, and paintings, while its halls are lit by ornate chandeliers. It is still in use by the Tennessee state government today. It is the oldest operating state capitol in the country.

Nashville is known for its eclectic music scene, live entertainment and commitment to country. No place is this more evident than at the world-famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. The Nashville institution for nightlife and honky tonk has been a part of this dynamic city since the 1960s.

Its namesake is drawn from the lilac colored exterior, but Tootsie’s is more than just a Nashville lounge. Home to three stages that play host to live music and performers almost every night, visitors are as likely to catch an up-and-coming local strumming the steel guitar as they are a big name musician like Taylor Swift. Tootsie’s long-standing tradition of drawing country music super stars dates back to the days of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Even the contemporary country singer Terri Clark got her big start on the stages at Tootsie’s.

Visitors can opt to spend an entire evening at this downtown Nashville staple, or make a stop as part of a Nashville Bar Pass or Nashville Evening tour that highlights the best of honky tonk in this country music capital.

Oddities and artifacts abound in the permanent collections of the free-to-the-public Tennessee State Museum, together they tell the story of this particular swath of the American South from 12,000 years ago to the early 1900s. The main exhibit space consumes the ground floor of the massive office tower at the James K. Polk Cultural Center, and is divided into six eras such as the “First Tennesseans,” “Civil War and Reconstruction,” and the “New South.” The Military Branch Museum, a vestige of the museum’s former nearby location in the War Memorial Building prior to its 1981 move, is run separately and offers an in depth look into major battles from the Spanish American War to World War II featuring weapons, uniforms, flags and personal items from Tennessee soldiers.

Among the more unusual finds in the main space are a 3,600-year-old mummy brought by Tennessean merchant marine to the state during the prosperous antebellum period, a Frontier-era log cabin showing colonial life, mastodon bones, a huge collection of quits, a hand-drawn Confederate battle field map, a covered wagon, a horse-drawn fire engine with brass water pump, Daniel Boone’s cutlery set and pocket knife, an early model of a flying machine, a moonshine sill, a model of a white wooden riverboat, Andrew Jackson’s personal items and a leather jacket once worn by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower during his role as a WWII General. Rotating exhibitions keep things fresh and have included artwork from Japanese museums, the original Emancipation Proclamation, photographs of Elvis and a collaborative exhibit with the adjacent Tennessee Performing Arts Center on Tennessee’s African American musical heritage. Though captivating for school children and adults, there is little interactive here to entertain families with very young children. Plans for a shiny new State Museum, proposed for a location along Bicentennial Mall a few blocks away, are in the works.

The Hermitage is the historic home and plantation of Andrew Jackson, the seventh US president. Visiting gives you a sense of Jackson’s everyday life—original furnishings make the mansion homey—and also of 19th-century life in the South for everyone, from aristocrats to enslaved persons. Plus, it’s a great Nashville day trip.

 

The Hermitage is much more than an historic home. The 1,120-acre (453-hectare) property has more than 30 historic buildings, large gardens, and the tombs of Andrew Jackson and his wife, Rachel. The property also has a number of historic slave cabins that tell the stories of the people Jackson enslaved to work on his plantation, plus farm buildings, a church, garden, and landscaped grounds.

 

The Hermitage offers some specialty tours with its docents, and private companies in Nashville also have options for guided visits. Visit on your own for a peaceful afternoon away from the city. Basic admission includes a guided audio tour of the main home, which means you can move through the many rooms at your own pace—an especially popular feature for families touring with kids. Or, join a guided tour to learn more about Jackson’s life in Tennessee.

 

 

Only 11 miles (18 kilometers) east of Nashville, the Hermitage is most quickly visited by car. It is accessible from I-40 or I-65, and free parking is available at a lot next to the Andrew Jackson Visitor Center. If you don’t have a car, consider booking advanced transportation or taking the bus; the 6 and the 27 both run from central Nashville to the Hermitage.

 

The Hermitage is open daily during seasonal hours. It’s open from 8:30am to 5pm from April 1 to October 15 and from 9am to 4:30pm the rest of the year. It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the third week of January.

 

The Hermitage isn’t the only historic home around Nashville. Belle Meade Plantation, known as the Queen of the Tennessee Plantations, is another popular choice, as are the Civil War–era Carter House, Belmont Mansion, and the Historic Travellers Rest Plantation and Museum.

The historic RCA Studio B is where Nashville’s legendary music scene began. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this Tennessee studio is credited as being the epicenter of Music City and the place where the Nashville Sound originated. RCA Studio B has recorded more than 35,000 songs—many of them platinum hits.

 

At RCA Studio B, you can wander the halls where Dolly Parton and the Everly Brothers once recorded, and even sit at the piano Elvis Presley played. This recording studio, an irreplaceable part of music history, is now part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and its interior in decorated in 1970s-era style, as it was in its heyday as the “Temple of Sound.” 

 

Guided studio tours depart every day from the Country Music Hall of Fame and are available in conjunction with Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum admission. You can also see RCA Studio B as one of the attractions included in the Nashville Music Attraction Discount Pass, which also includes admission to other Music City highlights such as the Ryman Auditorium, the Grand Ole Opry, and the Johnny Cash Museum. 

 

 

RCA Studio B is located in downtown Nashville’s Music Row. The studio is easily accessed from downtown Nashville on foot, by car, or via bus #8 (get off at the 8th Avenue South and South Street stop). 

 

Guided tours depart the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum hourly between 10:30am and 2:30pm every day except for New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.

 

RCA Studio B is credited with reviving the popularity of country music in the 1960s, introducing what became known as the Nashville Sound. This style of music was more sophisticated than other country styles, and incorporated string instruments and background vocals. Music fans consider a visit to the studio, which made Nashville into an international recording center, a must-do when visiting Music City.