Well, we’re here; it’s January; it’s cold. Regardless — we squeezed in a last-minute Nashville weekend trip since we’ve been meaning to visit.
I need to go back in the summer since I don’t think Nashville is at its peak in the dead of winter (and I want to do some hiking) but it still made for a fun weekend!
Before we went, I did some research from the following:
- “Where to Stay in Nashville”, Travel Lemming Lemming
- “Things to do in Nashville”, Busy Tourist
- “Top 25 Things to do in Nashville”, The Crazy Tourist
Mainly to get a sense for the best neighborhoods to visit and the main attractions. We did get to most of my top items except for trying hot chicken (specifically Hattie B’s) & going to Hatch Show Print, which is known for producing show posters.
Day 1: Saturday, January 7th
It’s about a 4 hour drive from Cincy to Nashville (and a change from EST to CST time), so we got in around 12PM CST. Our drive was pretty unremarkable except for an excellent coffee stop at Crescent Hill Coffee in the Louisville Crescent Hill neighborhood. The area was adorable with a lot of cute shops and bookstores and definitely worth a visit if you’re in Louisville.
We opted to stay in downtown Nashville, since I heard that finding parking downtown could be a real beast and wanted to have a guaranteed hotel spot. After checking in to our hotel, we grabbed lunch at Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant, which is downtown and I heard had good BBQ. It was excellent and we split a platter that was still an overwhelming amount of food (we didn’t even touch the half-chicken).
After lunch, we drove through the Vanderbilt University area and stopped to see The Parthenon (a full-scale replica of the Greek Parthenon), before walking around the 12 South. 12 South is an adorable, bougie neighborhood (complete with a Marine Layer and Madewell) that has lots of cute local businesses and Five Daughters Bakery, which is known for their cronuts. We got the classic and matcha cream – both of which were delicious!
We were feeling a little tired and cold after our outing so, after re-charging back at the hotel with some of our copious lunch leftovers, we checked out Broadway, which is the main music & bar scene in Nashville. Several friends had recommended Florida Georgia Line (named after the band), so that ended up being the bar we stopped at for live music (early in the night before it got crazy) There were lots of other options on Broadway as well, including Luke Bryan and Kid Rock’s bars. As someone who doesn’t really partake in country, it was borderline surreal — but the live music was excellent!
Day 2: Sunday, January 8th
We wanted to get back to Cincy early afternoon so the only stop we made on our way out of town was in East Nashville to check out the Five Points neighborhood. It was very cute and definitely up-and-coming with a fun hipster vibe. It had lots of cute shops, bars, and restaurants and is definitely the neighborhood I could most see myself living in.
We walked around exploring a little before grabbing a delicious breakfast at Snooze, an A.M. Eatery (their smashed avocado benny and buddha bowl — which have both inspired some at-home meals over the last week).
It was a quick 24 hours in Nashville but we saw quite a bit, even while trying to take things at a slower pace. I’m looking coming back down in the summer when I’m not freezing my butt off!
Fun-sized: A Travel and Life Blog 