10 Best Things to Do in Nashville

Opened in its current 350,000-square-foot form in 2001 and expanded again in 2014, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is the largest popular-music museum in the world and the single best indoor stop in the city. The permanent Sing Me Back Home exhibit walks chronologically from Appalachian string bands to the Nashville Sound and modern country, with Elvis Presley's gold-plated 1960 Cadillac, handwritten Hank Williams lyrics, and Taylor Swift's early stage outfits along the way. Rotating exhibits change roughly every 18 months. In 2026, general admission is $27.95 for adults, $17.95 for kids aged 6 to 12, and free for children 5 and under; the combo ticket that adds a guided RCA Studio B tour costs $49.95 and is the best-value bundle in the city. Allow at least two hours, longer if you plan to sit through the mini-theatre film. The museum is fully wheelchair accessible and one of the most reliable things to do in Nashville with kids on a rainy afternoon.

Pro Tip: Book the first tour slot of the day (usually 9:00) and start your visit on the third floor, working downward. You will beat both the cruise-ship-style tour groups and the school parties, and you will exit at the ground-floor cafe just in time for lunch.

Founded on 28 November 1925 as a WSM radio broadcast called the WSM Barn Dance, the Grand Ole Opry is the longest-running live radio programme in American history. The show still airs live from the 4,400-seat Grand Ole Opry House twice a week, usually Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday nights, with additional midweek shows in peak season. A typical two-hour Opry night features seven to nine acts across genres, mixing established stars like Vince Gill or Trisha Yearwood with newer inductees and surprise guest walk-ons. Tickets in 2026 range from about $49 in the upper balcony to $135 for premium main-floor seats; behind-the-scenes daytime backstage tours cost $37 for adults and $32 for children 4 to 11. The building sits next to Opry Mills mall and the Gaylord Opryland Resort, so many visitors combine a matinee tour with dinner and an evening show. For deeper context, see the Grand Ole Opry Wikipedia entry.

Pro Tip: If your budget is tight, buy a backstage tour ticket and pair it with a Tuesday Opry show. Tuesday tickets often start under $55, the line-up is just as strong as the weekend, and you avoid the bachelorette rideshare surge on Friday and Saturday nights.

Built in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle and home to the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 until 1974, the Ryman Auditorium is the venue every touring musician talks about after they finally play it. The wooden pews, stained-glass windows, and famously live acoustics have hosted Johnny Cash's June Carter marriage proposal, Elvis Presley's only Opry appearance, and countless landmark recordings. The self-guided daytime tour ($34.95 adults, $29.95 kids 4 to 11 in 2026) lets you walk the stage, sit in the pews, and record a short souvenir single in the studio booth. Concert tickets vary wildly by act, but almost any show at the Ryman is worth the ticket for the room alone. Backstage guided tours cost $44.95 and include the dressing rooms named for Hank Williams and Loretta Lynn. Because it sits half a block behind Broadway, the Ryman is one of the easiest add-ons to a downtown morning; give yourself 45 to 75 minutes for the self-guided visit.

Pro Tip: Buy the self-guided tour ticket online the night before to lock in your entry window. The last daily entry is at 15:30, and walk-up availability disappears by early afternoon in spring and autumn.

Opened in 2013 and consistently rated the best small museum in Nashville by TripAdvisor readers, the Johnny Cash Museum houses the largest single collection of Cash artefacts and memorabilia anywhere in the world. Founder Bill Miller worked with the Cash family to secure hand-written lyric sheets, the stone wall from the House of Cash offices, one of the black Manuel-tailored stage suits, and the actual wagon wheel from the Cinnamon Hill estate in Jamaica. Exhibits move chronologically from the Dyess Colony childhood through Sun Records, San Quentin, the American Recordings comeback, and his death in September 2003. Admission in 2026 is $24.95 for adults and $18.95 for kids 6 to 15; combo tickets bundling the neighbouring Patsy Cline Museum on the second floor cost $34.95. Plan for about 60 to 90 minutes. The location three doors off Broadway makes it a natural pairing with an afternoon on the strip.

Pro Tip: Wear headphones or ask the front desk for the free audio loops. Half the exhibits are built around listening stations, and the neighbouring bar noise from Broadway can bleed into the ground floor if you visit after 3pm.

Nashville earned the nickname Athens of the South in the 1800s for its concentration of colleges, and the city doubled down in 1897 by building a full-scale plaster replica of the Athenian Parthenon for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. The temporary structure proved so popular that the city rebuilt it in concrete between 1920 and 1931. Inside stands Alan LeQuire's 42-foot statue of Athena Parthenos, the largest indoor sculpture in the Western world, finished in gold leaf in 2002. The building also houses the Cowan Collection of 19th and 20th century American painters. Admission in 2026 is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and children 4 to 17, and free for kids under 4. The surrounding 132-acre Centennial Park is free, easily walkable, and has a lake, walking paths, playground, and food trucks in summer, making it a strong pick for a family afternoon. See the Wikipedia article on the Parthenon replica) for architectural detail.

Pro Tip: Time your visit for late afternoon in autumn. The setting sun lights the west portico in warm gold from about 4:30pm onward and the light spilling across Athena inside is the best-kept photography secret in the city.

Built in 1957 and used continuously until 1977, RCA Studio B is where Chet Atkins and producer Owen Bradley helped invent the smoother, string-and-vocal-driven Nashville Sound. More than 35,000 songs were recorded in this single small room, including over 260 Elvis Presley tracks, plus hits by Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, and the Everly Brothers. The 60-minute guided tour, sold only as an add-on to a Country Music Hall of Fame ticket, is the only way in. Guests board a shuttle at the museum, hear original session anecdotes on the way, then spend 40 minutes inside the still-working studio, standing on the exact spot where Elvis cut Are You Lonesome Tonight in a dark room in 1960. Combo tickets in 2026 are $49.95 for adults and $27.95 for kids 6 to 12. Tours run several times daily; last departure is normally 14:30. Give the whole experience 2 hours from museum lobby to return.

Pro Tip: Ask the guide to point out the piano and floor scuff mark from the Elvis 1960 sessions before the group photo. Almost nobody knows to look for it, and it makes the whole afternoon feel like a private tour.

Music Row is not a museum or a single attraction, it is roughly a dozen leafy blocks of converted bungalows and mid-century office buildings where publishing companies, labels, and studios like Sony Music Nashville, Warner, and Big Machine still work. The neighbourhood is walkable and free to explore self-guided, but a small-group Music Row walking tour ($35 to $60 in 2026) is worth the money to get inside stories about the songs cut behind each door. The famous Musica sculpture at the roundabout on Music Square East marks the effective centre. Adjacent Belmont University and its Curb Cafe host regular free student writers rounds, and the Bluebird Cafe, technically in Green Hills 5km south, is the neighbourhood's spiritual anchor; secure Bluebird reservations open exactly one week ahead at noon Central and sell out within minutes. For daytime visitors, Music Row is an easy 60 to 90 minute stroll and a peaceful contrast to the neon of Broadway.

Pro Tip: Set a calendar alert for one week before your Nashville arrival at 11:55am Central. The Bluebird Cafe drops online reservations at 12:00 sharp, and having the tab already open is the difference between getting a seat and not.

Registered in 1866 and recognised as the oldest registered distillery in the United States, the Jack Daniel's operation still runs from the same cave-spring hollow in tiny Lynchburg, seat of Moore County, Tennessee, which remains a legally dry county to this day. The 90-minute Angel's Share tour ($30 in 2026) covers the charcoal mellowing process invented by enslaved distiller Nathan Nearest Green, the barrel warehouses, and a small sipping tasting; the longer Taste of Lynchburg tour ($90) adds a barbecue lunch at Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House and a five-whiskey tasting. Adults 18 and over can join the walking tour; only guests 21 and older can taste. The town square around the distillery is a 15-minute stroll with hardware stores, a general store, and one traffic light, and easily fills a full day trip from Nashville. See the Wikipedia entry on Jack Daniel's for the full history.

Pro Tip: Book the earliest tour slot of the day, then eat a late lunch on the square. Afternoon tours often coincide with tour-bus arrivals from Nashville, and the small tasting rooms feel cramped when three coaches unload at once.

Cross the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge from downtown and East Nashville feels like a different city. Rebuilt after a 1998 tornado and gentrified through the 2010s, the neighbourhood centres on the Five Points intersection and stretches out through leafy blocks of Craftsman bungalows, murals, coffee roasters, dive bars, and some of the best independent restaurants in the state, including Rosepepper Cantina, Redheaded Stranger, and the James Beard-nominated The Catbird Seat. East Nashville is also home to iconic songwriter venue The 5 Spot, live-music room The Basement East, and the tribute-band residency at The Cobra. The area is safe to walk during the day and popular at night; parking is limited on weekend evenings, so ride-share is the easier call after dinner. Similar in feel is 12South, on the opposite side of downtown, where the I Believe in Nashville mural, Draper James (Reese Witherspoon's boutique), and Five Daughters Bakery cluster along a walkable half-mile.

Pro Tip: Time your East Nashville visit for a weekend brunch. Marche Artisan Foods and Nicoletto's open around 08:30 and are the two spots where the neighbourhood's chefs, songwriters, and record-label staff actually eat before the tourist crowds cross the river.