Nashville was a pleasant surprise! 

At first glance, there isn’t really too much to do around town unless you’re a die hard country music fan. But we quickly found this to be untrue. 

We arrived around lunch hour, just in time to join a line of eager foodies waiting to partake in Nashville’s famous hot chicken at Hattie B. This is crispy yet moist fried chicken at various spice levels. Medium heat was good enough for us to taste the kick but still be able to enjoy the chicken without burning our taste buds. 

After lunch, we headed towards downtown Nashville where we quickly discovered throngs of other tourists. Being that this was a random weekend in February we were a bit surprised but the crowd just added to the lively atmosphere. 

Even though it was early in the afternoon we could already hear the sounds of live music escaping through the windows of every establishment as we wandered down Broadway Ave. 

We stopped at Mike’s Ice Cream for some amazing ice cream and hot chocolate. Sounds strange, I know, but there were plenty of others who also thought it was a good idea. 

After checking into our hotel and taking a brief nap, it was time to hit the town and see what the nightlife is all about! 

Public transportation isn’t stellar but Lyft was doing a big promotion and our hotel had coupon codes  so we were able to get to and from Broadway (the main stretch of live music) quite easily. 

Our first stop was Honky Tony Central, a rocking party house with three floors of three different bands. The drinks here were The most expensive of all our drinks that night. Not so much country music, all the bands played cover songs which people crowded together to dance to. Even when we switched floors we found the same song being played, so not sure if they had the same set list or not. Interestingly there was a crackdown near us where someone underage must have snuck in and was now asked to leave. 

10pm seemed to be a universal band changeover time so we quickly took it as our cue to change venues. 

Layla s Bluegrass Inn was our second stop for the night and we were super lucky to snag a tiny table. The crowd was significantly different – a bit older, less drunk people – and the music was classic country hillbilly music. 

Our last stop for the night was Benchmark. This was away from the crowd of bars on Broadway but the music didn’t suffer at all. We enjoyed a local singer songwriter with an intimate crowd before heading back. 

Well actually we stopped for a quick midnight snack at Sbarro before catching our Lyft ride to the hotel. 

Nashville was definitely more exciting than we had hoped for. No wonder it’s such an up and coming place for bachelorettes! (We had passed by multiple women wearing the veil and tons of party bikes)