Do you dream of visiting the home of country music? The home of the Ryman? Don’t know what the Ryman is… well that’s the reason you definitely need to go!
Nashville has a young vibe with a certain charm that cannot be compared to any other city I’ve been to. My sister, dad and I went to Nashville for four days, which was just the right amount to see Nashville and a couple of surrounding cities around it!
Broadway Street
Broadway Street is the main tourist street. It has all of the Honky Tonk bars, where people are performing live music all day. You can walk into any of these bars and there will be a great performance! Along with the Honky Tonk bars are pieces of history, amazing restaurants and many stores that sell cowboy boots.
You will not miss this on your trip to Nashville! It is in the heart of downtown.
Broadway at night time! The purple building is the infamous Tootsies Orchid Lounge.
Nashville is definitely a Yuppie/Yopro City
Yuppie/Yopro: Young Professional
In every area, Nashville had some sort of building going on. Whether is was a new apartment complex or a new bar, there were many new things coming there, which is always a good sight to see! A lot of the city was renovated, which is what many millennials love to see but it had a southern charm.
I never thought I could see myself in a southern city before. I have always dreamt of living in Washington D.C. or NYC, but now Nashville has been added to this list!
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Something that I loved was an area called “12 South,” which is where Reese Witherspoon’s store, Draper James is. Reese Witherspoon’s hometown is Nashville, so of course she had to have her store in one of Nashville’s hottest neighborhoods!
Right next door to Draper James is Sprinkles cupcakes, which included their Cupcake ATM (I was in heaven!). If you haven’t experienced the Cupcake ATM, then you must get to your closest Sprinkles Cupcakes pronto!
On every corner there was another cool store to go into including White’s Mercantile. While walking past White’s Mercantile my sister and I weren’t sure what the store was going to be so it made it even more exciting. We walked into a young adult’s heaven. It was a clothing store and a gift store stocked with unnecessary things. They had adorable clothing, real leather purses, jewelry, Hudson Bay blankets… you can basically see that my sister and I were in heaven while this was not my dad’s ideal spot, haha!
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12 South is also home of the “I believe in Nashville” wall! This wall was painted in 2012 by an artist named DCXV to create a unifying symbol for Nashville, for native and newcomer alike.
Some of the History
We did two touristy tours to learn more about the rich history that Nashville holds. My family and I toured the Ryman and we visited Hatch Printing.
Visiting the home of Hatch Printing was my favorite out of the two. Hatch Printing is the company who makes the iconic posters for advertising for many artists who came to Nashville. Hatch printing still currently makes posters for artists to sell at their shows! They have made posters for anyone from Elvis to Kanye.
It was so neat to be able to see the old machinery they use to hand-make all of these posters. They all become individuals, which is so great!
Me being the public relations major that I am, I loved getting to see the early advertising that these artists used to promote their shows. My family and I even got to make our prints at the end of the tour.
Food
I had some of the best food while visiting! Whether it was at one their local coffee shops, Frothy Monkey, Merchant’s, a southern bistro (that is on Broadway!) or it was at Pancake Pantry, a legendary breakfast spot.
Definitely add Nashville to your bucket list!
Even if it’s only for two days, you will not regret getting to this great city!
