Nashville is a welcoming Southern city with an amazing music scene, rich culture, and great restaurants. If you only have one day to explore Music City, you want to be sure that you make the most of it. Here’s how to spend 24 hours in Nashville.
Head downtown for the morning
Start the day with breakfast at Biscuit Love. You can’t visit Nashville without having biscuits for breakfast. Biscuit Love is a local family-own restaurant that started as a food truck and has since expanded to 3 locations across the city. Try the Bonuts, a biscuit/donut combination topped with blueberry compote, or the B-roll, a biscuit/cinnamon roll.
After finishing breakfast, head downtown to enjoy some of Nashville’s music history. The County Music Hall of Fame Museum has the largest collection of country music artifacts in the world. You won’t be able to see everything in one visit, but you can see the highlights–including Elvis’s gold Cadillac.
The Johnny Cash Museum is much smaller. The intimate museum is well designed though and definitely worth a visit. Even if you don’t know much about Cash, the museum’s focus on how he influenced American culture is fascinating.
Nashville has an impressive culinary scene that’s impossible to sample all in one day, so do the next best thing instead. For the best of Nashville’s food all in one place, go to Assembly Food Hall. This upscale food court has stalls from some of Nashville’s favorite restaurants including Prince’s Hot Chicken, Donut Distillery, and The Pharmacy Burger.
Explore Nashville’s neighborhoods
While downtown is fun, it’s not all there is in Nashville. 12 South is one of Nashville’s charming neighborhoods filled with boutiques, restaurants, and coffee shops. Strolling down 12 South Avenue is a fun way to spend a couple of hours.
You can sample a 100-layer donut from 5 Daughters Bakery, shop at the flagship location of Reese Witherspoon’s clothing store Draper James, and grab coffee at Frothy Monkey. If you’re looking for cute murals for Instagram photos, you’ll find several here. 12 South is also home to Servier Park, which is the perfect place to relax outdoors for a bit.
Enjoy dinner and live music
Before heading back downtown, stop by Edley Bar-B-Que for dinner. Everyone has their own idea of what barbecue should be like, but Edley’s delivers a perfect Southern barbecue experience. The local chain has great barbecue and the best sides in town. Make sure to try the mac and cheese and order the banana pudding.
You can’t end the night in Music City without listening to live music. Almost all of the bars downtown on Broadway have live music 7 nights a week with no cover charge. Two must-visits are Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, open since 1960, and Robert’s Western World, a favorite among locals.
Final Thoughts
While you could easily spend days in Nashville, you’re guaranteed to enjoy your time visiting even if it’s short. There’s nowhere else quite like Nashville.
