How I like to structure my trips:
I end up doing the sandwich method when I’m planning. I never have tickets or reservations on my first day or my last day, I.e. the “bread”. If there is something you have to do and you need to schedule it, I would choose the last day.
The “cheese”- the tours & museums.
The “meat”- The most walking. This usually is the downtown area and where you end up going for drinks and dancing.

Thursday: Traveling

Late flight arriving at 11pm – I was able to go to work and catch a dinner time flight.

Pick up rental car – It was nice being able to pick up our car that night instead of shuttling the next day. The Nashville airport closes the rental car services at one a.m.

Check into an airport adjacent hotel – There are many pros and cons on whichever hotel you choose. I prefer this specific area if I have an early or late flight. By the time we got our car, checked in, and got ready for bed, a two a.m. bedtime was our reality.

Friday: Sightseeing

Wake up for breakfast – Complimentary breakfast (& parking) is the main way that I choose to save money on my trips. If the early wake up is hard for you, like it was for me 😩, you could grab some pre-packaged items. Our hotel had individually-wrapped fruit, boxed cereal, individual yogurts, and individual milk cartons.

An alternative that I’ll use is going to Sam’s Club/Costco for one breakfast item and one snack item in bulk.

See outside the city – I like to have a relaxed and flexible first day wherever I am. We went and saw the Parthenon and visited some recommended places.

Custom hat – I ended up getting a custom hat at Rustler Hat Co. I spent roughly $250 for my hat. My browsing and customization was just over an hour.

Lunch – We ate at the Pfunky Griddle. This cute little place was a cook-it-yourself restaurant. The meat and drinks were fully made in the kitchen, along with all the prep work. We had a griddle to make our pancakes, hash browns, and eggs. I definitely recommend this place.

“Pre-Game” – aka shopping. My friend and I just happen to be sober so we checked out a booze-free drink shop named Killjoy. They had plenty of wine, liquor, and beer. All of which was alcohol free. They also had a selection of treats and chocolate with enhancers. I had to check out the chocolate enhancers which had vitamin ingredients to enhance mood, energy, and libido. Then, we stopped at Sam’s Club for a snack to have at the hotel.

Afternoon nap – Okay… I’ve hit that age that I need a nap in order to have a night out. I also did not sleep in as late as I wanted (the downside to hotel breakfast).

Dinner and Activity – We went into the city a bit for a place called Puttshack. This bar and restaurant has a modern and funky twist to mini golf. They do require ID’s after eight p.m. We sat and watched March Madness on the big screen, ate dinner, and was eventually called back to start our game. There were different courses of 9-holes. We were called to the Ruby room for some courses featuring beer pong, skeeball, true or false trivia, and air hockey.

*Advice:

• the parking garage behind Puttshack was $20 for 2 hours.
• They recommend/require reservations for mini golf. I was able to make a reservation on-site but it delayed us for another 2 hours.

Saturday: Tours

Checked out of 1st hotel – We had some points to stay free at the Marriott. We then ended up heading over to a Hilton in Brentwood for the remainder of our trip. Average drive time was 15 minutes. Grabbed some breakfast on our way out.

Lunch – We ate at Paula Dean’s Family Kitchen. This restaurant serves their food family style. This means that there is a base price for each person and they bring out a set of main dishes and another set of sides. This feeds the whole group and it did allow for refills. The two of us chose the Albany option. It was two entrees and four sides with a price of $27 per person. The weekend lunch price is the average dinner price. These also includes an individual dessert for everyone.

Our meal:
Pot Roast- 1,000/10
Chicken and dumplings- 8/10
Mashed/Creamed Potatoes- 9/10
Coleslaw- 7/10
Creamed Corn- 7/10
BBQ Baked Beans- 4/10
Banana Pudding- 10/10

Tour the Grand Ole Opry – Whether or not you have concert tickets, you need to do the backstage tour. It was fun to see the stage, the dressing rooms, the artist entrance, and the wall of inductees. They take your picture at the main microphone on stage. It does cost extra to purchase but it was fun to pretend.

Walk around Gaylord Opryland – There is a resort right next door to the Opry. There are shops, attractions, and food. The inside makes you feel like you’re living inside a greenhouse or rainforest. I mean, look at this place:

Parking is an expensive nightmare so I would just walk over from the mall parking lot.

Some shops & attractions:
Water park
Opry shop

Check into hotel – We drove down to our new hotel, and after a mix up with which Hilton location, we got settled in.

General Shopping & Dinner – We went to Walmart for some items. We ended up placing a to-go order at Panera Bread for dinner.

Sunday: Downtown

Breakfast – Again, we ate at the hotel.

Country Music Hall of Fame – Our tour was at 11:30 a.m. and we viewed everything by 1-1:30 p.m. They included interactive activities for all ages.

Lunch at FGL House – We ate a few blocks away at the restaurant that is owned by Florida Georgia Line. This was right next door to our next activity. Live music with your meal.

Goo Goo Cluster – We decided to do a master class at this famous chocolate store. We were able to learn the history, try some classic recipes with the free samples, and then make our own filled chocolate bar. We were able to keep our aprons and then view the finishing touches. The guy completing the “foot” was fun to watch. It is called “footing” because it is adding that bottom layer to in case the deliciousness inside. The gentleman was in front of a window for us all to see. He would showcase each of our individual creations and once he figured out who made it, he would get this cute smile on his face.

Detour back to the hotel – We wanted to make sure our chocolate was in a cool temperature room so we headed back. This gave us time to change our shoes.

Honky Tonk Highway – the “NashVegas” as they call it. This is where you eat and bar hop.

First, we parked over by Nissan stadium. Parking is free if there is not game going on. A stroll across the pedestrian bridge was not too difficult and it includes elevators to the top. However, I would be careful of the elevators after dark. This is where some sketchy people hang out after dark.

Second, we walked into each bar. We listened to the band, checked out the band, and then looked in each merchandise shop. We did not get anything until we sat down for dinner.

The places we stopped at were:
Kid Rock’s
Luke Bryan’s
Jason Alden’s
Miranda Lambert’s
Blake Shelton’s

We ate dinner at Blake Shelton’s Ole Red. I ate the taco salad and banana pudding with a “Bless Your Heart” Mocktail. Taco salad was big enough to share and the banana pudding should be put in a bigger bowl for this banana lover.

We decided to go back over to Jason Alden’s bar for dessert. I would say that I was a little disappointed with that experience. Tables were only for dinner customers so we had to wait to sit at the bar for some peach cobbler. It was a little burnt for my liking. We got ID’d twice going up to the rooftop. This was my type of dance floor. There was dancing, however, it was not a “club” vibe. My friend was getting tired, and wasn’t liking the band, so we didn’t do much dancing. I will say though, this is where we found some age appropriate cowboys.

Monday: Shopping

Slept in – I chose to sleep for another hour since I am such a night owl. I was able to eat a banana that I had gotten the day before.

Brunch at Snooze – We went to Snooze in the Gulch. Most of the parking garages in the Gulch have one hour free parking and then charges through an app. The PMC garage is ticketed. We were not aware that Snooze will voucher your parking for this garage. That notice is not given until you are sitting down. It is not a secret but you would have to be reading their signs by the menus. The voucher does cover 2 hours.

Quick review of my food:
Avocado Benny was delicious and I am not normally an Eggs Benedict person.
Mocktails were offered on the menu but not my favorite.

12 South – This street is full of selfie spots, shops, and fun treats. We ended up inside some cute stores like Stoney Clover, Marine Layer, and Serendipity. This is also where you find the most popular murals of the city. I will show all the murals in another post.

Before we left, we had to shops to get some delicious treats. Our first stop for treats was Five Daughters Bakery. They have their famous 100-layer donuts. Donuts were priced individually. Our second stop was Wanna Spoon Cereal Bar. All different types of cereal were their toppings and mix-ins for their ice cream and milkshakes. Not feeling anything fancy? Just order a bowl of cereal then! Mixing them is encouraged.

Printer’s Alley – We could not leave Nashville without seeing Printer’s Alley. There is not much of a daytime scene that way so I would go around dinner. If you prefer blues or jazz over country, I would check out that street for a Louisiana vibe.

Swaggie Records – This record shop is less than a block away from Printer’s Alley. As far as country vinyl was going, we had a choice between Taylor Swift’s new album or the beginning of the genre. It was a cute shop to check out either way.

Tuesday: Traveling

The worst part of traveling is that I never want to go home from a trip, however, my husband was at home for this one. I am excited to be back with him and our puppies.

Best flight time in my opinion I always look into an afternoon arrival. This does depend on some factors. Price is number one. If it is a substantial price difference to go early then I will go before the sun is out. Second, I look at travel distance from the airport, along with plans that affect the timeline.

For example: I chose to work on Thursday but I was okay getting in around midnight because the car rental was open with a 5 minute drive to the hotel. For the return home, I look at our hotel check out time and the fact that I am an hour from my home airport. I chose an eleven a.m. flight that would get me home about 4 p.m. plenty of time to relax before bedtime.