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Tours in Nashville |
For a Half Day
Gaylord Opryland: This is one of Nashville's major attractions, located about 10km (6 miles) from downtown Nashville. Allow at least half a day to see everything. Opryland is a collective term for the whole area, also known as Music Valley, which contains the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, Opry Mills and the Grand Ole Opry. Other attractions include the Music Valley Wax Museum, the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree, and the Willie Nelson and Friends Showcase Museum. From Downtown, the area is easily accessed by the Opry Mills Express (bus 34).
The Grand Ole Opry (website: www.opry.com) is America's longest continuously running radio show and celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2005. There are two shows a night on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year, as well as Tuesday shows on a separate schedule. These shows get booked up well in advance, so reservations should be made (tel: (615) 871 6779 or 1 800 733 6779). There is also a Grand Ole Opry Museum, devoted to the stars from the shows.
The Opryland Hotel has three huge glass-roofed atriums, which enclose lush indoor gardens and waterways. A 400m- (1,320ft-) long river winds through the largest of these atriums (The Delta) covering 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres), and offers tours aboard Delta flatboats. At night, there is live music throughout the complex, and in the Cascades atrium the revolving restaurant offers prime viewing for the nightly laser light show.
The Music Valley Wax Museum contains over 50 waxworks of country music's greatest stars in their original stage costumes, as well as a Sidewalk of the Stars, with the feet, hands and signatures of the country music stars imprinted in the concrete. The Willie Nelson and Friends Showcase Museum focuses on the country music legend, but also features displays on his friends, who included Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley. The Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree is a long-running, live radio broadcast similar to the Grand Ole Opry, and is situated in the Ernest Tubb Record Shop and Texas Troubadour Theatre in Music Valley (website: www.etrecordshop.com/mj.htm).
Nashville Zoo: Over 1,350 animals from 255 different species are on display in this innovative zoo, which covers 81 hectares (200 acres) not far from the centre of the city. There are Bengal tigers, cheetahs, an ‘African Elephant Savannah', the USA's largest community-built playground for the children, the aptly named Gibbon Islands exhibit, an ‘Unseen New World' exhibit (with over 200 reptiles, insects, amphibians and fish) and the old Croft House. This was built in 1810 and now houses a working farm exhibit and a young children's petting zoo. An Australian lorikeet walk-through aviary features over 50 parrots. Newest exhibits feature ocelots, giraffes and alligators, as well as a children's wild animal carousel featuring 39 hand-carved wooden zoo animals. 3777 Nolensville Road, Grassmere (tel: (615) 833 1534; website: www.nashvillezoo.org). The zoo is open daily, and there is an admission charge.
For a Whole Day
Natchez Trace Parkway: No one should visit Nashville without sampling at least a short stretch of this unique drive, which begins about 24km (15 miles) southwest of the city centre. The whole parkway, one of the country's first interstate highways, runs for 715km (444 miles) to Natchez, Mississippi and was an ancient trading route for early European settlers and American Indians. Today, with a leisurely 80kph (50mph) speed limit and only recreational traffic, it makes a wonderfully peaceful drive through unspoilt scenery, with many historic landmarks along the way (such as the Meriwether Lewis National Monument, where the early American explorer is buried). Any viewing point or picnic ground can serve as a turning-back point, but visitors should remember to fill up with petrol before they leave Nashville, as there is only one petrol station along the whole road. Exit roads to nearby towns are well marked, but are few and far between on some stretches. For further information, contact the National Park Service (tel: 1 800 305 7417; website: www.nps.gov/natr).
Gaylord Opryland: This is one of Nashville's major attractions, located about 10km (6 miles) from downtown Nashville. Allow at least half a day to see everything. Opryland is a collective term for the whole area, also known as Music Valley, which contains the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, Opry Mills and the Grand Ole Opry. Other attractions include the Music Valley Wax Museum, the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree, and the Willie Nelson and Friends Showcase Museum. From Downtown, the area is easily accessed by the Opry Mills Express (bus 34).
The Grand Ole Opry (website: www.opry.com) is America's longest continuously running radio show and celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2005. There are two shows a night on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year, as well as Tuesday shows on a separate schedule. These shows get booked up well in advance, so reservations should be made (tel: (615) 871 6779 or 1 800 733 6779). There is also a Grand Ole Opry Museum, devoted to the stars from the shows.
The Opryland Hotel has three huge glass-roofed atriums, which enclose lush indoor gardens and waterways. A 400m- (1,320ft-) long river winds through the largest of these atriums (The Delta) covering 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres), and offers tours aboard Delta flatboats. At night, there is live music throughout the complex, and in the Cascades atrium the revolving restaurant offers prime viewing for the nightly laser light show.
The Music Valley Wax Museum contains over 50 waxworks of country music's greatest stars in their original stage costumes, as well as a Sidewalk of the Stars, with the feet, hands and signatures of the country music stars imprinted in the concrete. The Willie Nelson and Friends Showcase Museum focuses on the country music legend, but also features displays on his friends, who included Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley. The Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree is a long-running, live radio broadcast similar to the Grand Ole Opry, and is situated in the Ernest Tubb Record Shop and Texas Troubadour Theatre in Music Valley (website: www.etrecordshop.com/mj.htm).
Nashville Zoo: Over 1,350 animals from 255 different species are on display in this innovative zoo, which covers 81 hectares (200 acres) not far from the centre of the city. There are Bengal tigers, cheetahs, an ‘African Elephant Savannah', the USA's largest community-built playground for the children, the aptly named Gibbon Islands exhibit, an ‘Unseen New World' exhibit (with over 200 reptiles, insects, amphibians and fish) and the old Croft House. This was built in 1810 and now houses a working farm exhibit and a young children's petting zoo. An Australian lorikeet walk-through aviary features over 50 parrots. Newest exhibits feature ocelots, giraffes and alligators, as well as a children's wild animal carousel featuring 39 hand-carved wooden zoo animals. 3777 Nolensville Road, Grassmere (tel: (615) 833 1534; website: www.nashvillezoo.org). The zoo is open daily, and there is an admission charge.
For a Whole Day
Natchez Trace Parkway: No one should visit Nashville without sampling at least a short stretch of this unique drive, which begins about 24km (15 miles) southwest of the city centre. The whole parkway, one of the country's first interstate highways, runs for 715km (444 miles) to Natchez, Mississippi and was an ancient trading route for early European settlers and American Indians. Today, with a leisurely 80kph (50mph) speed limit and only recreational traffic, it makes a wonderfully peaceful drive through unspoilt scenery, with many historic landmarks along the way (such as the Meriwether Lewis National Monument, where the early American explorer is buried). Any viewing point or picnic ground can serve as a turning-back point, but visitors should remember to fill up with petrol before they leave Nashville, as there is only one petrol station along the whole road. Exit roads to nearby towns are well marked, but are few and far between on some stretches. For further information, contact the National Park Service (tel: 1 800 305 7417; website: www.nps.gov/natr).
View Our Airport Guides for Nashville:
Nashville International Airport
