- I visited Nashville for the first time with my wife and 73-year-old mother-in-law.
- Nashville has a party-animal reputation, but we found plenty of things to do outside the bars.
- We enjoyed live music, museums, and historic landmarks together.
I live in Australia with my Texan wife, but we head to the US every year to visit her parents.
On each trip, we add a mini vacation with her mother. For our latest one, we spent four days in Nashville.
Considering it's famously a bachelor-trip destination — and one of the top cities Gen Z is moving to — we were worried about finding things for our older group to do amid a young, party atmosphere.
But we had one of the best trips ever. Although we did enjoy some live music at famous honky-tonk bars filled with partygoers, we found much more in Nashville.
Here are some of the best things we did on our trip.
Our first stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
My wife and her mother are huge country-music fans, so we could have spent all day at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. There was much to learn about the early pioneers of country music and more recent contemporaries.
We added a tour of the famous RCA Studios to our museum visit, and I highly recommend it.
We got a behind-the-scenes look at where many music legends recorded and I even got to sit at one of Elvis Presley's favorite pianos.
Naturally, I did my best Elvis impersonation as I pretended to play it.
The Ryman Auditorium is the most iconic stage in music
Walking through the hallowed halls of Ryman Auditorium felt almost cathartic. I could tell why the historic live-music venue is known as the Mother Church of Country Music.
I closed my eyes and imagined the heroes that had graced the stage there, hearing legends such as Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton to modern-day idols like Taylor Swift.
It's hard to imagine a more beautiful venue.
The Johnny Cash Museum is also not to be missed
The Johnny Cash Museum has been called the No. 1 music museum in the United States.
I'd say it's a must for any music fan. Although small, we spent a few hours learning about the Man in Black, and I left with a "Cash for President" T-shirt.
There was history to take in outside of music, too
As an Australian, I had little knowledge of the history of plantations in the US and thought it was important to educate myself while visiting Nashville.
We did a plantation tour of historic Belle Meade, which gave us insight into a darker past.
The Journey to Jubilee tour we booked explored the history of enslavement at Belle Meade and other plantations in Tennessee from its start and through the years following Emancipation.
It was a sobering, informative tour that's definitely worth a visit.
Food plays an important part in every trip, so we tried Nashville's famous hot chicken and barbecue
On our first night, we ate at Prince's, where hot chicken is believed to have originated. We were warned to go easy on the heat levels and settled on medium. I'm glad we did, as even that set my mouth on fire.
Despite the heat, it was delicious, and we went back for a second time during our trip.
One local we met told us to try Martin's BBQ Joint. I was wary as my bar is pretty high. I think Texas has the best barbecue in the world.
I'm glad we tried it. At Martin's, we had the best chicken wings and smoked sausage I've ever had. Sorry, Texas.
There were also plenty of sweet treats to taste
Just across from the Johnny Cash museum is Goo Goo Chocolate Co, home of the Goo Goo Cluster — the first combination candy bar made in the US.
At the store, visitors can greater their own clusters. It's well worth visiting.
Nashville also seems to have a very high doughnut-store-to-population ratio, so we visited several of them. We thought Five Daughters Bakery was the best we tried.
And, of course, we did some tastings of moonshine, a popular high-proof liquor in the state.
A visit to the Parthenon felt like a quick trip to Greece
Nashville's Parthenon is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The replica was built in 1897.
It's cool to see, and I also highly recommend visiting Centennial Park, where it's located, for a nice morning walk.
We also had to see a show at the Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly live country-music radio broadcast that's been running since 1925.
Each Opry show consists of eight or so different performers and showcases a variety of styles.
On the night we attended, we were fortunate to see Don Schlitz. He's written many famous songs, including one of my favorites, "The Gambler," famously recorded by Kenny Rogers.
Singing along with Schlitz and several hundred others was the perfect way to end our trip.
Watch: Nashville's famous hot chicken was invented by a woman who was upset when her lover came back late one night
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonyjsdKtZK2gmaO0tHnTqGSdp12eu266wKyfr6GcobJuus6tZKmZoqnGqrrGZqqkoaCltq%2BzjJuYq6tdZ31zgIxs