One Day in Nashville with Kids
One Day in Nashville with Kids
We visited Nashville for 2 nights (one full day) on our RV road trip in the Spring of 2014. As we were doing our research, we realized that there is a ton of fun to be had for adults in Nashville, but we were a bit unsure about what we would do in Nashville with kids. None of us are country music fans (and we didn’t want to spend money for tickets anyway), so we really were not interested in some of the more popular and famous venues in Nashville (like the Grand Ole Opry). Also, we only had one day in Nashville, so we had to limit our activities. When we travel, we generally avoid doing things that we could easily do at home (ie laser tag, movies, etc). So we had to figure out how to spend our one day in Nashville with the kids.
Luckily, our shuttle driver (from our campground to the city of Nashville) was very informative and knowledgeable and gave us some great advice. So after reading ideas online and talking to our shuttle driver, we came up with the following things that we did during our one day in Nashville with kids.
Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park
We took the (FREE!) Bicentennial State Park on a gorgeous Spring day. The park was not crowded at all (it was mid-week, during a lower season for tourism). We explored the park, and the kids ran through fountains, which was their absolute favorite part. TIP: if you are here in summer, bring towels & a change of clothes because there are lots of places for the kids to get wet in this park. There are different areas of the park with things to see, including a cool looking amphitheater with a view of the skyline. Your kids can act out some kind of Pokemon battle show, like ours did. There is also a large Farmer’s Market adjacent to the park with tons of different food choices.
Shopping for Candy and Boots in Nashville
Nashville is tiny compared to cities like New York and Chicago, which makes it easy to get around and very walkable. We enjoyed walking up and down the streets in the Downtown area, going into different shops there. There are a lot of shops selling cowboy boots, and my daughter was NOT going home without a pair. There are places that advertise “buy 1 get 2 free” boots, which sounds like a great deal until you actually see the boots and the prices. We found a less made-in-China looking pair of boots for her in a non-BOG2 shop on Broadway. She wore them like a rockstar country music diva for the rest of the trip.
In addition to boots, you can also get lots of junk food in Nashville. We especially liked the candy shops. Rocket Fizz, which the kids totally love.
I also convinced the family to visit Hatch Show Print, which is a letterpress print studio & is within the same building at the Country Music Hall of Fame. I love love love this style of art, and it was neat to watch them create the posters. There is a studio (where you can view the artists at work) and also a shop attached to it. Of course I had to have one of the prints for our house (now to find a place to hang it, as our empty wall space is pretty non-existent at this point).
Music and Dancing – Nashville Honky Tonks with Kids
There are tons of bars and music venues in Nashville (this is why it would be a great adults-only getaway). You can walk up and down the streets and hear the music playing. It’s like a tamer version of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, but with country music (and some other kinds thrown in for variety). One of the differences is that families with kids are welcome to come into the Honky Tonk Row bars (many, not all) to listen to the music and eat. We were told that families could stay until 6pm at most places. Some said 7pm, I think. We visited a few places, and stayed for a few minutes at some, and hours at one!
My daughter took the free line dancing lesson at the Wildhorse Saloon, and we stayed for dinner (the fried pickles are amazing). She also joined in to dance to the live music (those cowgirl boots came in handy). This was one of the highlights of the entire trip for her! The Wildhorse Saloon was enormous, and more like a huge restaurant with a dance floor and large stage for performances. It was very different than the smaller Honky Tonk bars that we visited, but it was the most fun for the kids.
We also listened to music (and I had an extremely watered down drink) at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge because our shuttle driver said it was a must, but it was too crowded and the other patrons didn’t look psyched to see kids walk in there, even mid-day on a weekday. We could hear the music coming from several other venues as we walked around, but we didn’t have time to stop in. It’s definitely more geared toward adults in general, but at least we felt like we had a chance to experience some of the Nashville music scene, even with the kids in tow.
Overall we really enjoyed our one day in Nashville with the kids. It was a beautiful city & we lucked out with some gorgeous Spring weather, which always makes trips more enjoyable. We walked around a lot to take in the atmosphere. We really loved that they have the free shuttle bus system as well. It’s definitely a place that we would like to visit again (next time as an adults-only trip!).