Hotels in Nashville

Nashville: Country Music, Hot Chicken, and the Cumberland River

Nashville, Tennessee sits on the Cumberland River, roughly 250 miles south of Cincinnati and 200 miles north of Birmingham. Founded in 1779, it became Tennessee's state capital in 1843. Today it anchors a metro area of over 2 million people and draws roughly 15 million visitors annually — most of them chasing live music, culinary heat, and a compact downtown that rewards walking.

The Broadway honky-tonk strip runs from 1st to 5th Avenue South, with venues like Tootsie's Orchid Lounge open from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily. East Nashville, across the Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge, offers independent restaurants and smaller music venues away from the tourist corridor. The Gulch, a former rail yard south of downtown, concentrates hotels, rooftop bars, and the city's densest cluster of new construction. Music Row on 16th and 17th Avenues houses the recording studios and labels that made Nashville synonymous with country music since the 1950s.

Practical Tips

• Getting around: The WeGo bus network covers major corridors; ride-shares dominate after dark when parking is scarce.
• Weather: Summers average 89 °F (32 °C); pack layers for the spring and fall temperature swings.
• Airport: Nashville International (BNA) sits 8 miles southeast of downtown — a taxi or ride-share runs roughly 20 minutes outside peak hours.
• Hot chicken: Prince's Hot Chicken Shack on Ewing Drive, open since 1945, is the original source of the city's signature dish.