Ben and I (and Bugs – the cat 😉 ) spent a week driving from Austin to NYC to move into our new apartment! If you missed our moving story, click here to check it out!
We were so excited to get to New York, but still wanted to take advantage of some of the cool cities we passed along the way. The one I was most excited for was Nashville – it had been years since I’d been – so I did a little finagling to make sure we could do two nights there and have one full day to explore! It worked out perfectly and on May 31st, we pulled up to The Thompson Hotel and got ready for a quick 24-hours of country music, BBQ and site-seeing!
The Hotel
If you’re looking to do a quick trip to Nashville and want to be close to, but not on top of, the action, then I would highly recommend The Thompson Hotel. I personally love smaller hotels with character, so I was instantly drawn to The Thompson when I saw photos online. It was located in The Gulch, so it was still surrounded by shops and restaurants, but way more low key then staying by Broadway. It’s also home to an on-site restaurant, coffee shop and the well known rooftop bar, L.A Jackson.
If you’re traveling with a pet, one of the perks of The Thompson is that they’re pet friendly and don’t charge an extra pet fee (we learned those can quickly add $75-$250 onto your hotel bill). They also have an on-site parking garage and valet which we loved. We had our whole life packed in our car lol so we wanted to make sure it was safe at night.
We also loved staying in The Gulch – it has a ton of great restaurants and shops and also a few touristy murals (the infamous Wings mural is there!).
A Day in Nashville
We woke up early on June 1st (which was also my birthday which was so fun) and got ready for the day! I put together a list of everything I wanted to do/see and mapped it out so that we would be super efficient with our schedule. If you’ve ever done a 24-hour trip then you know how important it is to plan 🙂
Coffee and Breakfast
Our early morning wakeup call meant that we needed caffeine and we needed it stat, so our first stop was The Graduate Hotel to visit their on-site coffee shop Pointdexter. I heard so many great things about this hotel and their restaurant The While Limozeen. I unfortunately couldn’t get a reservation there, but I figured coffee would still give us a chance to check it out! The hotel was Dolly Parton themed and and so we sipped on our coffee while taking in all the funky décor.
The Gulch
Next we headed back to The Gulch to check out some of the murals, change and do some shopping. We didn’t see much the night before, so wanted to take an hour or so to see the area. We stopped into Express and then swung by the wings mural to grab a few shots! Once we changed, we grabbed an Uber to our lunch spot, Hattie B’s.
Lunch
Everyone told us to go to Hattie B’s and so we felt like it was a must! There are a few locations, but we went to the one on Broadway so that we could easily swing by the bars after for a drink! There was a bit of a line when we got there, but it moved quickly and the food was SO good! Ben got the hot chicken sandwich and I got mac and cheese and grilled chicken strips with their light seasoning.
Broadway
Once we licked our plates clean, we decided to walk over to the main part of Broadway to check out all of the bars. We walked up and down the strip, stopping to take in live music from the street or poke our heads into the different bars/shops. We decided on Tootsies rooftop for drink. Ben grabbed a beer and I had a vodka soda and we spent the next hour people watching and listening to live music!
South 12th
And then we were on the move! I really wanted to check out South 12th Street for the murals, Five Daughter Bakery and Frothy Monkey coffee shop so that was the next step. We crossed our fingers that our stomachs could take the challenge and headed that way.
First up was Five Daughter Bakery – we waited in line and grabbed a few sweet treats to split and then we walked down the block to check out the murals. They had a ton of great ones over there including the Dapper James and infamous Nashville mural.
After we hit a few murals, we decided to take a seat and snagged a table at The Frothy Monkey for an espresso and chi tea latte. While we were there, I remembered that I wanted to check out Amelia’s Flower Truck. I looked up their schedule (you can find it here) on the website and saw that they were going to be at the 12th street farmers market starting at 4 – praise! It was right down the street, so we finished up our coffee/tea and headed that way.
The farmers market was super cute and had a ton of great booths with delicious samples. I instantly spotted the truck and b-lined it in that direction. Ben was super sweet and told me to pick some flowers out, so I built a little boutique and we took a walk through the park.
Dinner
It had been a busy day, but it wasn’t done yet! We got back to the hotel, relaxed a bit and then headed up to L.A Jackson for a drink. It was definitely a cool rooftop bar and had a pretty view of the city! Once the sun started to set, we grabbed an Uber and headed to our reservation at Etch. Ben had found this restaurant and it was SO good. I would definitely recommend it if you’re celebrating something special or are just looking to splurge a bit for a meal!
The Next Day
And that was it! The next morning we woke up, grabbed the car and hit the road. I truly felt like we hit all of the big spots and got a good taste of the city!
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