Roadtrip Nashville: It’s Not All About Country Music, But That Part Sure Is Fun

Ryan
2191 days ago.

Have You Been To Nashville Lately?  The Town Seriously Needs To Be On Your Trip List

Have you been to Nashville lately?

Yes, the same Nashville where mayor Megan Barry recently resigned and plead guilty to a felony.

The capital of Tennessee is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country and a tourism hotbed.

I recently took a trip to Music City to watch Missouri play in the 2018 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament. This Roadtrip Nashville series is my opportunity to share my love for the city.

A view of the AT&T Building in Nashville, commonly called the "Batman Building, from a street corner near Bridgestone Arena.
A view of the AT&T Building in Nashville, commonly called the “Batman Building, from a street corner near Bridgestone Arena.

I love sharing things that I find interesting and things I think others would enjoy. I’ve been to Nashville more than a handful of times and feel that I have a wealth of interesting stuff to share.

The music. The food. The drinks. The fun. Country music fan or not, Nashville should be near the top of the list for your next trip.

Maybe you’ll even get to see Jake Shafer play some music while you are there.

Only A Short Drive From St. Louis

Becauses the world isn’t perfect, there isn’t a train that goes from St. Louis to Nashville. It would seriously make my life easier.

Greyhound does offer two different routes from St. Louis to Nashville, but by train is a way better way to travel. If you for some reason really enjoy traveling by bus, you can leave to 4:15 am this Friday and be in Nashville by lunch for $75. I also found regular fares as low as $59 for the trip on the Greyhound website. Free wi-fi, extra leg room and individual power outlets included.

According to Google Maps there are three main ways to get to Nashville by car. Each route will get you the 320 miles or so in under five hours. I drove a 2017 Hyundai Sonata down and back and got about 34-35 miles per gallon overall during the trip.

Thinking about flying? Southwest offers a non-stop flight from St. Louis to Nashville that has you in the air for about an hour, although the majority of the flights you will find on the site have you stopping in another city to change planes. While people in my recent travel group booked the non-stop route for $75, a recent check yielded prices more in the $300 range.

You Get What You Pay For With AirBNB

An estimated 14.5 million people visited the Nashville area in 2017, booking 7.5 million room nights in the city’s hotels. That number set a tourism record and was almost double the amount of visitors that came in 2008.

Construction cranes dot the Nashville skyline building apartments, condos and hotels.

Paying anything less than $250 plus tax for a hotel night in downtown Nashville should be considered a steal.

Short-term rentals, like those through Airbnb, have become a major issue in Nashville in the last few years. Investors have been buying houses in the city’s predominately residential neighborhoods with the sole intent of renting them out as alternatives to hotels.

Nashville currently requires property owners obtain a permit in order to operate as short term rentals. In January, the city’s Metro Council passed an overhaul of the process. The bill passed will mandate that all rentals are owner-occupied by 2020.

The Tennessee legislature is currently debating an Airbnb-backed bill that would overturn the ordinance passed in Nashville and restrict cities in the state from regulating short term rentals.

A recent search of Airbnb rentals found rooms as cheap as $26 per night. Of course you get what you pay for when going outside a traditional hotel. On my recent trip, we paid around $60 per night to stay in the basement of a woman’s house. We could hear kids running around at 7 am each morning, there definitely wasn’t a continental breakfast and the only exercise would have come from running around the obstacle course of a backyard, but it sure was cheap.

Stay Tuned For Food, Podcasts, Music & More

In the coming weeks I’ll bring you more about Music City in this Roadtrip Nashville series. I’ll talk about my favorite restaurants, beers, live music venues and much more. Planning your own trip to Nashville? I’ll tell you about the podcasts I listened to on the drive down to Nashville.

Stay tuned.

Brought to you by Mills Apartments

Ryan

Ryan is a weird dude. He doesn't cook, yet owns a plethora of kitchen gadgets. He rationalized buying a SodaStream while unemployed. He counts Step Up 2: The Streets as one of his favorite movies along with Footloose, Rent, Grease and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. He loves Mizzou but only wants them in the SEC so he can tailgate in Nashville. He owns a ShakeWeight and AbLounger, but still loves him some John Donut and Billie's Fine Foods. You can get more of Ryan at iLoveSoulard.com or just check the stool on the far end of the bar at iTap in Soulard.

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