Last updated: August 2026
Nashville is the capital of Tennessee, spread along a bend of the Cumberland River in the middle of the state, and it's long branded itself Music City for its outsized role in country music and the broader recording industry. Downtown's Broadway strip of honky-tonks with live bands spilling onto the sidewalk is the most famous image of the city, but Nashville is also a genuine state capital with a large healthcare and higher-education economy behind the tourist-facing music scene.
The city has grown fast over the past two decades, adding new neighborhoods of restaurants and breweries in areas like East Nashville, Germantown, and the Gulch, while still anchoring its identity in the older institutions — the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, and the Country Music Hall of Fame — that built its reputation. It draws musicians and songwriters chasing a break, bachelorette parties drawn to the nightlife, and history-minded visitors interested in the Civil War and civil rights sites scattered around the region.
Nashville rewards travelers who like live music paired with genuinely good food, from hot chicken to meat-and-three plate lunches, and who don't mind a downtown that can feel like a nonstop party on weekend nights. It's also large enough to have quieter, more residential corners for those who want a break from Broadway's crowds.
Quick facts
- Population
- Roughly 690,000 in the city, over 2 million in the metro area
- County
- Davidson County
- State
- Tennessee
- Country
- United States
- Setting
- River capital city on a bend of the Cumberland River
- Nearby cities
- Chattanooga, Knoxville, Louisville
- Best known for
- Country music, honky-tonks, and Nashville hot chicken
Things to Do
Ryman Auditorium
The former home of the Grand Ole Opry, a beautifully preserved 1892 church-turned-theater still hosting concerts with legendary acoustics.
View in NearbylyCountry Music Hall of Fame and Museum
An extensive museum tracing country music's history through instruments, costumes, and recordings, anchoring downtown's museum district.
View in NearbylyGrand Ole Opry House
The current home of the long-running Opry radio show, staging weekly performances by a rotating mix of country legends and rising stars.
View in NearbylyBroadway honky-tonks
The strip of multi-story bars with live bands playing from open windows is Nashville's signature scene, free to wander with a drink in hand.
View in NearbylyBelle Meade Historic Site
A restored antebellum plantation and former thoroughbred horse farm on the edge of the city, offering tours into a darker side of the region's history.
View in NearbylyThe Parthenon
A full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon in Centennial Park, built for an 1897 exposition and now housing an art museum.
View in Nearbyly
Eat Local
Prince's Hot Chicken
The originator of Nashville hot chicken, now serving its fiery fried chicken tradition from a Nolensville Pike location and a stall inside Assembly Food Hall.
View in NearbylyArnold's Country Kitchen
A beloved meat-and-three cafeteria serving Southern lunch classics like fried okra and country-fried steak from a steam-table line.
View in NearbylyHattie B's Hot Chicken
A newer but hugely popular hot chicken spot with several spice levels, credited with helping bring the dish to national attention.
View in NearbylyLoveless Cafe
A longtime roadside institution on the edge of town famous for biscuits and preserves, a common stop for those heading toward the Natchez Trace Parkway.
View in NearbylyBiscuit Love
A modern Southern brunch spot built around inventive biscuit dishes, part of the wave of newer restaurants in the Gulch and 12South.
View in Nearbyly
Shopping & Markets
Nashville Farmers' Market
A permanent market near the Bicentennial Capitol Mall selling produce, local goods, and prepared food from small vendors year-round.
View in Nearbyly12South neighborhood
A strip of independent boutiques, record shops, and murals, including the well-known 'I Believe in Nashville' wall.
View in NearbylyThe Nashville Flea Market
A long-running monthly market at the fairgrounds with hundreds of vendors selling antiques, crafts, and collectibles.
View in NearbylyMarathon Village
A former early-1900s automobile factory converted into shops, studios, and a distillery, worth a stop for its industrial architecture alone.
View in Nearbyly
Hidden Gems
Bluebird Cafe
A tiny suburban listening room where songwriters, not always performers themselves, play new original material in near silence from the audience.
View in NearbylyFort Negley
The remains of a Union-built Civil War fortification on a hill south of downtown, with interpretive trails and skyline views.
View in NearbylyJefferson Street
The historic heart of Nashville's Black community and once a major stop on the R&B touring circuit, still home to clubs with deep musical roots.
View in Nearbyly
Nature & Outdoors
Cumberland River Greenway
A paved riverside trail system good for running or biking with views back toward downtown's skyline.
View in NearbylyPercy Warner Park
A large wooded park on the city's west side with miles of hiking and horse trails and stone bridges built during the Depression.
View in NearbylyRadnor Lake State Park
A quiet, protected natural area within the city limits popular for birdwatching and an easy loop trail around the lake.
View in Nearbyly
A little history
Nashville was founded in 1779 by James Robertson and John Donelson as Fort Nashborough, a settlement of Cumberland Compact pioneers named for Revolutionary War general Francis Nash. It became the Tennessee state capital in 1843 and grew into a river and rail hub through the nineteenth century, serving as a key Confederate supply center before falling to Union forces in 1862 and becoming an important occupied city for the rest of the Civil War.
The city's music identity took shape in the twentieth century, starting with the 1925 launch of the WSM radio barn dance that became the Grand Ole Opry, still broadcasting today as the longest-running radio program in U.S. history. By the 1950s and 60s, Nashville's recording studios along Music Row had developed the polished "Nashville Sound," and the city's reputation as the commercial center of country music was firmly established.
Nashville was also a significant site in the civil rights movement, home to a series of student-led sit-ins in 1960 organized in part by future congressman John Lewis and other activists trained at Nashville's historically Black colleges. In recent decades the city has diversified economically beyond music into healthcare management and finance, fueling rapid population growth and a construction boom that has reshaped its downtown skyline.
Ready to wander Nashville?
Open the live explorer to see what's actually around you right now — parks, museums, local kitchens, coffee, markets and hidden gems, sorted by distance.
More city guides
Maintained by Nearbyly. Details can change — check ahead before making a long drive.