nashville, tennessee

Every so often, my friend group and I like to plan a trip somewhere together. With most of us living away from each other, we've found that taking trips together is the best way to spend time and make memories together these days. After all, getting seven girls together is not the easiest of tasks. Our first idea was to go for the cabin/campfire vibe in Georgia, but when we decided we wanted to leave the boyfriends at home and make it a girls only trip we chose Nashville instead. Not quite sure how it happened, but it did. 

All I had known about Nashville previously was that just about every country music artist was born and/or discovered there. Ironically, I hated country music growing up. I was that person who would make fun of the corny lyrics that talked about love at first sight, going through heartbreak, or growing up in a small town. 

That changed when I met my boyfriend, Tyler. He grew up listening to country music so I inevitably listened to a lot of it when we started dating. The more I was exposed to it, the more I started to enjoy and appreciate the thoughtful song writing and instrumental music behind it. I realized that it was refreshing to hear lyrics that told a story or had a lesson behind them verses lyrics that glorified lifestyles lost in partying, drugs, and sex. 

Since then, I have been an avid listener of country music and it's become one of my favorite genres. So, when Nashville was the decided destination, I was all in. YEEHAW.

The mutual decision was to drive to Tennessee from South Florida in a rental car. It was the best decision for us because we actually wanted to be stuck in a car with each other for 12-14 hours. If that’s not the case for you and whoever you’re traveling with, I probably wouldn’t recommend it. lol. Our trip was 5 days, but 2 of them were spent driving. So essentially we had 3 full days to take advantage of Nashville. 

We stayed at the cutest little Air bnb that was perfect for our 7 person group. I will include the link to where we stayed here. Although we were exhausted from the drive, we knew we had to take advantage of the one Saturday night we had in Nashville. I won’t lie, it was tempting to stay in and be grandmas, but the 20 year olds in us got ready, hopped in the mini van (lol), and headed for town.

Broadway is the strip in downtown that’s notorious for it's live music bars and country music celebrities being discovered. You can’t miss it from a mile a way, the strip glows with neon signs and music pours out from every bar on the street. They call it NashVegas for a reason. The cool thing about the bars is that they all have 3 floors with different live music on each level. So, if you're not feeling the music, just head upstairs (or downstairs).
 
We started at The Stage and bar hopped down Broadway for a few hours. The bands mostly play covers to popular songs, which is great because dancing to music you don't know can get boring. They also make sure to cover a good amount of rock and alternative hits, so you’re not totally drowning in country. We danced and sung our hearts out for literally hours. Even my two girlfriends who hate going out and hate dancing, were up having the time of their lives. We got back to the air bnb and couldn't stop talking about how much fun we had. Nashville was off to a great start.  ​

(Photo by John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images)

​We had brunch reservations the next morning at Louie's Wine Dive. The girls ordered bottomless mimosas and we chatted for a few hours. I ordered the crab cake Benedict and it was to die for. Our server was awesome and gave us some good insight on where we planned to head next, which is an area between Music Row and Downtown, known as The Gultch. A friend had recommended this to me as a place to shop, walk around, and even rides Bird scooters around. (If you don’t know what those are, Google them, they are all the rage.)
 
Although we enjoyed our time, I wish there had been more affordable boutiques in the area. The few we came across were way out of our shopping price range. But we did ride around on the Birds and that was hilarious. We headed back to the house and spent the night in. We ordered pizza, caught up on each others lives, laughed, cried, you know, just your typical girl stuff. 

Day 2 came around and we headed over to another recommended spot, Arrington Vineyards. There was a bit of a late start to the day, so by the time we made it there it was around sunset. The girls ordered their tastings and I picked out my cheese & meat selections for the group. We found a nice table on the outside patio that was dimly lit by white Christmas lights. We chatted about life, relationships, and our futures. Two bottles of wine later we laughed our way out of the winery and hit the road for dinner (me as the DD of course- if you don’t know about my alcohol allergy, you can read about it here). The Southern Steak & Oyster was the chosen spot since it was close to downtown and also a recommendation. The oysters and the service were phenomenal. However, the pasta dish with fried eggs on top of it, not so much. Not sure who’s idea that was.
 
The decision to head back to downtown was strongly influenced by the amount of fun we had the first night. But as anyone could have predicted, going out on a Monday night is much different than a Saturday night. Not that we didn't enjoy ourselves, but it seemed that the single men of Nashville were out to mingle. We couldn't go 5 minutes without a different guy in a cowboy hat approaching one of us. To be honest, it was really annoying. Guys-I’m all for you shooting your shot, but when you see a group of girls clearly enjoying each others company, for god sake, let them be!!

Day 3 approached and we found our way back to The Gultch to hit a hot spot called Biscuit Love. My overall impression was that it was charming and clean. The food came out shockingly fast and it was delicious. Everyone was pleased with what they ordered which is a rarity when trying to please seven people. I kept it simple with the Egg Plate (the cheesy grits were SOOO good). After breakfast, we headed to a space called Pinewood Social. This place was recommended to me by one of my followers and I was sold by the old-fashion bowling alley photos I glanced at on Yelp. The space itself was pretty cool- kind of like a lounge/bar and coffee shop/work space all in one. The vibe reminded me of Soho House- but without the exclusivity. The old fashion, 50s themed, bowling alley hid in the back of the warehouse styled building and it made for the sweetest surprise. We had fun competing against each other in a retro, throwback setting. 

Our last stop, and probably my favorite part of the trip, was a 6 o'clock show at The Listening Room. The tickets were $7 each, with a $15 food & drink minimum. The show was worth every penny. It was really special to get a more intimate listening experience compared to the live music at the bars on Broadway. By the end of the show, we all agreed that we were SO happy we came and it was the perfect note to end our trip. (See what I did there?)
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Although I was bummed to leave Nashville and my best friends, I felt so fulfilled with the memories this trip gave us. There wasn't much planning in advance, we kind of played by ear, but it usually works out better that way anyway. Thank you to my friends & followers who sent recommendations! We had the best time and would do it again in a heartbeat. Nashville now has a little piece of all of our hearts. If you are planning a trip I hope this gave you some insight on places to go or what you have to look forward to! Feel free to leave any questions or comments below. Until the next adventure. xx

Love, Liv.