Nashville luxury weekend trip
 

Husband and I taking a quick weekend trip to Nashville in November. Willing to pay top dollar for a nice hotel. We know nothing about the city except that everyone speaks highly of it and says there is plenty to do.

We will get tickets to the Lion King and also to the TransSiberian Orchestra, both of which are in town while we will be there.

Anything else you would recommend? Places to eat? Sites to see? We are not really big into country music or hiking/exercise-oriented activity, but we generally enjoy everything else, especially if it is hip and cool and fun.

Any recommendations for a spa and/or a sports bar would be great too. My husband wants to watch a specific football game in a fun sports bar while we are there, and I will be opting out for some time for myself!

The Opryland Hotel would be a good choice. They've recently opened a nice spa.

ttt

Make sure you go to Tayst, which is a great restaurant on 21st Ave, near the Vanderbilt area. I also recommend Midtown Cafe which is close to Baptist Hospital and Cabana which is in the Hillsoboro Village/Vanderbilt area. You'll need a car though if you plan on staying at Opryland which is highly overrated in my opinion. I like the Hermitage or Union Station.

Since you have tickets for shows at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, I would recommend the Hermitage Hotel, which is only about a block away. This will also place you within walking distance to the downtown entertainment area and plenty of restaurants and music venues.
http://www.thehermitagehotel.com/site/hotel.aspx

After looking at these suggestions, I think the Hermitage is definitely for us! They do have availability the nights we are staying so I will bok this hotel today. GREAT recommendation, thank you!

Any other ideas for food, sports bar, spa services, great shopping, etc??

Hermitage or Union Square would be my suggestion, too.

Green Hills Mall, which won't be too far if you have a car, is very nice. They have Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Macy's, Coldwater Creek, Sephora and a host of other really nice shops. Plus David-Kidd is a very nice bookshop. Right across the Parking Lot is Chico's and a personal favorite, Maggie Moos! I go to Apropos which is a skin/nails salon that offers some nice spa services as well and that's across the parking lot too downstairs from a nice restaurant called F. Scott's.

If you have a car (and I'm assuming you will) go up to where West End AVe. splits into Highways 100 and 70. There is a nice Bread and Company for lunch and then all kinds of cool little shops.

Geez, could I have said "nice" one more time? I guess the answer is YES.

Hermitage Hotel is very lovely and across the street from the Tn. Performing Arts Center. They have a nice restaurant (Capital Grill) with a great bar. My favorite restaurant is Watermark. It's pricey; but worth it. I think it's the best in town and is located in the Gulch area of Downtown. Visit 2nd Ave. one evening for fun. The new Schemerhorn Symphony Center (downtown) is wonderful. I also recommend the Frist Arts Center, which may be nice while Hubby is watching a ball game. For upscale shopping, I recommend Jamie (located in Belle Meade), Graces (Green Hills) and the Green Hills Mall. Levy's is also in Green Hills and has nice men's clothing. Have fun!

These suggestions are perfect, thank you!! I am sure I will have a hard time narrowing everything down by the time we actually get there. Can't wait to look into the book shop and some of these other great shopping areas too. I hope we have time to hit the gentleman's clothing store -- not much selection where we live. Good suggestion.

I guess sports bars are not hard to come by, and hopefully there will be one close to the hotel.

If you all think of anything else, send those ideas my way. Thanks for your help.

Forgot to mention we will have a car so these suggestions work well.

Market Street Brewery and Big River Grille are two sports bars within walking distance of the hotel. (5 to 7 blocks) There are probably more!

Don't know if this is open Sunday, but while hubby is doing the football thing, you could tour Belle Meade, an old plantation that has been restored. There is a small gift shop and cafe on premises. Definitely a "chick" thing to do. Way out on the West side, is the Loveless Motel which serves breakfast and dinner family style. A visit to Lynchburg, home of Jack Daniels's distillery, is lots of fun and might be nice if fall colors are still there. Make a reservation for Miss Bobo's Boardinghouse, another family style restaurant, if you go. Forgot to mention, if you go to Belle Meade, be sure to drive around neighborhood, lots of old mansions, think it's also where Al & Tipper Gore live (old money).

ttt

Booked the Hermitage today, got a deluxe room that promises a view of the capitol. And a free breakfast!

Since we will be there in November are there any Christmas-oriented things we should look for?

Thanks all, for your great advice so far.

OK -- not sure if I'm qualified to tell you what's hip and cool, but check out a Grimey's record store on 8th Ave South. The basement of the store is a cave-like bar called "The Basement" which has great bands most nights.

Katy-K's Ranch Dressing is a unique store in the 12South neighborhood

Sports bars - downtown you have Eddie Georges' in the Hilton Suites; Hooters on 2nd Avenue; Hillsboro Village has Jonathon's.

Spas -- it seems like new ones open each week. There will likely be many in the West End/Hillsboro Belmont or Belle Meade areas, not so many downtown.

Good choice on the Hermitage Hotel. Its the nicest place in town. Opryland is gimmicky and not upscale.

If we have nice weather, Centennial Park across from Vanderbilt is great with its replica of the Parthenon. The Vanderbilt campus isn't bad either. Enjoy.

Grimey's sounds VERY hip, Drool! We'll check it out. Thanks for the suggestions.

People come from all over the place to see the spectacular holiday lights display at the Opryland Hotel. This year it's Nov 16th thru Jan. 7th. Here's a link to the events page:
http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord..._christmas.cfm

Because of all the poo-poohing on here about the Opryland Hotel, you just might miss out on one of the most fun experiences ....walking the 5+ miles through this indoor rainforest/Delta Town and otherwise incredible hotel. Yes, it's not cheap staying here, but at Christmastime, it's awesome. (btw, the gym is first rate and the pool is large enough for lap swimmimg) The hotel is a destination in itself. It also has some nice boutiques with unique clothing. They put up a million lights at Christmas- you really have to experience it! I've never been disappointed in my stays there; we have been going since it was built at least yearly and often more times.

OK. I lived in Nashville. Luxury and the Opryland hotel do NOT fit in the same sentence. Tourist attractiona nd the Opryland Hotel do fit in the same sentence..
The Hermitage Hotel is by far the nicest in Nashville. Go for it. (plus it's clsoe to where you will be doing your evening entertainement)

Illusions Day Spa would be my vote for a Spa.

CarolA,I live right outside Nashville now and I agree with you. Opryland is tacky and I hate the fact that they charge you to park. You can get around it by parking at the mall and taking a shuttle but it's hardly worth it.

There's another nice restaurant I forgot to mention Tin Angel on West End kind of across from Maggiano's but much nicer.

I'm getting really excited now. We booked the Hermitage (it just really fit our preferences perfectly). We got a deluxe room overlooking the capitol. I got great seats to the TransSiberian Orchestra on Friday night and excellent seats to the Lion King on Saturday night. I'm still making plans based on your above suggestions for restaurants, shopping, spas and the rest, but that is what I have set in stone for now. And i really am just thrilled about this!

We'd wanted a weekend in NYC but the flight schedule wouldn't have allowed us much time there, so we opted to go somewhere we could get to faster (spending part of Friday and Sunday there too). We don't get away much so this will be so fun for us. Booking the Hermitage and the two events will make us feel "sort of" close to the luxe we'd have had in NYC.

Too bad we will miss the Christmas displays at Opryland. We'll be there just a few days too early. Maybe next year!

Thanks for your suggestions! Keep em coming!

I din't mean to imply that the Opryland Hotel was "luxury" just an incredible thing to experience. It's so huge and the waterfalls, plants, etc are really something. You just have to see it at least once!

There's a good spa called "Escape" in the mall called "Spaces" in Belle Meade, just after the Highway 100-Highway 70 split (bear left at the split). It's pretty new so you won't read about it in any guidebooks (yet). There's a wine bar, the Grape, in the mall and while you're enjoying a spa treatment they will be happy to go get you a glass of wine.
Since you'll be staying downtown and have a car, definitely visit the Frist museum, on Broadway; it even has a decent cafe.
The restaurant in the Hermitage, Capitol Grille, is excellent.
The Schermerhorn Symphony Center is brand-new and is worth a tour.

If you prefer to do a spa in Green Hills Mall, Tiba is good. Of course, all spa treatments require advance reservations.

I second the recommendation of Watermark restaurant, and to the list of shopping places would add Coco (not far from Jamie).

Good luck!

I am now planning where we will make reservations for dinner. I think I am going to go with the Capitol Grille one night, since we are staying in the hotel and it seems to get great reviews here and elsewhere.

For the other night, I am considering Watermark. However, I noticed that the chef was formerly at Botega in Birmingham. We lived in Bham a few years back and got kind of tired of eating there. Have any of you ever been to both restaurants? Is there a great similarity? I am thinking on one hand, we know we would enjoy our food, but on the other hand, perhaps we should venture out into something new.

Any thoughts?

Hello again! We frequently dine at the Watermark for both business and social and I still think it's the best Nashville has to offer at present. I always enjoy the Capital Grille; but like Watermark better. I also recently ate at Valentinos (Italian) and was pleasantly surprised. Hope you enjoy your visit.

Watermark is very good but if your looking for something different I would also suggest tayst. Zola's is the other quality restaurant in town.

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions! We returned early afternoon from our Nashville weekend and it was just what we needed for our short-trip getaway.

I was pleasantly surprised by Nashville. It's a bona fide big city! I did not realize it was as big as it is.

We ate at Watermark Friday night and saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The restaurant was good. It was not the best part of our weekend but it certainly didn't disappoint us either. The service was fabulous and the food was good. It was in a fun spot in town too.

TransSiberian Orchestra was the higtlight of our weekend. We expected it to kick off our Christmas season but we did NOT expect it to WOW us the way it did. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! For young, old, adventurous, edgy, laid back, casual, and conservatives, there was something for everyone in that performance. Highly recommended in any city near you!

On Saturday we did some shopping. Bought a lovely little artsy tray at a funky local art place in Five Points, also bought a lovely sportcoat/tie/shirt/pants ensemble for my husband at Levy's...great suggestion! Huge selection of fine clothing there. Super service.

I spent most of Saturday at a spa called Magnolia. Unfortunately I let the weekend creep up on me and did not make an appointment in advance to the places you all mentioned (I know better). The concierge got me an appointment at this new place -- only open for 3 months. It was okay, a little bohemian for my taste, not the best service I have ever received, but I walked away feeling relaxed and pampered...and I purchased some cool mineral makeup too. Got a mani/pedi, lip wax, facial mapping and quick facial, and makeup application. Not bad for $130.

We had a Capitol Grill burger at the Oak Room Grill for lunch. It was to-die-for!

We ate at the Capitol Grill for dinner Saturday and went to see the Lion King. Service was good, food was heavenly!! We ate crab cakes, grouper, beef tenderloin, wine and cheese and salad, and had creme brulee sampler for dessert. Everything just melted in our mouths....a perfectly cooked meal all around.

Lion King was okay. Set and costumes blew us away; acting was very average. Either we got it on an off night or that particular production is not as good as others. Lots of misses -- mics off when they should have been on, lighting snafus, booming sounds coming from mic feedback...odd. Glad we went, would even go again...just not as impressed as I thought we would be.

We had the Capitol Grill brunch before we left and had the worst service we have ever had anywhere. New server knew nothing about the menu, total ditz, left us hanging several times. Just glad we weren't at the table next to us -- she spilled coffee all over the lap of the lady there. Food was good though - steak and eggs was tops.

I guess it is obvious we spent most of our time at the hotel and that is because it was by far the best part of the whole trip. WHAT A PLACE! It was magnificent, luxe luxe luxe. We had a view of the Capitol Building, so pretty, and my GOODNESS the service...they must have one million people working there and everyone remembers your name, your car, etc. Incredible. GREAT concierge. Fabulous room and bathroom, wonderful beds and robes. My husband took a bath in the luxurious tub for the first time in probably 20 years. It was a total dream.

Thank you all for your many suggestions. We had a ball and I only regret that we didn't do more. For next time I have these great tips and will get back to them for sure. We will definitely visit Nashville many times again. It was a very impressive place to visit!

Thank you for posting the report and glad you had fun!

Glad you had a good time. Next time you come you can try my new favorite place to eat, Bricktops. The grilled artichoke appetizer is wonderful.

sounds wonderful, thanks for sharing.