Polly

I've talked my husband into accompanying me to Nashville for a professional meeting to be held at the Nashville Marriott Airport Hotel the first week in December. Tentative plans are to stay Wednesday and Thursday night (the 2 nights preceeding meeting days) at the Marriott and transfer to the Opryland Hotel for Friday and Saturday nights prior to returning home on Sunday. What do you think? We want to enjoy Opryland Hotel decorated for Christmas and possibly take in a Grand Old Opry preformance. What other suggestions can you make considering I will be in meetings ALL DAY Wednesday and Thursday? Is a rental car really necessary? I figure we can use a taxi to expedite the hotel transfer, but what about otherwise? Is there enough within walking distance to fill that time period? Help me make this a memorable get-away.

Polly

Boy, did I mess this up! Typo in my email address and days are wrong. Meetings on Thursday and Friday; Marriott on Wednesday and Thursday nights; Opryland on Friday and Saturday nights. Thanks for any help for this mixed up sole.

Donna

Opryland Hotel is surrounded by a huge parking lot but there are a couple of restaurants across the street and also some other smaller hotels. Altho the public areas of Opryland Hotel are amazing, the rooms are very utilitarian and overpriced. We did not enjoy eating at Opryland at all. We very much enjoyed the amusement park and Grand Old Opry and we could book tours from the hotel...however, we were there for a convention and there were far too many people going on the tours. My husband was very unhappy, saying that several buses full would stop at a small historical place that was just too small to handle that many at one time. For one stop, some of the buses were too tall to go over a bridge so people had to be ferried. He just sat in the bus. I think you would do better renting a car and visiting the places you want to see. I would not stay at the hotel again, but it is a fun place to wander thru and enjoy a drink while listening to music. BUT some of the complaints were that the place is so huge that people had to walk 1/2 hour from their room to the convention area.

Sue

Hi Polly,
Go to: www.country.com
This will answers some of your questions. Opryland park is soon to be Oprymills. The park closed this past year. I live just outside Nashville and my daughter was married at the Opryland Hotel in December(7 yrs ago). The Hotel is beautiful at this time of the year.
The Opryhouse info is listed at the web site. Get you tickets reserved now! Christmas time in Nashville is a very busy one. Have Fun on your trip!

Jan

We were in Nashville a couple years ago for a convention in early Dec. We did not stay at Opryland hotel and are glad we didn't. We did go to see the lights and Xmas decor and it was beautiful, but it creates a traffic nightmare around the hotel and in all it's public areas. We stayed at the Nashville Sheraton which is right next to the Marriott, and I didn't regret it at all.
You do need a rental car, as there is nothing in walking distance from the hotels.
Jan

Lee

Glad to hear you're coming to Nashville! I live here and I love it!
By all means, please rent a car in order to see the most of the city and surrounding areas. Don't miss the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, Belle Meade Plantation, The Hermitage (home of Pres. Andrew Jackson), and the beautiful homes in the Belle Meade, Green Hills and Brentwood areas. The downtown area on the river around 2nd Avenue has shops, restaurants and music of all kinds.
AND not just country music either...
Blue grass, rock, alternative, folk,,etc
Caffe Milano offers wonderful live shows - Christopher Cross recently played there.
Have fun!

Sue

Polly - we just returned from the Opryland hotel. Spent two days/nights there. I would recommend it highly. It is absolutely beautiful. We thought the food was outstanding. We had a room with a balcony overlooking the inside gardens and were glad we spent the extra. This place is expensive, but we thought it worth it. There is not a great deal to do there, but it is a beautiful place to stay. If you do go, eat one of your evening meals at the Conservatory Restaurant - they specialize in seafood and prime rib, steaks. We had a great meal there. I would also recommend a trip to see The Hermitage. Printer's Alley downtown was fun at night, lots of pubs.

Have fun.

Hal

Definitely rent a car. The Airport Marriott is not really near anything but business centers, etc. Opryland Hotel is huge, comparable to some Vegas hotels in terms of scale and getting lost, and it too is not near very much (unless you like outlet shopping). The Grand Ole Opry sports everything from Bluegrass, to country/western, traditional country and a few Vince Gills or Dolly Partons thrown in from time to time. Also, the Ryman Auditorium (downtown) has all kinds of shows (from Lenny Kravitz to Delbert McClinton) and might be worth checking out too. It's pretty anyway. And yes, there are some beautiful homes in the area, but probably nothing you haven't seen before in other cities. And speaking as a Nashvillian and professional artist, skip Cheekwood. You've probably seen better in almost any other city.Go to Hermitage and see Andrew Jackson's home (about 15 min east of the airport). I'd suggest that your husband venture downtown at least one day when you're in meetings hit Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, listen to some singer/songwriters and have a beer (when in Rome...). Not to say that's all there is to Nashville - there's also nice restaurants and clubs like Ruth's Chris, Cafe Milano, Havana's, The Trace. Also, maybe your husband would like to take in an NHL game. Hey, I just had an idea...for more info go to www.citysearch.com and click on Nashville on the map. It's inda like a search engine for certain cities and also has articles. You'll find just about anything there (and no, I don't work for CitySearch! This is not Spam!). Hope this helps! E-mail me if ya need more!

ajmartin

Opryland is for the rubes and the surroundings are pure tourist. Especially with the kids, the area is bleak if busy. Tennessee car and van rental or Atlas car rental will bring you a car for twenty dollars a day...its worth it, a taxi to town will run about 25. The two most interesting area food, specialty shops etc are on either side of Vanderbilt university. West End and Hillsboro Village are the two with the elliston place section very near by.
With kids, I would almost recommend that you not stay at opryland..these other areas have a lot of stuff all in walking distance and are safe...(My two girls and the local kids are free to roam) Opryland is a ways out of town but easy to drive. All the stuff you need to occupy the non conventioneers is in town,including the good restaurants. The hip teens like BongoJava as a hangout (close to hillsboro village) where kids play chess, yak,do their homework and drink cafe lattes. There is a lical give away paper called the Scene which gives all the local events and music listings...better than the local paper.
also, check City Search in Nashville for more commercial listings of whats on.
good luck,
A J Martin