60 Best Sights in Nashville, Tennessee

This enormously popular radio show, performed in the Grand Ole Opry House, has been broadcasting country music since 1925. You can see superstars, legends, and up-and-coming stars on this stage. The Opry seats about 4,400 people and is broadcast live on WSM AM 650 every Tuesday (7 pm), Friday (8 pm), and Saturday (6 and 9 pm); buy tickets ($25–$57) well in advance, particularly during CMA Music Festival week in June. Tours of the Grand Ole Opry are also available.

One's man passion for automobiles (and motorcycles) led to this collection of mostly European vehicles of all shapes and sizes, from mini cars (including a Smart car) to an amphibious car—one vehicle for almost every letter of the alphabet. The museum also includes a children's area, art gallery and gift shop.

Nashville Shores is a fun water park and marina on Percy Priest Lake with a 25,000-square-foot wave pool, a 1,000-foot-long lazy river float experience, and other splashy activities. You can air-dry in the Shores' Treetop Adventure Park where there are zip lines, cargo nets, suspended bridges, and other challenges. Private guide service is also available.

An exact copy of the Athenian original, Nashville's Parthenon was constructed to commemorate Tennessee's 1897 centennial. Across the street from Vanderbilt University's campus, in Centennial Park, it's a magnificent sight, perched on a gentle green slope beside a duck pond. Inside are the 63-piece Cowan Collection of American art, traveling exhibits, and the 42-foot Athena Parthenos, the tallest indoor sculpture in the Western world.

Though considerably smaller than the Mississippi, the Cumberland River has been as important to Nashville as the Mississippi has been to Memphis. This welcoming green enclave on its banks has an expansive view of the river and Nissan Stadium, where the Tennessee Titans play. The park serves as a popular venue for free summer concerts, block parties, and the annual New Year's Eve and Fourth of July celebrations (Nashville boasts the largest fireworks display in the South).

A country music shrine, the Ryman Auditorium and Museum was home to the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The auditorium seats 2,000 for live performances of classical, jazz, pop, gospel, and, of course, country. Self-guided tours include photo-ops on the legendary stage, and a stroll through the museum, with its photographs and memorabilia of past Ryman Auditorium performances. Visitors may also take the backstage tour of dressing rooms and even record their own version of a legendary song at the in-house recording studio.

The state capitol was designed by noted Philadelphia architect William Strickland (1788–1854), who was so impressed with his Greek Revival creation that he requested—and received—entombment behind one of the building's walls. On the grounds you'll also find the graves of the 11th U.S. president, James K. Polk, and his wife.

The legendary Man in Black has a dedicated space in Nashville. Performance costumes, handwritten lyrics, a wall of gold and platinum records—even a limestone wall from the home Cash shared with his beloved June—are among the items in this museum located between Broadway and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Interactive exhibits include presentations of Cash's music in formats ranging from 78rpm records to digital downloads. Clips of Cash's many appearances in films and on television are played in a small theater.