Fun Things to Do in Nashville with Kids

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Our family took a road trip this summer and one of the stops we made was in Nashville , TN.  I did my research before we left and found a lot of fun things to do, not only for myself and husband but for the kids too!    To save money on attractions, we bought Music City Total Access Discount Passes.   Click Here to check out more about these passes.  With these we were able to chose 4 attractions & tours from a list of 32.  It also included free admission to The Parthenon and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.  Below is a list of our family’s favorite things to do in Nashville.

Attractions near Downtown Nashville:

 Country Music Hall of Fame

-222 Fifth Avenue South

We spent over 4 hours here!  Our boys really enjoy classic country music so they spent a lot of time looking at the displays of the country musicians from the past and present, including the incredible amount of memorabilia.  Our daughter enjoyed the interactive diplays.  The Taylor Swift Education Center had several rooms of activates/craft going on, and we chose to decorate a paper cowgirl hat.  There were also scavenger hunts.  She also found an area among the displays where she could decorate and design a costume for a musician and display it in a binder.  Her favorite area was near the large guitar where she could record her voice to a song and then add music and mix the parts of the song up like in a recording studio. There are other interactive displays where you do activities and earn badges to become “Country Certified”.  It was a fun time for both my young one and the teenagers.

Down the hallway from the entrance to the Country Music Hall of Fame and past the restaurants you come to the Hatch Show Print. (224 5th Ave. South) We did not get tickets for the tour but could see through the large windows posters being made.

Johnny Cash Museum

119 Third Avenue South

We decided to go to this museum one evening because the Country Music Hall of Fame was closing at 5 pm and we knew we would need more time to visit.  Here is a huge collection of facts and memorabilia about Johnny Cash.  My oldest son is a fan and the whole family enjoyed the videos about his life and his career.

BBQ Joint

We needed to feed the kids dinner and it was near the 6pm time when minors are not allowed in the Honky Tonks. A bartender suggested we go to a Jack’s Bar B Que for dinner. The food was really good and the service fast.  You order your food, they dish it up and you pay.   The kids could chose a meat and then have a bunch of different sides to choose from like mac and cheese, green beans and cooked apples.  It turned out to be a great place for the kids and family friendly.

Honky Tonk

During the day we were able to eat lunch at one of the Honky Tonks.  The kids loved this too.  We went to Honky Tonk Central which has 3 different floors with a different musician playing on each one.   My son requested a song that the musician was not familiar with.  He went to a  back room as his partner played and he tried to learn it.  That is something my son wil never forget!   The atmosphere with all the music playing was a lot of fun.

The Ryman Auditorium

116 Fifth Avenue North

We did a tour of this Auditorium which is located in the downtown area, a block or so from the main strip.  The kids enjoyed the movie at the beginning that let us know how it all began.  We then went back in the evening for a concert!

 

The John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge and GOO GOO Shop and Dessert Bar

The kids enjoyed walking around and stopping at all the tourist shops around downtown Nashville.   We walked over the pedestrian bridge, then stopped for candy at the Goo Goo Shop, home of the Goo Goo cluster!

 

Music City Double Decker and Trolley Hop On/Hop Off Tour-

We took the hop on/hop off bus from downtown Nashville to The Parthenon.  The driver provides narration of the area.  If we would have had more time we would have stopped at the Farmer’s Market and the Antique Archeology store from the TV show, which were also stops on the route.

The Parthenon

We were able to visit this for free when we purchased our All Access Pass. It was one of the stops on the trolly ride.  We made a quick visit but the kids were impressed with the building and with the amazing gold statue inside. The building  is an exact replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece.  Inside,  is a 42-foot, full-scale replica of the statue Athena!  The grounds have some nice walking paths and green space. It would have made a great place for a picnic if we had the time.

 

 

ATTRACTIONS NORTH OF DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE:

Grand Ole Opry

2804 Opryland Drive

My trip report of the Grand Ole Opry can be Found Here .   We all enjoyed this show as well as the backstage tour after the show!

Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum

515 Opry Mills Dr.

We still had another voucher to use from our All Access pass and we did not have time to visit the downtown area again so we decided to try the Madame Tussaud’s Wax museum.  I had never considered going to one of these because…well they just seemed silly.  Surprisingly it was a great time!  The kids had the most fun posing with the figures and even getting to dress up.  It is also a really fun place to take photos.  The wax  Museum is located near the Grand Ole Opry House and is attached to the Opry Mills Shopping Mall.

 

Cooter’s Place (Dukes of Hazzard Museum)

2613 McGavock Pike

This kids enjoyed browsing this free museum which was just down the road from our campground. (they were introduced to reruns of the show by my husband) There are lots of memorabilia on display and my husband had fun showing the kids all the things he used to play with.  It is like taking a walk down memory lane! Roscoe’s police car and Daisy Duke’s signature jeep are there too as well as a replica of The General Lee.  We heard that Cooter himself is there many times too!

Camping

For our trip we camped at the Nashville KOA.  This was a nice place to be because we could relax outside in the evenings, swim in the pool and hang out in the hot tub.  The kids enjoyed playing pool and chess and meeting other kids.  If you don’t have a camper or a tent they have nice little cabins to stay in too.   If you don’t feel like driving to the sites downtown there is a shuttle that will take you downtown for a fee.  Of course there is always Uber as well.  The campground is down the road from the Opryland, The Grand Ole Opry House, the Dukes of Hazzard Museum and the shopping mall.

There are so many great fun things to do in Nashville with the family and we did not even have time to do everything we wanted.  We missed Gaylord Opryland Resort, the Nashville Zoo and Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage so those are definitely places we would visit next time.

Even though it was our first time in Nashville I always knew it would be a fun place to go with my girlfriends, but it turned out to be a wonderful place to visit with the family as well.  Please comment with other suggestions of places to visit with with kids while in Nashville.

Happy Travels!

Jennifer


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