9 Nashville Hotels Far Enough Off Broadway to Sleep

Lower Broadway is five blocks of honky-tonks with live music on three floors of most buildings, and the bands start around ten in the morning. Not ten at night. Ten in the morning, and they run in shifts until two or three the following morning, seven days a week, for free.

It is the reason a lot of people come to Nashville and it is the most concentrated live music in America. It is also loud in a way that carries several blocks, and the bachelorette-party economy that has grown around it operates at volume on pedal taverns and party buses through the middle of it.

Where the noise stops

Nashville's centre is small and the quiet begins faster than you would expect.

SoBro, south of Broadway toward the convention centre and the Country Music Hall of Fame, is two minutes' walk and considerably calmer.

Printers Alley and the north end of downtown, up towards the state capitol, is a few blocks the other way and quieter again.

The Gulch, fifteen minutes on foot southwest, is a converted rail yard with restaurants and rooftops and no honky-tonks.

Germantown and East Nashville, ten minutes by car, are where the city's better restaurants have gone and where residents actually live.

The honest position is that Broadway is worth a night and not worth sleeping above. Everything on this list is close enough to walk to it and far enough to sleep.

The nine below are grouped by distance.

Downtown, a few blocks off Broadway

Close enough to walk back, far enough for the noise to drop.

The Hermitage Hotel occupies a 1910 Beaux-Arts building near the capitol and is the only five-star hotel in Tennessee to have operated continuously for over a century. The men's room in the basement is an art deco monument that people visit specifically. It is the best hotel in the city.

The Joseph, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Nashville sits in a tower in SoBro with a serious contemporary art collection running through the building, a rooftop pool and the best restaurant of any hotel here.

Four Seasons Nashville occupies the upper floors of a new tower with the highest rooms in Nashville, a spa and views over the river and the stadium.

1 Hotel Nashville sits on the river in SoBro with a rooftop pool over the water, contemporary rooms and a short walk to the Hall of Fame.

Noelle occupies a 1930s building in Printers Alley with a rooftop bar, a coffee shop on the ground floor and the best value downtown.

The Gulch

Fifteen minutes on foot from Broadway. Restaurants, rooftops and no honky-tonks.

Thompson Nashville, by Hyatt sits in the Gulch with a lobby full of reclaimed timber, a rooftop pool and a strong food programme. It is the most design-led hotel in the city.

W Nashville occupies a building beside it with a rooftop bar, a music venue in the basement and the liveliest ground floor in the neighbourhood.

Conrad Nashville sits at the edge of the Gulch with large rooms, a good spa and a quieter tone than its neighbours.

Midtown

Hutton Hotel, Nashville, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel occupies a converted building near Music Row with a live music room, a courtyard and rates below the downtown hotels. It is a short ride from Broadway and in the middle of the working music industry.

What we have left off

The hotels directly on Lower Broadway are excluded. Several have good rooms and rooftop bars with a view down the strip. The music runs from ten in the morning until the small hours directly below them, and that is not a problem that double glazing solves.

What to do

Do Broadway once, properly, and tip the bands, which is how they are paid. Robert's Western World is the one locals still rate.

The Country Music Hall of Fame is genuinely excellent and takes three hours. The Ryman Auditorium, the original Grand Ole Opry, has the best acoustics of any room in the country and tours run daily.

See a show at the Ryman or the Bluebird Cafe, where songwriters play in the round and the audience is expected to be quiet. The Bluebird books out weeks ahead.

Eat hot chicken, which is a Nashville invention and much hotter than expected, and then eat properly in Germantown and East Nashville.

Studio B on Music Row is where Elvis recorded and the tour is worth the time.

Practical notes

Nashville's airport is 20 minutes from downtown.

April, May, September and October are the best months. Summer is hot and humid. The CMA Fest in June and big football weekends take rates to multiples of normal.

Downtown is walkable. Everything else needs a car or a ride share.

Questions people actually ask

How loud is Broadway really?

Live music from mid-morning until the small hours, audible for several blocks. Two blocks off it is a different city.

Downtown or the Gulch?

Downtown to be able to walk to Broadway and the Ryman. The Gulch for restaurants and a calmer night, fifteen minutes away.

Is Nashville only about country music?

The music is the reason to come and the food has become a genuine draw in its own right.

How many nights?

Three. Two for the music and a third for the neighbourhoods.

If you only book one

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