Your Nashville CME conference.

Nashville after your study day

Study days finish at 2:00 PM Nashville time. For an easy afternoon, choose one outing near your study setting: the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the exhibitions at the Frist Art Museum, or a first walk along Lower Broadway. Leave time for getting there, parking and any ticketing, and check current hours before you go.

Travel, accommodation and admission are arranged separately. Your conference is built around your specialty and interests; the city is simply the setting you choose for it.

Music, by day and by night

Honky Tonk Highway is the live-music strip on Lower Broadway, mostly between First and Fifth Avenues, with music every day of the year. Visit Music City notes that hours vary from place to place and that some places admit all ages by day but only people 21 and over at night. A late afternoon after a 2:00 PM finish suits the daytime crowd; bring photo identification for the evening.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has a Hall of Fame Rotunda, rotating exhibitions, and tours of Historic RCA Studio B. Hatch Show Print, a letterpress print shop operating since 1879, is part of it. Many honky-tonks have a second entrance, and some have an alley entrance. The Ryman Auditorium, nicknamed the Mother Church, hosts shows and runs daytime tours, so check the schedule against your afternoon.

Art, gardens and a Parthenon

Centennial Park holds the Parthenon, a full-scale replica of the Athens original built for Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Exposition. Inside are a 42-foot statue of Athena and an art museum whose permanent collection centres on 63 American paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries. Its interior also holds plaster casts of the Parthenon Marbles, whose originals are in the British Museum in London.

Cheekwood Estate & Gardens is a 55-acre historic estate with gardens, an art museum, a 1930s mansion and an outdoor sculpture trail. It is a calmer afternoon than Broadway, but it needs its own travel time. At the Frist Art Museum, exhibitions run for set dates, so look at what is showing before you plan around it.

Lunch like a local

A meat-and-three is a Southern staple: one meat such as fried chicken, smoked brisket, pulled pork or catfish, three sides, and sweet tea and pie to finish. Visit Music City lists Bailey & Cato, City Café East, Silver Sands Cafe, Swett’s Restaurant and Wendell Smith’s Restaurant. For produce, restaurants and shops under one roof, the year-round Nashville Farmers’ Market is open daily. Its outdoor market has farm sheds and a garden center, its indoor market house has restaurants, shops and breakfast service, and Music at the Market brings live performances.

Neighborhoods beyond Broadway

Visit Music City describes Germantown as a walkable historic neighborhood with baseball, brunch, acclaimed restaurants, the Farmers’ Market and museums. East Nashville is known for restaurants, live music, and art and vintage shopping, and 12South for restaurants, boutiques and design. Midtown, next to Vanderbilt University, is home to Centennial Park, and Music Row is called the heart of Nashville’s entertainment industry. The Gulch is a walkable community of boutique hotels, murals, shops and breweries.

The Opry, the Hermitage and the zoo

The Grand Ole Opry runs country music shows with rotating lineups at the Opry House, 600 Opry Mills Drive, a separate address from the Ryman downtown. The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home, covers 1,120 acres and is a National Historic Landmark. Its Mansion & Grounds tour follows the house from Jackson’s first purchase through a fire and its restoration, and the grounds include the Enslaved Cemetery.

Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is at 3777 Nolensville Pike, reachable from I-65 or I-24 at the Harding Place exit; its animals include clouded leopards, red pandas and Sumatran tigers.

When to visit Nashville

Visit Music City describes fall as bringing milder temperatures and brisk autumn air, and spring as a time when temperatures rise and days grow longer. March through May and September through November are a useful starting point. Use the local forecast when you plan time outdoors.

Getting to Nashville and your study setting

Nashville International Airport (BNA) is the arrival point shown in this guide; Visit Music City describes it as 8 miles east of downtown. Rideshares, shuttles, WeGo Public Transit, taxis, rental cars and limousines are available at the airport’s Ground Transportation Center.

The map shows straight-line distances from Shift’s designated center. These are orientation distances, not driving distances or travel-time estimates. Check your exact address against the conference’s check-in area before booking.