Getting from the airport to downtown

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Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain Speaking. Welcome aboard Truly Expat Travel, where we're ditching the guidebooks, fastening our seatbelts, and diving into real stories from travelers who have traded the ordinary for the extraordinary, proving the world really is too big to be left upon the table. Cabin crew be seated and ready for takeoff.

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Welcome back to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast. I'm your host, Paula, and today I'm going solo. I also want to apologize because the last two weeks I haven't been recording. It's not because I wanted to take a break, it's just that I've been traveling around the US for the last four to five weeks. And so because of that, today's episode is going to be about one of the destinations, and that is Nashville. I'm just so excited to talk about it. Firstly, um the reason I haven't been on is because I just couldn't I just not seem I just couldn't seem to get it to work to be able to record while I was over there. I don't know, I had internet in issues, and then I had some issues with the timings and stuff like that. So yeah, I do apologize immensely. And I thought to make up for it, I would do my very first episode coming back after two weeks about Nashville. I've got some great recordings with some other uh speakers and some other uh guests about some amazing destinations, but today I'm gonna talk about Nashville while it's still in my head. Now I didn't do I only did three days, and to be honest, it's just not enough. I wish I'd been there for a whole week. Um it was just a stopover because I was on my way to Chattanooga, which is a whole other thing. I went to a conference there, and that is an amazing place. And I was tossing up, do I talk about Nashville or do I talk about Chattanooga? And Chattanooga was there for a whole week, whereas Nashville was only three days, but it impacted me so much that I felt like I needed to get on here and talk about it. So let's get started. I have I just was there literally five weeks ago, and so it's still quite fresh in my mind. And we'll let let's get kind of started. So what first want to talk about is the getting from the airport to downtown is easy. I just got an Uber. That to me seemed to be the easiest thing. I know you can catch buses and things and you can hire cars. I didn't really want to drive, so I yeah, I didn't, I just Ubered

Uber vs Lyft, and where to stay

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everywhere. And that to me actually suited me to a T. If you have the Lyft app, apparently it's much cheaper. However, I couldn't download it. I didn't have an American phone number to be able to upload it. So while I was there, I don't know, I just just used Ubers everywhere. Ubers tended to be a little bit more pricey than other places I've been. But yeah, like Nashville tended to be a little bit more expensive, but it was worth it because it was just easier. So yeah, didn't take me very long, was easy to find the place to pick me up. Loads of people were there getting Ubers anyway. And the but the one thing I did notice is that I think out of all the Ubers in the whole of the US, only one person helped with my luggage. It's not a big deal, but it's big enough to if you just to remind you, if you do have a big bag and it's heavy, then definitely consider that the equation. And I don't know if that's an American thing or if whether or not that is just luck of the draw with me. I normally put it in in the back anyway. So anyway, yeah, so the first thing is is it's super easy to get downtown. Second is where to stay. A lot of people stayed outside. I've noticed that when the people that I met or that they were all kind of staying outside of downtown. But for me, downtown was probably the easiest, not having a car. I was literally four streets away from the main street, Broadway, but I yeah, I just I like to walk any everywhere anyway, and it's everything's super flat, so it's it's not an issue whatsoever. And and there's Ubers. I stayed downtown. Uh, the hotel I stayed at had a rooftop bar, so that was quite nice, and it wasn't as busy, and you didn't hear any of the craziness and and the busyness of downtown street where I was. It was literally only four four streets away. Took me 10, maybe 15 minutes to get to get up there, so I highly recommend staying there. A little bit more expensive, but definitely worth the the flexibility that you had and the convenience. My first in impression, my first impressions was definitely wow. You know, I don't know what I was expecting, but it was busy. Well, I got there on a Saturday night. It was a public public holiday weekend, so the the there was a big concert on and all the streets was actually closed. It was just full on. Like I I don't think there's anywhere I've been that can explain

First impressions of Broadway & honky-tonks

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how busy and vibrant it is, and it starts l early in the afternoon. It's not like it has to start when it's dark, but it's definitely definitely worth going to because it was quite amazing. Anyway, so let's get started. The must-do things while you're there. I only had three days. I wish really that I'd had five to seven days, but in those three days, the must-dos, I think anyway, is definitely going to the Broadway strip. Just remember that there's loads and loads of honky tonks there. So there's loads and loads of places that you can you can get into if you there was loads of long lines for every pretty much every every honky tonk that I noticed. I uh I do think that it isn't really a female solo destination. That's one thing that I noticed. Lots of people were there with big groups, so I do think that it's much more of a place that you would enjoy with lots of people or friends or you know, a c at least one other person because I did notice it's not that I didn't feel safe, it just felt weird because I felt like I was the only person there that was on my own. So I didn't probably go out as much as I could have or should have, and and uh I definitely will be going back and I definitely will be hitting all the honky tongs because they they looked a lot of fun. The other thing that I would mention is that uh in the honky tongues there's lots of you know live bands. Oh yeah, so what is a honky tonk? A honky tonk is literally a um a place where they they have like live music and it's when I say live music it's so loud and it's so nice because you don't actually see live music this that much these days. Well I don't anyway. So each place had like live music and every time you walk past someone there was and and you could see most of the live music and the band out the window. Like it was just I don't know, I couldn't I can't explain anywhere else. There was loads of of bachelorette parties on I don't know what they're called, but they're like a bus with an open top where they were dancing and you had a DJ, it was very, very different. And then you also had those ones where you pedal and then people are peddling and singing, they were also a thing. The other thing I would definitely say to do is the Johnny Cash Museum, and that's because if you if you like, if you like Johnny Cash or any of his music

What is a honky tonk? Johnny Cash Museum & Hall of Fame

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or that kind of era, that was probably my favourite museum. There are loads of museums, so there's like there's one near me was the Hall of Fame, so there was, you know, he had everything and everybody in in that museum. There was also the Rhymes Museum. That you have to go to. That that was actually really cool. That's across the road from the Johnny Cash Museum, and that is where the old Oprah used to be, but now it's a little bit further away. But that is beautiful. The state the state the stage is gorgeous, you get to go look backstage. I'm not really, well, I wasn't a really country enthusiast, or you know, I don't really know much about country music, but can I tell you, I think I'm converted. I think I am. It was so cool, and all the music that I heard the whole time I was in Tennessee, in fact, all around the US, I think I'm converted. I really, really enjoyed it. The other uh the other thing you have to try is definitely the hot hot wings, you know, like there's there's loads of places, definitely the hot wings. There's loads of places, but the one that's seems to be the most famous or the most popular is Hattie's hot wings, and they go from zero to blow your mind. There is a couple of locations and they're always really busy. There's a long line, and definitely worth it because I was actually surprised. I'm not a big chicken wings person, not what that I don't mind them, it's not my go-to kind of food, but I definitely would go because mine was really good. I was surprised. I tried those famous donuts, the sisters donuts, they were average, they weren't that great. I I'm gonna I'm not gonna lie there. I ate a lot of fried chicken while I was in Tennessee, I have to say that. And I tried brisket. Briskets like a the only way I can explain it, it's like a scon, but a big scon. Not sorry, not brisket. Uh biscuit. Wrong thing. Biscuit is like a

Ryman Auditorium (the old Opry) & hot chicken, biscuits, donuts

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it's it's kind of like a scon, a big version of it, and then you put like your your sauce on it or your gravy on it. That was really nice. Probably not the best thing for you, but it was very delicious. The other thing I I would highly recommend, I'm not a whiskey drinker, I'm definitely not a whiskey drinker, but I went to the Jack Daniels distillery tour, it's like a day tour. That was fun, and you know what? I actually enjoyed it. You'd get a tasting, you do the tour, you get a tasting. That tour was a lot of fun because it was uh and i I've been to a lot of distilleries in my time, but I've never been to a distillery like that. It's it's old school, it's the only Jack Daniels distillery in the world, and so therefore it's it's as it was, as it has always been, and and the barrels, the water actually is from that area, so it's a it tastes different to to it gives it a distinct taste. That's what I'm I'm trying to say. So you do a tour. Did you know it's actually a dry town? So you can't actually buy alcohol outside of the distillery, which I found quite interesting. The little town is quite cute. I had bought some little souvenirs, so if you want to pick up some souvenirs, that's the place. The other thing is that Jack Daniels in other countries, we have we, you know, it's we ha we all we've all tasted all it's always bought, it can be bought all around the world. However, there is a whole lot of different types that you can't buy anywhere else, which I found very interesting. And I and there's some single malt whiskey as well as uh which we tried. We tried quite a few. You can actually do an extra tasting, which uh I was the people that I met, they did an extra tasting, so they got to taste all of the different ones and they enjoyed that. And so I think it was only like ten dollars. And we can also get a Jack Daniels, if you go early, like if you sorry, if you before the tour, if you go and purchase a bottle early, you can then get it engraved. So that's kind of special. You can also buy a Slurpee. So I bought a Slurpee. It

Jack Daniel's Distillery tour

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was like a uh it was like a liqueur, like a Jack Daniels liqueur as opposed to the whiskey, which I really enjoyed. That was very nice. Or you could get a frozen Jack Daniels and Coke, I think it was, but I didn't. I got like the flavoured one. I enjoyed it. Then you go on the two art, you go to a distillery, then you can you've got time to have a look around. So I really enjoyed that. That's a definite for me. I also did an the on-off bus. I always find the on-off bus if I've got very short amount of time, and I'm also not I don't have a car. I tend to go on the on-off bus, and I'm glad I did, and that's because I enjoyed stopping off at quite a few places that I probably wouldn't have been able to do. Now, there is downtown, there is also midtown, I think it is. That's also a really nice area. I also got to go there's a couple of universities if you want to get off there. There is also you get to see all the studios there, you know, from where Elvis recorded to where Taylor Swift got her first big gig. Yeah, so that's that's was very interesting. It's also really interesting to hear about the uh how it all came about. There is quite a few museums, uh, like I said before, along the way. But on the on-off bus, he he was really great because he him and her, there was a couple of different ones, but different tour guides, they were able to give, they give you a commentary the whole way. So I found that really interesting, and then I could determine whether or not I wanted to see something the following day. Again, you know, if you if you're into pub crawls, that's probably something, especially if you're on your own, that's definitely something that you can do. You can book that online with Get Your Guide or one of those other places. Otherwise, you can do your own from bar hopping, everyone else seemed to do it. There's a there was a lot of people there doing that. I uh I didn't do that obviously because I didn't, yeah, it wasn't really my thing. And there's free entertainment everywhere, so it's actually a lot of fun. Shopping. There's two things that that that I had I would like to definitely recommend. If you want to get a uh hat, there is a place down in Midtown that you they shape them for you. So I'll put the can't think of the name of it right now, but I'll put it in the show notes because the head the so what I didn't know with your cowboy hat is that when you uh it's all flat. It's all they're all

Hop-on-hop-off bus tour

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flat. Then they steam them to exactly kind of the how how the style that you want would like. So you don't buy them in the shop like that, you actually style them, which I found very interesting, and then you put all your little bits and pieces on. It it can be pricey. I think I think it was ri literally from up about 200 US dollars down to like I don't know, 700. So yeah, if you're if that's something that you would like. The other thing I found out, but that was because I was in Oklahoma, is that there I didn't even know there was two different hat seasons. So right now it's straw hat season, so you wouldn't be able to do that with your straw hat, but your you know, your other hats, you'll be able to. The other thing you need to get is your boots, and uh along Broadway there is a shop, there's a couple of shops actually that that sell, buy one, and then you get one free. So if you're going with a friend, it actually works out affordable. But if you want two pairs, then that's definitely something that you can take home. Things I wish I'd known, I really wish I'd known that I needed to book earlier for the grand old Opry, and also that it isn't open on a Sunday or Monday, and they're the two nights that I I had availability. Also, the Blue Bell Cafe is another one that you need to get in early because there's a very long line. That is something I wish I had known beforehand, so I missed out on that. So don't make the mistake that I did. Book early for things that you think and have a look what's on. I really wish I'd gone to a concert while I was there because Chris Stapleton was there at the time, and I would have loved that. So three days, the things that I did in those three days was the and then the next day I did the on off bus. I did the Jim B the the Jack Daniels tour, and then the following day I um had a look at all the museums that I didn't have a chance to do on the on-off bus. So that was kind of what I did in my three days. Downtown is definitely more for more vibrant. I know that other people, yeah, I'd had said that stayed elsewhere, but I really enjoyed it. What surprised me most about Nashville was probably that I didn't realise actually that it was busy every day. I don't know why I didn't and I didn't know realise how quiet it was a few streets away. That would that surprise me. I felt surprisingly safe there, you know, in other places I didn't as feel as as as as a solo traveller, but I definitely somehow felt really safe there, even though it was busy and there was loads of people. Maybe that's

Shopping: cowboy hats & boots, plus things Paula wishes she'd known

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why I felt safe, but I definitely did feel like I didn't want to go out and drink. It's not that that safe where I felt like I was gonna go out and drink and felt safe on my own, but I did feel safe walking around. I will definitely be going back, I think. And I think I need to take my husband or I need to take a friend because I don't I I had such a good time. I'd love to go and and see more like I s like to get like I said before, I'd like to go see a concert. That would have been great. I would have liked to also try out a few more food. I it's funny because I there every chain known to man is there. But I didn't I ended up ste staying at the hotel and eating there one night, which was fine. I didn't really and I did the hot wings another night. I also went and had fried chicken another night. You know, I I feel like I ate fried chicken every day. But I would highly recommend putting Nashville on your bucket list because I really enjoyed my time there, even though it was only three days. I also remember also that tipping is a big thing in the US. So remember that I was actually a bit scared, to be honest, because the last time I went on my own, I just didn't know who I was tipping and what I was tipping, and then I was tipping everybody. But just be smart about it. You know, I did notice that not everybody tips for everything, you know. So if you're going to get a coffee from Starbucks, it's up to you if you really want to tip. You don't have to. Especially but if if you get good service at a restaurant, yeah, tip. And everything's there now. You know, the one thing I did like is that you you can you can tap now and they can and it puts it in straight away as opposed to trying to work it out in your head. But that's what AI is for. If you're not 100% sure, ask AI how much you're supposed to tip. I tend tended to tip about 20% if a good service, sometimes actually 25% at one of the restaurants that I really liked. But generally speaking, most people I think it's 15 to 20. I think that's pretty reasonable. And that is that is that's it. That's my three days. I am super excited about going back, and I'm super excited about telling you about other things that I got up to while I was in the US. I kind of did three major areas, and the

Paula's 3-day breakdown recap

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first one being Tennessee, and I loved every minute of it. I loved the people, I loved the place, I loved the vibe, I enjoyed, you know, the food in moderation. I don't think I could eat like that every day, but definitely in moderation. But yeah, I'm I'm gonna go back and do it again, and next time I'll be more prepared. Anyway, that's it from me. Happy travels, and I will see you next week on the Truly Expat Travel podcast. Bye for now.