Where to Stay in Nashville in 2024 | Best Areas & Hotels

Known by the moniker of Music City, Nashville has been a home and a performance ground for a lot of great musicians of many different genres of music, but the most notable by far have been all of the famous country music stars that have come out of this one city.

The city has a long and storied history of music and anyone that’s not familiar with this history can easily be caught up by going to any of the great museums dedicated to music that are littered all throughout this city.

You’ll also find quite a lot of bars, cafes, and concert halls for live performances, which is only fitting for a location that’s as closely tied to music as Nashville.

But where should you stay in Nashville? The truth is that with a multitude of hotels, you can get either a luxurious stay or a more conservative and more budget-friendly weekend, so you’ll be able to choose whichever accommodation fits your standards the most.

The Best Places to Stay in Nashville

This storied city is a pretty big place, so there’s a lot to see and so many streets to go down that it’s incredibly easy to get lost.

If you want to see as much of the city as possible in one go, then we think you should choose from one of the best areas to stay in Nashville, inlcuding:

1. Downtown: Best place to go if you’re in the mood to listen to a live band
2. Edgehill: Where you’ll find the most info on Nashville’s music history
3. Midtown: Where you need to go if you want to try a few interesting bars
4. East Bank: Has some really fun activities that you can do during the day
5. Music Valley: Some of the most interesting tourist spots are located here

Where to Stay in Nashville: Best Areas & Hotels

With the above in mind, we’ve done our best to point out the best accommodations in all of Nashville’s best toursit areas. We also divided them into separate categories depending on the level of luxury you’d want to enjoy on your vacation.

1. Best Area for Nightlife: Downtown

This is the epicenter of the music scene of this city, and this is where you need to go if you want to see firsthand what the nightlife in this city looks like.

You can either book tickets for an upcoming show in one of the many large centres that can be found around here, or you can just go to a quiet gig at a smaller bar in order to listen to some new talent as they’re just starting their career.

There are also quite a few attractions like museums that you can visit and even a farmers market that you can look through for the freshest fruits and vegetables that you’ll be able to find anywhere in town.

While this is a great part of town to visit, the large number of bars and tourist destinations make it a pretty busy place, which means that the prices of the hotels in this area are a bit more costly than most of the other lodgings that you’ll find in the city.

Downtown Budget Hotels

• TownePlace Suites has a business centre where you can relax and a menu with a lot of BBQ options if you like your meat grilled.
• Sonder is right next to the Johnny Cash museum, the Ryman Auditorium, and a few other points of interest for tourists.

Downtown Mid-Range Hotels

• Tru by Hilton comes with a fully furbished recreation centre with foosball and 8-ball tables, as well as an outdoor pool.
• TownePlace Suites provides you with a private parking lot, as well as a continental breakfast option. 

Downtown Luxury Hotels

• 1 Hotel is located really close to Bridgestone Arena, which is great for anyone that came to town for a concert, and all of the rooms in the hotel itself come equipped with everything from a large flat-screen TV to a coffee machine.
• DoubleTree has a bar that comes with nightly performances that can allow you to listen to some tunes while you enjoy your drink, as well as an indoor pool and a fully equipped hotel room with a lot of luxuries.

2. Best Area for Music History: Edgehill

While downtown was the place to go if you want to listen to music, Edge Hill is where you’ll find information on all of the musical heritage that this city is so proud of.

You’ll be able to visit the many history museums that are dedicated to certain music genres, as well as some of the most notable and important figures that have changed the face of music forever.

There are also plenty of famous radio stations, record shops and music studios that you can visit and explore some of the recording areas where some of the biggest names in country music put their souls on records.

Due to the historical significance of this section of the city, a lot of the buildings here are from the 19th and 20th centuries and they’ve been kept as close to their original shape as possible, with slight alterations and refurbishment here and there for maintenance purposes.

There are plenty of interesting tours in this section, but in all honesty, even hardcore music enthusiasts will only find a select number of these guides interesting, and people that don’t really care about country music won’t really get much out of this section of the city at all.

Edgehill Budget Hotels

• Hampton Inn is open to pets, the rooms have free wifi and an AC unit, and the hotel itself is located near the Ryman Auditorium.
• Placemakr is located near a lot of notable attractions, which makes it a great choice for anyone that wants to see the sights in Nashville.

Edgehill Mid-Range Hotels

• Embassy Suites is a hotel that comes with a fully-equipped fitness centre, as well as a fully stocked bar, and even on-site parking.
• Hayes Street Hotel provides you with a room that comes with an HDTV with a lot of channels to choose from, as well as a little fridge that you can use for all your drinks.

Edgehill Luxury Hotels

• Virgin Hotels comes with rooms that contain safety deposit boxes for your valuables, as well as a pretty big outdoor swimming pool, a terrace with a beautiful view, and a recreations room with ping-pong and 8-ball tables.
• Graduate provides you with a complimentary breakfast in the morning, as well as a café where you can just sit down and chat, and the desk is also open 24/7 so you can ring them up whenever you need to.

3. Best Area for Night Owls & Foodies: Midtown

Midtown is as busy as downtown when it comes to the nightlife, but where one was more of a center for mostly old school country bars, this area is more geared towards rock bars and even gay bars that can provide you with a bit of variety to the music that you listen to in this city.

This section of town is also known for the drag shows, live music festivals held in the open, and a lot of variety shows and different sorts of performances that can provide an interesting afternoon for just about anyone that wants to stop by.

You also have a lot of natural beauty in the form of the spacious parks, as well as architectural feats like the Parthenon replica that was constructed back in 1897 and is remarkably similar to the structure that it was based on.

Keep in mind that this section of the city always has something going on and some sort of event that’s happening, so if you’ve come to this city looking to relax and have a calm afternoon in town, then this shouldn’t be your first port of call.

Midtown Budget Hotels

• Element Nashville Vanderbilt is just a short walk from the Parthenon, and it comes with a business centre and vending machines with drinks and snacks.
• Fairfield Inn has an outdoor pool, a business centre, and a front desk that you can call at any time of the day or night.

Midtown Mid-Range Hotels

• Homewood Suites has rooms that are equipped with a flatscreen TV where you can watch movies and a full kitchen where you can prepare meals.
• 121 Hotel is located right in the middle of Midtown, putting you in walking distance of most of the interesting spots to visit.

Midtown Luxury Hotels

• Hyatt House is a very well equipped hotel and it comes with a fitness centre that has an astounding amount of different equipment, a full buffet breakfast in the morning, and an outdoor pool if you want to swim a few laps.
• Loews Vanderbilt Hotel has an in-house restaurant and all of the food is prepared with ingredients locally sourced to make sure that each dish is as fresh as it can possibly be.

4. Best Area for Activities: East Bank

East Bank is different from the other parts of Nashville that we’ve gone over so far in that it’s less focused on the music scene, bars and nightlife attractions, and it’s a lot more geared towards fun daytime activities that you can try out.

You can try a bit of golf if you want to practice your swing a bit, you can try out the airsoft range if you wanna try shooting something, or you can simply take a stroll by the river and enjoy the scenery along the River Lawn and Landing.

We’d be remiss not to point out that this is the place where you can find the Nissan stadium that’s the home field for the Tennessee Titans and the place where football fans can go on and take a tour around the stadium field, and even go into the locker rooms.

To the south, you’ll also find a marketplace where you can look through the numerous stalls and pick out anything that you might like from the handcrafted and custom made products that the stall owners are selling.

The downside of this location is that it doesn’t really have many clubs or music spots, so it’s not really an ideal destination for anyone that wants to check out the nightlife in Nashville.

East Bank Budget Hotels

• Knights Inn Nashville has a large range of differently priced rooms, but they’re all decently equipped at the very least.

East Bank Mid-Range Hotels

• Apple Annie’s Inn is a very quaint lodging, but it still comes with a cable TV, a microwave and a small refrigerator in every room, and some rooms even have a spa bath.
• Quality Inn comes with a fitness centre that guests can use at any time, as well as a room that has cable TV and free wifi.

East Bank Luxury Hotels

• La Quinta Inn comes with a shared lounge that guests can relax in, a private parking lot, and an in-house restaurant and bar so that you don’t even have to leave the hotel to have a nice night out.
• Clarion Hotel has everything from a fitness centre to an indoor pool so that you’ll never get bored at any point during your stay.

5. Best Area for Shopping & Dining: Music Valley

Located a bit more to the east than even the area that’s called East Nashville, Music Valley has some of the most interesting tourist attractions that you can find in the whole city.

This is also possibly the most varied location in the whole city since it doesn’t just have bars or popular attractions and it actually has quite a lot of interesting little shops and food courts that you can stop by, as well as quite a few small cafes that you can just sit down in and enjoy a morning coffee.

Camping enthusiasts won’t be disappointed either since there’s both a resort and an RV campground located a bit to the north in this area that offers all of the necessities that you might need if you went to Nashville in your camper.

You also have a large number of different restaurants in roughly the same area, so you’ll be able to eat something different each night.

But without a doubt, the most interesting attractions here are the Grand Ole Opry where you can almost always catch a concert regardless of what time of day you go, and Madame Tussauds Nashville.

Music Valley Budget Hotels

• Ramada features a free breakfast in the room offer, and each of these rooms also comes with a TV, free wifi and free parking.
• Fiddlers Inn has an outside pool that guests can use, and the hotel itself is located really close to the Grand Ole Opry.

Music Valley Mid-Range Hotels

• Courtyard gives you the option to either eat at the bistro or simply go to the market that’s open 24/7 to grab a bite if the kitchen is already closed for the night.
• Hyatt Place offers you a complimentary breakfast, a fitness and business centre, and a reception desk that’s there for you 24/7

Music Valley Luxury Hotels

• Gaylord Opryland Resort provides you with a lot of food options from international cuisine in the restaurant that guests can visit, and you even have a spa and a fully-equipped fitness centre.
• The Inn at Opryland provides you with a room that has a flat-screen TV and coffee maker, as well as access to an indoor pool, and a fitness centre. 

So, Where Should You Stay in Nashville?

We hope that this brief tour through the most notable locations in Nashville was useful for any trip that you might be planning to the music city. The truth is that even without this guide it’s pretty easy to find an interesting location to visit or a good hotel to stay in.

But to recap, our top picks for the best places to stay in Nashville include:

🎉 Best Area for Nightlife	Downtown
🎵 Best for Music History	Edgehill
🏙️ Best for Night Owls & Foodies	Midtown
⚽ Best for Activities	East Bank
🍽️ Best for Shopping & Dining	Music Valley

When you finally get to Nashville, don’t rush and take in as much of the city as you can. There’s a lot to see and you’ll wish you had a lot more time to see it all. Happy travels!