A few weeks ago I told you about my drive across country. I knew I wanted to make Nashville more than just a late stop, like the other cities. We planned to only drive about 7 hours the day we end up in Nashville and we didn’t really have a plan for the following day. Unfortunately our plans got a little postponed.

We planned to have a late lunch in Memphis on our way from Arkansas but then somebody (this girl) locked her keys in the car and we spent the better part of an hour and a half sitting at a random gas station in the middle of nowhere. So we ended up in Memphis for dinner and three hours later we were in Nashville just in time to watch the last quarter of the Predator’s playoff game as we got ready for the night. It was a Monday night so we really didn’t know what to expect, but we ended up having an amazing time and stumbling back to the hotel at 4:30 in the morning.

So after a very unpredictable day, and a long night, we decided it would be best to stay at the resort and explore what it had to offer.

When I was looking at hotels to stop at along the way, one of my travel agent co-workers told me we had to stay at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. This is a man that has been around the world, twice, and he was insistent that we needed to stop here. You listen to someone like that. This Tuesday it was raining like crazy but luckily, Gaylord Opryland Hotel, just like all of the other Gaylord properties, is built around huge atrium making most of the activities in doors.

What we did:

When it was raining all day on Tuesday we were a little concerned about what we were going to do in Nashville in the rain so we decided it was probably best to spend the day exploring the resort. One of the first things we noticed when we got there was that there was a little riverboat ride throughout the Delta Atrium. For something like $10 we hoped on for a little 20 minute ride throughout the largest area of the property. Think of Jungle Cruise in Disneyland with a little bit of history about the resort thrown in there. The guide told us about how a flood ruined the entire area that we were in and they had to remodel the majority of the hotel because of it. They also sent out hundreds of Jack Daniels bottles to different countries for them to return to the resort, and that is the water that is in their river, which is pretty awesome.

After the Delta Riverboat we walked around to all of the different shops. There are shops where you can get your simple travel necessities, country music memorabilia, Tennessee honey and BBQ sauce, and even a cute little toy store. Since it was a weekday we were pretty lucky and it wasn’t too crowded.

Where we ate:

By the time we rolled out of bed, it was lunch time and we were craving greasy pub food to soak up the alcohol that we had over indulged in the night before. Findey Irish Pub was exactly what we needed. Unfortunately, it didn’t really impress our hung over hungriness but it did its job. Not sure if I’d try here again to be honest though.

When you first walk into the main entrance of the resort, you can’t miss the Falls restaurant. Set right in the middle of the Cascades atrium was the property’s lobby bar which appropriately had waterfalls falling alongside the restaurant. 3pm came around and we decided it was time for a little happy hour. The three of us split a charcuterie board, the girls had wine and I had to try their Jameson Mule. The ambiance was amazing, and it started to pick up as we sat there longer. It was a great place to just sit around, people watch, and enjoy the good food and drinks.

Before we headed out we were craving a little something sweet, and definitely a midday coffee pick me up was needed so we headed over to the Conservatory Café and Christie Cookies for some gelato and coffee. These two little cafes are right across the hall from each other and we took our gelato and coffee to a little sitting spot that over looked the Garden Conservatory.

Where we stayed:

The hotel is broken into different areas which are all named. We stayed in the largest section, the Delta. They were remodeling parts of the hotel and we ended up getting lost a few times (including 4:30 in the morning when we got home). But otherwise I liked staying in this area because we were facing the outside of the resort. Our view wasn’t so great but it was much quieter than if we were staying on the inside of the areas. All of the inside rooms have balconies that overlook the different atriums, which can get pretty noisy if you are trying to sleep in, which we clearly were that day. Also some of the atriums have little sky walks and if you are at eye level to a sky walk, people can see right into your room, which is a little weird.

This little gem of a resort is definitely worth checking out if you visit Nashville. There is so much to do and explore, we were only able to scrape of the top of what they had to offer before we had to head on to our next hotel.