The Travel Transformation Podcast: Self-development & personal growth tips for travel lovers & adventure seekers · Jessica Grace Coleman

153. My USA Autumn Adventure Trip: Nashville, Tennessee

November 12, 2024·24 min·1 clip

Broadway has Garth Brooks, John Bon Jovi, Miranda Lambert, and Blake Shelton bars all within walking distance.

1. Travel Transformation Podcast episode 153 follows Jess Coleman’s autumn trip through Nashville, Tennessee, after stops in Pigeon Forge and Dollywood. 2. Jess Coleman, the host, narrates solo as founder of Travel Transformation and says she is recording from her Airbnb basement stay in Nashville. 3. The episode asks what Nashville looks like when you mix Broadway bars, the Grand Ole Opry, and a songwriting session into one trip. 4. Jess stays in an Airbnb called “The Best Man Cave Ever,” a couple’s basement space with a projector screen, Pac-Man, air hockey, foosball, LED lighting, and a full bar setup. 5. She says the hosts dug out the basement themselves and filled it with Tennessee Titans items, guitars, posters, signed sports memorabilia, and a pole dancing pole. 6. Jess visits the Grand Ole Opry on her birthday and notes that the venue moved from downtown Nashville to the Opry Mills area after outgrowing the old site. 7. She says the Opry has been broadcasting live on radio for 99 years and is approaching its 100th anniversary in October 2025. 8. The lineup includes a Grammy-winning band tied to Toy Story songs, a surprise appearance from Brad Paisley, and the Opry house band playing with each performer. 9. Jess says the house band only rehearses once with each act backstage, which she found impressive because they can apparently play anything at a moment’s notice. 10. She highlights Shaylen, who had dreamed for over 15 years of singing on the Opry stage and became visibly emotional during her debut. 11. Jess describes the Opry circle of wood from the old venue as a sacred spot where country singers have “made it.” 12. On Broadway, she visits Garth Brooks’s Friends in Low Places, John Bon Jovi’s bar, Miranda Lambert’s pink Tex-Mex bar, and Old Red by Blake Shelton. 13. She says Broadway feels like “Las Vegas vibes” because music pours out of every bar all day and all night, but it is more for tourists than locals. 14. The Drinkers and Thinkers walking tour with AJ takes the group through Printers Alley, where Jess hears about printers, speakeasies, and Prohibition-era bars. 15. The same tour includes Coyote Ugly, a free shot, birthday cake moonshine, and dinner at Acme Feed and Seed with people she met on the tour. 16. Jess says group tours are useful for solo travelers because they led to dinner invitations, new contacts, and another meetup with a couple from the tour. 17. She describes the Country Music Hall of Fame as full of outfits, platinum records, gold records, Elvis’s car, jukeboxes, and a Taylor Swift education center. 18. The tone is conversational and diary-like, with Jess repeatedly checking her itinerary and correcting herself as the days blur together. 19. Listeners who like solo travel, Nashville, and creative travel stories. 20. Listeners wanting a tightly edited, structured, or spoiler-free city guide.

As heard by us

A scrappy Nashville recap that leans on atmosphere and personality more than polish.

This Nashville diary works best when it stays with the city itself: Broadway spilling live music in every direction, and bar names like Garth Brooks's, Miranda Lambert's, Blake Shelton's, and John Bon Jovi's.

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Why you'd press play

Nashville Broadway is loud, live, and full of bars.

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