Things to Do in Nashville After Breakfast

Snooze, an A.M. Eatery in East Nashville gives you a comfortable starting point before heading toward downtown, one of the city's museums or somewhere with a little more room to walk around.

Share a Pancake Flight, order one of Snooze's Bennys or go with something savory when you know you have several hours ahead of you. Coffee works with just about any plan. Mimosas make more sense when nobody is trying to get anywhere particularly early.

The East Nashville restaurant is located on Main Street and offers online ordering and a waitlist through the Snooze website. Once breakfast is taken care of, Nashville has plenty to do beyond simply finding the next place playing live music.

Spend Time at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Country music is an obvious place to start in Nashville, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum gives you a much better sense of the genre than a quick walk past the honky-tonks.

The museum covers country music across generations through instruments, recordings, clothing, photographs and artifacts connected to the people who shaped it. There's enough depth for serious fans, but you don't need to know every artist or era before walking through the doors.

Part of the appeal is seeing how the music changed along with radio, recording, fashion and American culture. You can follow the artists you already know or spend more time with parts of the story that are new to you.

Give the museum a few hours if it's one of your priorities for the day. There's plenty here without trying to pair it with three other major museums before lunch.

Explore More of Nashville's Music Story at NMAAM

The National Museum of African American Music broadens the picture considerably.

Its exhibits explore the role African American artists have played in gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, hip-hop and other forms of American music. Nashville makes a natural home for that story, but the museum reaches far beyond the city itself.

Interactive exhibits let you hear the connections between different genres rather than simply reading about them. That makes the museum particularly good for groups with different musical interests.

NMAAM and the Country Music Hall of Fame cover very different ground, so choosing between them depends on what you want from the day. There's also nothing wrong with giving each one its own visit.

Step Inside the Ryman Auditorium

The Ryman Auditorium has hosted a long list of musicians, performers, speakers and entertainers, but the building itself is worth seeing even when you don't have tickets for that night.

Daytime tours cover the auditorium's history and give you a closer look at a stage that has played an outsized role in Nashville music. Depending on the tour you choose, you can also learn more about the performers and events associated with the venue.

The Ryman is manageable enough to fit into a downtown day without feeling rushed, particularly if you're already spending time around the city's major music attractions.

If you do have tickets for a show later, you may decide to save the full experience for the evening. Either way, it's one of the places that helps explain why Nashville's reputation as a live-music city has lasted.

Visit the Parthenon and Centennial Park

Nashville having a full-scale replica of the Parthenon tends to raise an obvious question: why?

The building was originally constructed for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition and remains one of the city's more unusual landmarks. Today, the Parthenon also functions as an art museum and houses a full-scale recreation of the statue of Athena associated with the original temple in ancient Athens.

You can spend time inside or simply use the visit as an excuse to explore Centennial Park. The surrounding green space includes walking paths, lawns and Lake Watauga, giving you an easy outdoor option between more structured attractions.

It's a good choice when part of the group wants a museum and someone else mostly wants to stretch their legs.

Wander Through Cheekwood Estate & Gardens

Cheekwood combines gardens, art and a historic estate, which makes it easy to spend a few hours here without doing the same thing the entire time.

The grounds include cultivated gardens and walking areas surrounding the former Cheek family home. Inside, art and exhibitions add another layer to the visit. Seasonal displays change throughout the year, so the gardens can look noticeably different depending on when you're in Nashville.

Cheekwood suits a slower afternoon particularly well. Walk the grounds, stop where something catches your attention and spend some time inside rather than trying to cover every corner.

It also gives you a different view of Nashville after several hours focused on stages, recording history and music museums.

Get Outside at Shelby Bottoms Greenway

Shelby Bottoms Greenway and Natural Area gives East Nashville a substantial stretch of open space along the Cumberland River.

The area includes paved greenway routes as well as natural-surface trails through fields, wooded areas and wetlands. You can walk, run or ride a bike, but the outing doesn't need to become a workout.

A shorter walk works just as well when you simply want some fresh air after breakfast or an afternoon indoors. It's also a good option when the group would rather skip another ticketed attraction.

Because Snooze is already in East Nashville, Shelby Bottoms can fit naturally into a day focused on this side of the city.

Make Nashville Zoo a Family Day

Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is substantial enough to build a large part of the day around, especially when children are involved.

The zoo brings together animal habitats, conservation programs and experiences that change throughout the year. Rather than trying to see every animal in one sweep, let everyone pick a few favorites and see where the day goes from there.

The grounds also include the historic Grassmere property, connecting the site with another part of Nashville's history.

Comfortable shoes are a good idea, and there's enough here to let the zoo take up a meaningful part of the day without adding several other major stops around it.

See What's Showing at the Frist Art Museum

The Frist Art Museum works a little differently from museums built around one large permanent collection.

Its exhibitions rotate, which means the reason to visit may be completely different from one season to the next. Painting, photography, sculpture, design and other forms of art can all appear in its galleries.

That variety gives repeat visits a different feel and makes the Frist a good choice when you want an art stop without committing to a massive permanent collection.

The museum is housed in Nashville's former main post office, an Art Deco building that adds some character of its own. The Frist is easy to enjoy for an hour or two, but a particularly good exhibition may keep you there considerably longer.

End the Day at the Grand Ole Opry

If live music is going to be part of your Nashville day, the Grand Ole Opry gives you a very particular version of it.

Opry shows bring multiple artists onto the same bill rather than building the entire evening around one headliner. Depending on the performance, that can mean established country artists, newer performers and musicians representing different generations of the genre sharing the stage.

You don't need to recognize every name on the lineup for the format to work. Part of the experience is hearing several performers over the course of one show.

If the Opry is part of your plans, leave enough room in the afternoon that the show still feels like the main event instead of the last stop in an overstuffed day.

Find Your Own Nashville Rhythm

Nashville can easily fill a day with music, but there's no reason every stop needs a stage.

Spend a few hours at the Country Music Hall of Fame or NMAAM, then head outside at Centennial Park or Shelby Bottoms. Cheekwood gives you gardens and art. The zoo works well for a family day. The Frist can take the afternoon in a completely different direction.

Start with breakfast at Snooze, pick the places that sound good and leave yourself a reason to come back.