Basically, Nashville is now a two-trip town, complete with mural art tours, ghost tours, historic home/Civil War tours, music tours/Music Row/Performers' Homes tours, and historic Church tours. Think of downtown as a circle at a river where an Old Fort and the First Avenue (ACME Bar) are. Most of what you will enthusiastically experience will be found in the Northeast, Downtown, Midtown, Southwest areas, although Germantown (North-Northwest has great spots, too!) 

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You can draw an imaginary line on a map from Midtown to Northeast (31E and 431 SW are map roads you'll see connecting these areas and passing through the City Proper). 

 

Due West includes Belle Meade Mansion(creekside picture early am or evenning for bride in pastel sun colors), Parthenon in Centennial Park but also Warner Park Nature Center with an  indoor free educational exhibit area, awesome activities,  and light trails, including a creek to put your feet in and wade around, look at rocks, see crawldads and beautiful dragonfiles/butterflies. We bumbled into VoodooGumbo restaurant in Bellevue near the Warner Park Nature Center has Ettouffee, crawfish and crab bisques, so you can say ya had enough gumbo for twenty-fo'! Farther West, one can go to the Loveless Cafe and adjacent gift shops, as well as travel on to Montgomery Bell State Park (reason: State Govt. Hotel (cheap), lake with foot-pedal paddleboats, fishing,  artificial beach area, geese, other birds, huge turtles swimming around in lake, nice deck/overlook). $44.00 canoe trips from Canoemusiccity.com are nearby at the Harpeth River- I suggest the milder 2-mile trip for city folk to enjoy it but have less exposure to the heat/elements/wildlife in case of something odd, because it is a river and once canoeing another river, one of my daughters chased a snake out of the boat with her paddle/oar, hit it in the head on the sandy bank and I yelled to her to stick the oar in the mud and push down to move herself and canoe backwards from the stunned snake. We decided not to swim in that river that day. Another way to enjoy the river in a party way is Pontoon Saloon from downtown (byob). I also like Blue Moon restaurant where my kids feed the turtles and fish from the dosckside seating. If indoors, Lucky Bamboo Chinese restaurant has an indoor fish pond where you can aso feed fish, maybe hear a band some nights, and cook your own skewer steak from the appetizer menu at the table over a small fire in iron apparatus. Warner Park Nature Center also a good inddor/outdoor program place year round.   

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Southwest are Brentwood-Franklin/Forest Hills-Green Hills where many music artists reside, where Green Hills Mall, Bluebird Cafe (I played Fiddle/Celtic Harp there when Amy 1st opened it after High School), Whole Foods and 12-South districts are (Murals, Reese Witherspoon's Draper James store, Las Paletas posicles, Sevier Park walking/creek areas. Belle Meade Mansion and Leake Avenue Park (near it) are also Southwest. Granny White Pike becomes 12th Ave. and goes from Brentwood to the Gulch (LA Jackson rooftop bar at the Thompson Hotel, Angel Wings mural, fusion cuisine spots).  UncleJulios in Brentwood has a great chocolate pinata served with two bats for children and filled with fruit/healthy elements and some raw chocolate. The Lotz House and other Civil War homes/sites abound there, as well as the Factory Shops in Franklin, near the quaint town square zones. I also like the creek/play area for my kids on Concord Rd. near the Brentwood Library. 

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Northeast are Attaboy's speakeasy, The Pharmacy, Woodland Street, Rosamary's, Red Door East, Basement East and is the culturally-creative zone, where the television home-flipping folks on HGTV inhabited for the 2018 season, preceding the HGTV Lodge opening downtown. hendersonville has a Taylor Swift-Funded Playground at the Park near the Black-Eyed Pea restaurant.

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MIdtown/Gulch are where famous folk and high-class highbrows frequent, LA Jackson's rooftop bar at the Thomson Hotel, angel wings mural nearby, Urban clothiers, jazz bar called rudi's, Peg Leg Porker, and Marathon Village nearby, at other end of 12 South are Draper James (reese witherpsoon's store) and another mural and specialty shops in cultural creative style of East Nashville but planted West on way to Brentwood and near Green Hills. Adventure Science Center is the pyramid in middle of interstates and has a constellation show middle of the day daily for under $10 and is relaxing for all ages.

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East near the airport: Juro stables for a docile-horse riding experience under $20.00 and not too long a trail but still with a creek. Mt. Juliet has Charlie Daniels Park- phenomenal! 

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Page in progress: search for Nashville Speakeasy bars (Noelle Hotel, Old Glory, Black Rabbit, Attaboy's, Patterson House),  Marrowbone Lake(placid quiet lake to yourself for $18 boat rental with waterfall near downtown- picnic or catch bass), etc.

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Future updates soon, Tennessee Trevor