Today I’m sharing our family trip to Nashville during August 2018. This was my four-month-old baby boy’s second trip on a plane. His first was our trip to Chicago the month before this one. I have other posts written about tips & tricks of traveling with a baby (and many more to come!), so that’s not the focus of this post. In this post, I’m just sharing our trip in hopes that it can be used as a guide for anyone who wants to go to Nashville, with or without a small baby. Obviously, we considered everywhere we went to be baby-friendly, and I think we did a good job hitting the Nashville food scene!
The Trip
Similar to our Chicago trip, this trip was part family vacation and part web development conference for my husband Daniel. At this point, I was still on maternity leave, so there wasn’t any reason for us to not tag along and make a trip out of it. We flew in on a Wednesday, and we had planned to fly back very late Monday night. We ended up being delayed until Tuesday, but I’ll share more on that later. For this trip, it started with Daniel’s conference on Thursday and Friday, and then it was family vacation the rest of the time. We snuck in some time with my cousin, lots of delicious food, and plenty of rest & relaxation. (We also dealt with a fender bender in our rental car that was not our fault, but I’ve put that stressful experience behind me.)
The Flight
Just like Chicago, Carson did really well on the flight, with the exception of the 25 minute flight from Austin to Houston. On the long legs both ways, he slept really well in his DockaTot [Amazon affiliate link], and we had no troubles with the airport experience (check-in, luggage drop, etc.) either way.
Transportation
We rented a car in Nashville and brought our own car seat as that seemed to be the best way to get around the city.
Day-by-Day
Day 1
The first day was primarily a travel day and a “settling-in” day.
Baby Equipment Rental
We rented a baby swing in Nashville from a company called Baby’s Away. I write all about the baby equipment rental process and our experiences in various cities in this post. We picked up the baby swing on our way from the airport to the hotel in our rental car.
The Hotel
View from our hotel room
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Nashville-Vanderbilt. We picked this property primarily because we were able to book much of the reservation on points and because its proximity to Centennial Park and the Vanderbilt campus provided good walking areas for me and Carson while Daniel was at his conference. We were very happy with the room’s space and cleanliness, and they were able to accommodate us with a baby crib as expected.
Days 2 & 3
On days two and three, it was just Carson and me! He was still taking multiple (very short) naps each day, so we kept to his schedule these days and squeezed in quick walks around town in between.
We went to Fetch coffee for some caffeine for Mama.
We walked a long time around Vanderbilt’s campus, which is beautiful!
Finally, we walked all over Centennial Park, saw The Parthenon, and found a swing to hang out on for a while.
We also spent some time playing on his new little play mat [Amazon affiliate link] and the rented baby swing in the hotel.
Day 4
Barista Parlor
Our first family vacation day started with breakfast and coffee at Barista Parlor in The Gulch, a popular, growing area of Nashville with lots of trendy restaurants. They had great coffee and wonderful breakfast sandwiches! There is a lot of space, so there was no problem pushing our stroller around and finding a place to eat.
After breakfast, we took a few photos in front of this cool mural right outside of Barista Parlor.
Otaku Ramen
After walking off our breakfast sandwiches around town, we headed right back to the same area of The Gulch as Barista Parlor to try out Otaku Ramen. It was good, but nothing to write home about. It may have been better had it not been incredibly hot outside.
That afternoon after Carson’s nap, we headed over to visit my cousin Brittany at her home in Nashville. We enjoyed catching up with her, eating dessert, and getting all her Nashville recommendations!
Day 5
Much like Day 4, we spent Day 5 eating lots of good food in between Carson’s nap time and feeding times.
Biscuit Love
You’ll find Biscuit Love on most Nashville restaurant recommendation lists. We woke up nice and early and headed out for breakfast. We went to the Hillsboro Village location since we’d heard it would have a shorter wait than the Gulch location. We only waited about 15-20 minutes in line, and Carson was patient and happy the whole time! Once seated we ordered Bonuts (biscuit donuts!) to share and egg/biscuit/breakfast meat plates. We really enjoyed the food, but perhaps had too high of expectations of the biscuits themselves.
Frothy Monkey
For lunch, we headed to Frothy Monkey, mainly to try out their coffee. We loved the coffee, food, and the environment.
CREMA Coffee
And…. more coffee!! As coffee enthusiasts, we could not skip visiting CREMA Coffee in Nashville. As expected, it was delicious. We purchased a bag of beans to make our pour-overs at home with. This place is pricey, but we expected that given its respected name in the coffee world. Carson happily played with his Sophie while we sipped our coffee.
Burger Up
For dinner that night, we headed to the 12 South neighborhood to take a peek into Reese Witherspoon’s store (which was closed when we arrived) and find more food for dinner! We opted to try out burgers at Burger Up (yum!) and ended the evening with popsicles at Las Paletas (see below).
Las Paletas
This yummy 12 South popsicle shop offers many flavor options that were a nice, refreshing treat on a hot evening.
Day 6
We had thought we’d be flying home on the evening of our sixth day; however, we saw that our flight was delayed by several hours. It was already going to be a late night if the flight had left on schedule, so we decided to change our flight to 6am the next day – we didn’t want to risk further delays with our baby in the middle of the night. It was a good thing we made this decision because we saw that our original flight did not arrive in Chicago for our layover until 2am! Another positive of our delay is that we had more time to eat more good Nashville food!
Pancake Pantry
I’ve loved Pancake Pantry every since I first visited Nashville many years ago. I was so excited we had time to squeeze in a visit this time around too. I couldn’t believe how short the line was – we only had to wait about fifteen minutes!
Pinewood Social
For a late lunch, we did Pinewood Social which was probably my favorite meal of the whole trip. Pinewood Social is a trendy restaurant, coffee shop, cocktail bar, and bowling alley all in one, and they do everything really well.
Coffee for me, cocktail for Daniel!
Jeni’s Ice Cream
For our final stop of the trip, we swung by Jeni’s Ice Cream for some of the most delicious ice cream scoops. Jeni’s is originally from Ohio, but it’s currently nowhere near Texas, so it was a treat to try it in Nashville. I almost always get some sort of vanilla-caramel combination at an ice cream shop, so I ordered just that plus another berry-based flavor. So good!
After all that good eating, and many days away from home, we were happy to be heading back! We spent the rest of the evening packing up and going to bed early so we’d be awake for our 6am flight!
This article is now available as a mobile app. Go to GPSmyCity to download the app for GPS-assisted travel directions to the attractions featured in this article.
{Thanks for reading! Want to know a little more about me? I’m a CPA learning how to balance a career with motherhood and regular travel while planting roots at home in the Austin, TX area. When I’m not exploring my home city with my husband Daniel and baby boy Carson or cuddling with my chubby orange cat Banana, I’m probably either out on a playdate with my son or planning, packing for, traveling to, or daydreaming about our next adventure. After all, my travel mug collection is never complete. If you have wanderlust too, be sure to follow me on Instagram (and InstaStories!), Pinterest, and Facebook, or subscribe to my blog!}
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