Your first weekend in Nashville: a local’s plan

Nashville rewards a little planning. The famous stuff is famous for a reason, but the best weekends mix one or two big-ticket nights with a lot of walking, eating and wandering into live music you didn’t plan for. Here’s the plan we give friends who are coming to town for the first time.

Saturday morning: start with the music history

Begin downtown at the Ryman Auditorium, the old tabernacle that housed the Grand Ole Opry for three decades. The self-guided daytime tour runs daily and takes about an hour, with exhibits, a short film and a chance to stand on the stage. If you want to see the dressing rooms, book the guided backstage tour instead, though backstage access depends on that day’s concert schedule.

From there it’s a short walk to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Rep. John Lewis Way South, open daily. Give it two hours at least. The museum also runs tours of Historic RCA Studio B on Music Row, where Elvis, Dolly Parton and the Everly Brothers recorded, and of Hatch Show Print, the letterpress shop behind a century of concert posters.

Saturday afternoon: Broadway, the right way

Lower Broadway’s honky-tonks have live music from late morning until the early hours, every day of the year, and most don’t charge a cover. The bands play for tips, so bring some cash. Go in the afternoon, when the rooms are easier to move through and you can hear the playing. Many venues switch to 21 and over in the evening.

Just off Broadway, the Johnny Cash Museum on 3rd Avenue South is small and well done. Across from Bridgestone Arena, the Fifth + Broadway complex has the National Museum of African American Music, which traces the music from spirituals to hip-hop. Its galleries are free on the first Wednesday of each month.

Saturday night: the Opry

If you only buy one ticket, make it the Grand Ole Opry. It’s the longest-running radio show in the country, with a mix of legends and new artists in every lineup. Most weeks there are 7 PM shows on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, plus a second Saturday show on many weekends. The Opry House is in Music Valley, about 20 minutes from downtown by car, next to Opry Mills and Gaylord Opryland. In winter the Opry usually returns to the Ryman for a short run in January.

Sunday: slow down

• Brunch in Germantown, then walk to the Nashville Farmers’ Market. The Market House is open daily and the outdoor farm sheds run Friday to Sunday.
• Next door, Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park lays out the state’s history in granite and plantings, and it’s free.
• Walk the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge over the Cumberland River for the skyline view. It’s a 1909 truss bridge that reopened for people on foot and bikes in 2003.
• End at Centennial Park in Midtown to see the full-scale Parthenon replica. The park is free; the museum inside charges admission.

That’s a full weekend, and it still leaves room for the best part of any Nashville trip: the bar, the show or the meal you stumble into because someone on a porch told you to go.