Great Kid Friendly Places to Visit in Nashville

One of my friends was going to Nashville with her friends and asked if I could give some recommendations.

Having gone to Nashville a few times with our kiddos, boy oh boy could I make some recommendations!

I was able to quickly make her a list of fun places to go and thought I would share it with you.

These are fun places to check out and offer things to see, things to do with littles. for the most part they are free or relatively inexpensive. We also have only ever gone for a few days at a time so we never are involved in anything heavy or time consuming.

Here are some of our recommendations:

Five Daughters Bakery

These donuts are like anything we’ve ever had before and they are so scrumptious! A mix of a donut and a croissant, these cronuts are divine. Some of them though are about $6 and they are huge so if you have kids I highly recommend making them share. It is hard for an adult to finish one, they are so rich and filling, so to save money our family gets a couple to share and then some of their really good coffee to enjoy them with.

The only location we’ve ever been to is the one by Draper James. It has a great outdoor eating area and a little playground which is adorable! It’s a nice place to take a break and get some fresh air.

Draper James

This is Reese Witherspoon’s store in case you didn’t know!  Super cute, super girly, and super southern, you’ll be greated with the cutest little cups of sweet tea in their signature cups with their own little straws.  There’s a super cute wall outside to get your picture in front of and our kids loved the little drink treat while I shopped. 

Lifeway Christian Store

Housed in the ground floor of the bookstore’s headquarters, this store was so nice to browse through.  We were pleasantly surprised to find lots of hard to find items, tons of steals, and activities to do in the back of the store while parents shop.  Be sure to use the space age type bathrooms and don’t miss the stained glass on the way!

Antiques Archaeology

We have been to this store twice and amazingly it is never as busy as I always thought it to be.  While most of the “picked” items were way, WAY out of our price range, it was fun to purchase shirts, coffee cups, and the iconic bumper sticker that was on our flex when we sold it  (every mother wants their daughter to pick them out a bumper sticker that says “Junk in the Trunk” and have no idea why this is not appropriate, right, lol).  Also, if you watch the show at any type of frequency you are sure to see items in the shop that were found on a show you’ve watched. 

*Side note, be sure to go IN the building that houses the store. An old factory, it houses loads of old machinery that our kids love tinkering with, turning the knobs, pushing the buttons, basically being able to mess with. This type of hands on history is our fave! There are also several other shops to check out,

Gaylord Retreat Center

Waterfalls, photo opportunities, flowers, foliage, multi levels with walking paths to wander around and explore…the Gaylord Convention and Retreat Center is something you have to see to believe. With multiple atriums to explore full of shopping and restaurants (they even have indoor boat rides, seriously, huge!) this is something that will be fun for your family to explore even if you aren’t staying there.

Tip, parking can become salty (I can’t remember for sure but I believe parking was by the amount of time you were there). I recently read on Trip Advisor that you can park in the Opry Mills parking lot and there is a nice walking path that takes you to Gaylord so you don’t have to pay for parking. Just an idea if you are trying to save some money.

Aquarium restaurant

Okay this is one of those T Rex, Rainforest type restaurants where the food is terrible but really you’re paying for the experience to sit next to a massive aquarium and eat. If you have kids who love fish and sharks then this is perfect for you. If you want to save money, find a free appetizer rack card at basically any hotel in the area. The nachos were massive so I got the nacho appetizer as my entree which at least saved us some money. Nick and I have even shared the nachos as our meal before and just paid for the kids meals. Win, win!

Grand Ole Opry

So the weirdest thing to me is that the Grand Ole Opry is now right across from a mall but it’s the mall with the Aquarium restaurant, Opry Mills. Even if you don’t take in a show it is a cool place to visit and they have a really comprehensive gift shop. It’s nice to snap photos and say you’ve been there. At any given time there could be singers, performers, and various types (country and western) of dance troups and shows in the courtyard of the Opry.

Nashville Zoo

I sometimes say this to you about certain attractions so here it goes…we have been to a boat load of zoos. The National Zoo, the iconic Fort Wayne Childrens Zoo, the Chicago zoos, zoos on the east coast, zoos out west…there have been a lot of zoo experiences.

All that to say, the Nashville zoo is the second best zoo we’ve ever been to, second only to the Indianapolis Zoo but they have the huge Dolphin show so there’s that. The Nashville Zoo houses the most amazing playground. Appropriately named “Jungle Gym” ha! It is a massive structure with so much to do. We enjoyed that there was something to do there aside from look at animals as it really helped to break up the day and gave the kids something to do on their own.

There are extra things you can pay for…we let the kids go on the Eagle Zip Line and it was so much fun! The kids were scared at first but then they were excited to go on it and then really happy they had the chance to go. It is a massive zip line experience and it is a fun ride down.

If you have a reciprocal membership from another AZA zoo then this zoo is half off for you, friend!

Adventure Science Center

This Science Center was a lot of fun. Our kids enjoyed the space exhibit the most, with their anti gravity experience, Test Bed. I really, really appreciate when the kids can experience things like this and it is included in the price of admission. On the flip side of the coin I hate when places nickel and dime you for every cotton picking thing they offer…it gets confusing and expensive. This place however did not do that and it was great.

Just a tip though, this place was a bit out of the way and was hard to find but be patient…if it seems like you are going the wrong way you are probably almost there, ha.

Other things there that the kids loved were the gigantic light bright exploring the physics of light, the indoor playground, Adventure Tower, that is multi-level structure and at the top has a Willy Wonka type experience where you can poke your head up and look over the whole city…very cool.

So there you have it, some fun things to do in the Nashville area. I know that most people think Country Music right off the bat when they think of Nashville but if you’ll notice, hardly any of my recommendations had to do with music. It is a bustling, fun city that is up and coming.

If you are interested in country music you can find a lot of hotspots on Broadway which is fondly called “Honky Tonk Row”. We’ve driven through the area but each time we decided there were too many people to get out and walk around so we just drove through. If you are going with kids just be forewarned that this is a huge party area…think bachelorette parties and large groups of people. Everyone seemed to be pretty chill and it didn’t smell of urine like Beale Street in Memphis but still, it can get crazy. I’ve included the picture below for you to catch a glimpse of the people.

Oh and really quick, 2 more places! Brentwood is a cool area south of Nashville and Biscuit Love is an amazing place to grab a bite to eat! Be sure to check those out too!

Do you have any suggestions of other places to visit? Or any questions I can help you with? Make sure to comment below! Happy Traveling!