Nashville - everything you need to know to get the most out of your trip!

Let's talk MUSIC CITY....

I was lucky enough to win an all expenses paid trip to Nashville courtesy of my company.   I am a brand ambassador and won the trip to attend our annual convention. In this blog I am going to share with you my Nashville experience, my must see attractions and my biggest TIPS. So if you have a trip to Nashville planned this blog post is definitely a MUST read!

I am a Canadian girl! Lethbridge, Alberta specifically. I had never been to Nashville.  First off let me tell you, although Nashville may be the country music capital of the world, it is home to so much more than country music! 

THE MUSIC SCENE

At any given time you can walk down the main drag (Broadway) and hear a variety of live music  - from hip hop to rock, electric and everything in between. In our experience on broadway there was no cover charges to get in to any of the bars (although you may want to check online first to make sure you). The music scene was incredible. Regardless of the day of the week, there always seemed to ba live band performing! You can basically pub crawl from one end of Broadway to the other.. Some of my favourites included Tootsies, rooftop bar and of course Wanna B's Karaokee bar after a few whiskey shots to show off your own talent.

THE PARTY SCENE

The party atmosphere in Nashville was more than I expected. Even at midweek when we arrived. While walking Broadway you will notice many Bachelor and Bachelorette parties, as well as people just looking to have a good time. While we were there, there was both an NHL (home of the Predators) and NFL football game (Tennessee Titans). This caused a noticeable increase of people on the strip, out having a good time! Broadway remains open to traffic so at times it did feel crowded while trying to navigate the sidewalks. Also noticeable is they have X cross walks, meaning at certain crosswalks on the strip you can cross in an x pattern from corner to corner, but do note that you have to be cautious and pay attention to traffic signals, on more than a few occasions we saw people almost get hit by cars!

PEDDLE BIKE

If you are going to Nashville with friends or even solo I highly recommend doing a bike tavern. This fun tour involves a mobile bar with bike seats and you peddle your way through downtown Nashville.  You have a two hosts one steers and DJs while the other a serves drinks and keeps the party going. You bring your own alcohol (no glass) and they organize drinking games while giving you a tour of the downtown scene.  My biggest tip is to do this tour at night and also bring WATER. We were lucky enough to have pre-booked in the evening and when we saw people doing it during the day we were very thankful that we did. You actually need to peddle - they aren’t just there for decoration!  So you work up a sweat, especially up hill, and you don’t want to be doing this on a hot and humid day (which in Nashville is a big part of the year!). Here is more info about the company we went with.

CONVENTION CENTER AND HOTEL ACCESIBLITY

The main convention centre or Radio City Music Hall as it is called is only a couple blocks from Broadway. We stayed at the Renaissance Marriot Hotel. This hotel was only about a 10 min walk from the convention centre and 5 min walk (or less) from Broadway. It has a Starbucks in the lobby and there is a Pannero bread across the street so very convenient for your morning coffee.

GETTING TO AND FROM THE AIRPORT

We took a red eye to Nashville, and arrived at 9am, this left us plenty of time to explore before the start of convention.  We rented a car upon our arrival. This was super easy and gave us the opportunity to do some sightseeing off the main strip. Nashville was incredibly easy to drive in. Did you know you can download Google maps to your phone? You can choose a small area or part of a city to prior to your departure and it will be stored to your phone, therefore you do NOT need to use your data when navigating!! This was a game changer and made it super easy to get around. The rental car cost was approximately $60USD but it gave us the freedom to visit Belle Meade, as well as the BlueBird Bar (for fans of the TV  show NASHVILLE this might be only your must see list).  Both of these places are a bit off the beaten track therefore may cost you quite a bit of $$ in Uber or taxi fees. We were able to return the car DOWNTOWN, which gave us the ability to drop our luggage off at the hotel and then return the car nearby, which saved us transportation fees from the airport.

BELLEMEAD

Belle Meade Plantation is a historic mansion that is now operated as a museum, together with outbuildings on its 30 acres of property.  We completed a guided tour of the Mansion, a complimentary wine tasting, and had access to the property for a self-guided tour of the Grounds and Outbuildings. The guided tour was approximately 45 minutes and we spent about 60 mins wandering the grounds, checking out the outbuilding, and sipping the wine samples.  For more info about Belle Mead click here. 

The Blue Bird

The iconic Blue Bird was surprisingly underwhelming. Don’t blink or you will miss it if you drive by! It is a small little bar in a strip mall. We actually drove right by it this first time. Based on the TV show I was expecting it to look a lot different. Sadly when we were there it was closed for a private function, although they do offer concerts occassionally, I suggest checking their website before you go so you know what to expect.

 THE GULCH

The Gulch was a great little area of town for restaurants and cute little pubs.  It is at the edge of downtown. A 15-20 minute walk from our hotel or a quick Uber Ride (approx $6).  It is also home to many murals, a truly unique part of town. So if you are looking for a trendy and hip place to eat head to the Gulch. 

The Convention Experience

It's hard to put the convention experience in to words. Laughs, smiles, tears, cheers, surrounded by the MOST POSITIVE ENERGY I've ever experienced!! During our time together we learned more about how we can be bigger givers, better humans, humble leaders and contribute to the world more than we take from it. Not only did we get the chance to learn from our founders, and the top leaders in our company but we also had unreal guest speakers like personal development guru Rachel Hollis. We learned about new product launches and new country expansions! We will be launching in Japan in 2020. This is the first step in expanding into the Asian market, one of the fastest-growing markets globally for the beauty and personal care industry. We found out we will enter Japan with new product formulations designed exclusively for the Japanese market! If you want to know more about how to get involved with this global expansion contact me.

These ladies pictured all bring something different to our team!! Some are organized, some are in charge of fun , some are the most thoughtful/kind people ever. Some are quiet and some arrive early and save seats or fix our hair/makeup. Some are all about the adventure + less about sleep and some are go with the flow and that makes them so good to be around. The thing we all have in common is we decided to BUILD a residual income stream from our cell phones. We partnered with practicing dermatologists and successful entrepreneurs, Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields, who started Rodan+Fields with the mission of offering consumers the best skin of their lives through a forward-thinking Consumer-Connected Commerce business model and powerful Consultant Community. We got a business in a box, virtual training, team support/community & some BOMB skincare that WORKS and is actually the #1 skincare company in North America, . If you want to learn more about becoming a brand ambassador in this awesome community learn more here. 

“We exist to empower our community to create positive change in their skin, in their lives and, ultimately, in the lives of others.” — Katie Rodan, M.D. and Kathy Fields, M.D.

Bonus Tip

If you are travelling with a group of friends a highly recommend the app Splitter.  This handy little app keeps tracks of expenses while you travel. So say you buy dinner at one place, and your friend buys dinner somewhere else, another buys drinks at the bar, all of this can be entered in to the app. At the end of the trip it will clear up the bill of who owes who! To say this was “handy” is an understatement! Check out the app here.

I hope you found this blog post helpful. If you have any specific questions please reach out to me personally and I will happily share my tips. If you want to know more about being a brand ambassador and how I won an all expenses paid trip click here to learn more. I would be happy to share how you too can have the opportunity to travel the world!

Here I am meeting Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields