Nashville has a reputation problem. Ask anyone what to do here, and you’ll get the same three answers: Broadway, the Grand Ole Opry, and hot chicken. And sure, those things are great. But if that’s all you do, you’ve missed the version of Nashville that locals actually love.
The city has a second layer. It’s weirder, more surprising, and honestly more fun than the standard itinerary. We’re talking about a drag queen party bus tour that turns 90 minutes of city streets into a celebration, a full-scale replica of an ancient Greek temple sitting in the middle of a park, and a letterpress print shop that has been rolling ink since 1879. These are the experiences that make people stop mid-trip and say, “I had no idea Nashville did this!”
Whether you’re planning a bachelorette weekend, a birthday trip, or just want to do something your friends haven’t done yet, this list is your starting point.
Quick List: Unique Things to Do in Nashville
- Ride Nashville’s Drag Queen Party Bus
- Print Your Own Poster at Hatch Show Print
- Record a Vinyl at Third Man Records
- Hear Tomorrow’s Hit Songs at the Bluebird Cafe
- Explore Historic Printer’s Alley
- See Downtown on a Guided Segway Tour
- Visit Nashville’s Full-Scale Parthenon
- Wander Through East Nashville
- Catch Live Bluegrass at the Station Inn
- Tour a Nashville Craft Distillery
1. Ride a Party Bus Hosted by Nashville’s Drag Queens
If you’ve never been to a drag show, you might picture something formal — a stage, a spotlight, performers at a distance. The Big Drag Bus is the opposite of that. It’s Nashville’s only party bus hosted by professional drag queens, and the whole point is that you’re not watching a show, you’re in one.
The 90-minute tour departs from Church Street in Midtown and winds through downtown Nashville, rolling past the Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame, Bridgestone Arena, and Honky Tonk Row. The entire time, two fabulous queens are performing, dancing, leading games, and pulling guests into the action. You’re not a passive audience, you’re a participant. The energy is celebratory, loud, and genuinely joyful from the first minute to the last.
The bus itself is built for it: 20,000 watts of sound, LED and laser lights, built-in coolers, and room for up to 26 guests. You can buy drinks when you check in, and the queens take care of the rest. No two tours are the same, because the cast feeds off whoever is on board that night, whether it’s a bachelorette party, a birthday squad, a corporate group, or a mix of strangers who end up becoming friends.
As guest Julia G. put it, “Being on this bus was my best experience in Nashville. Unforgettable. I would 1000% come back. LOVED IT!”
| Why it’s unique: Big Drag Bus is Nashville’s only drag-hosted party bus, and one of the only experiences of its kind in any city. It’s not a show you attend; it’s a party you’re part of. The queens are professional performers who read the room and make every guest feel celebrated. Come ready to laugh and have fun! |
Public tours start at $49.95 per person. Private tour bookings are available for groups who want the whole bus.
2. Make Your Own Letterpress Poster at Hatch Show Print
Hatch Show Print has been producing letterpress posters since 1879, making it one of the oldest working print shops in America. It has printed for Elvis, Dolly Parton, and virtually every artist who has played the Ryman or the Grand Ole Opry. Today it operates as a working museum inside the Country Music Hall of Fame, and visitors can take a guided tour, where they can even print their own poster to take home.
The tour is genuinely sensory: you hear the presses run, smell the ink, and handle the type blocks used to build the layouts. At the end, you print a keepsake in the hands-on studio space. It’s tactile, historical, and one of the few Nashville experiences that gives you something physical to walk out with. Tours run daily and sell out, so book in advance.
| Good to know: Tours run 10am–4pm daily. Advance booking is strongly recommended. Located inside the Country Music Hall of Fame at 222 Rep. John Lewis Way S. |
3. Record Your Voice on a 6-Inch Vinyl at Third Man Records
Jack White’s Third Man Records is part record store, part record label, part live venue, and part time machine. The Nashville flagship on 7th Avenue South has a recording booth where you can record your own voice directly onto a 6-inch vinyl record, the same way records were made in the 1940s. You walk in, press a button, talk or sing for a minute, and walk out with a physical record.
The store itself is worth the trip even without the recording booth. Everything is black and yellow (the label’s colors), the merchandise is beautifully designed, and the curation is unlike any record store you’ve been in. There’s also a Scopitone, one of the only working examples of a 1960s visual jukebox in the country, and a Dip-n-Dunk photo booth. It’s a dense, weird, excellent 45 minutes.
| Good to know: Located at 623 7th Ave S. The store is free to browse; the record booth costs a few dollars. Hours vary. Check thirdmanrecords.com before visiting. |
4. Hear Tomorrow’s Hit Songs at the Bluebird Cafe, Tonight
The Bluebird Cafe seats 90 people. The stage is in the center of the room, surrounded by tables on all four sides. Songwriters sit in a circle, trade songs, and tell the stories behind them — how they were written, what inspired them, what changed in the final edit. It’s intimate to the point of feeling private.
Garth Brooks was discovered here. Taylor Swift performed here early in her career. Kathy Mattea got her first record deal after playing here regularly. The Bluebird is where country music’s best writers come to perform the songs that other artists take platinum. If you’re lucky, you’ll hear next year’s biggest hit before it ever goes to radio.
Reservations are required. Shows sell out weeks in advance, especially on weekends. The Bluebird doesn’t do walk-ins for reserved shows, but standing room is sometimes available, so check their site the day of.
| Good to know: Located at 4104 Hillsboro Pike in Green Hills, about 15 minutes from downtown. Book well in advance. The no-talking-during-performances policy is strictly enforced, and locals love that about it. |
5. Explore the Underground History of Printer’s Alley
One block from Broadway sits a narrow alley with a hundred years of stories in its brick walls. Printer’s Alley was Nashville’s printing and publishing district in the 1800s, then became the city’s premier entertainment strip during Prohibition, home to speakeasies, jazz clubs, and the kind of nightlife that could get you arrested. Later, it was where country music’s biggest stars performed in small clubs before they were famous. Chet Atkins played here. Dottie West had a residency here.
Today, Printer’s Alley is having a revival. The old bones are still there, the narrow brick-paved passage, the neon signs, the low ceilings in bars that have been pouring drinks for decades. It’s walkable, accessible, and genuinely different from the Broadway strip two blocks away. Go in the evening when the neon is on.
6. Explore Downtown Nashville by Segway
Looking for a fun way to see more of Music City in less time? A guided Segway tour with iRide Nashville is a fantastic option, especially if it’s your first visit to Nashville. After a quick training session, you’ll glide through downtown with a knowledgeable local guide while visiting iconic landmarks like the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Tennessee State Capitol, and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
With tour lengths to fit almost any schedule and small group sizes for a more personal experience, it’s an easy, entertaining way to get your bearings and discover the history behind some of Nashville’s most famous sights.
| Good to know: Due to strict guide-to-guest ratios in place for safety, iRide has limited availability. Reservations guarantee a spot on their tour and are highly encouraged, as they aren’t often able to accommodate walk-ins. |
7. Stand Underneath a Full-Scale Replica of the Greek Parthenon
Nashville’s nickname “the Athens of the South” was earned by its concentration of universities and a reputation for education going back to the 1800s. In 1897, for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, the city built a full-scale replica of the ancient Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Unlike the original, this one is complete, with all the friezes, the pediment sculptures, and a 42-foot gilded statue of Athena inside that is the tallest indoor statue in the Western Hemisphere.
The building sits in Centennial Park, a 10-minute drive from downtown, and it consistently surprises visitors who weren’t expecting to find it here. The exterior is free to explore and worth seeing regardless of museum hours.
| Note for 2026 visitors: The Parthenon interior is closed through June 2026 for maintenance. The exterior remains open, and outdoor audio tours are available on weekends. The museum is expected to reopen later in the summer, check nashvilleparthenon.com for updates. |
8. Spend an Afternoon Getting Lost in East Nashville
East Nashville is where the city lives when it’s not performing for tourists. The Five Points neighborhood and surrounding streets have an independent record store, a dozen restaurants worth driving across town for, vintage shops, coffee roasters, and a bar scene that runs at a different tempo than Broadway, slower, more local, more interesting.
The neighborhood is also the center of Nashville’s LGBTQ+ community outside of Midtown’s Church Street corridor. The Lipstick Lounge, one of the last standing lesbian bars in the country, is here, along with Trax Tea Room and a cluster of queer-friendly spots that feel genuinely welcoming. Spend a few hours walking between Woodland Street and 11th, stop wherever looks interesting, and you’ll see the Nashville that doesn’t show up in travel roundups.
9. Catch a Set at the Station Inn — Nashville’s Last True Listening Room
The Station Inn has been in the same Gulch location since 1974. It seats about 200 and has no dedicated stage, the performers just play at one end of the room. It books some of the best bluegrass, Americana, and roots music in the country, often featuring musicians who are household names in their genres and total unknowns to everyone else.
Going to the Station Inn feels like a secret. The neighborhood around it has been completely transformed by development, glass condos, hotel lobbies, rooftop bars, and the Station Inn just sits there, unimpressed, still doing what it’s always done. Cash is king, the drinks are cheap, and the music is real. It’s the opposite of Broadway in the best possible way.
| Good to know: Tickets typically $10–20, often cash only at the door. Located at 402 12th Ave S in The Gulch. Check the calendar at stationinn.com, shows sell out, especially on weekends. |
10. Tour a Craft Distillery That Doesn’t Make Tennessee Whiskey
Everyone knows Jack Daniel’s. Far fewer people know that Nashville has a thriving craft distillery scene producing things you won’t find at any chain liquor store. Corsair Artisan Distillery, Nashville’s first legal distillery since Prohibition, operates out of a space in Marathon Village and makes small-batch spirits that range from traditional whiskey to quinoa-based grain spirits to an absinthe aged in bourbon barrels.
Tours run regularly and include tastings, a behind-the-scenes look at the production process, and a lot of context about what sets craft distilling apart from large commercial operations. The Marathon Village complex itself, a converted early-1900s automobile plant, is worth the visit on its own, housing art galleries, vintage markets, and independent studios alongside the distillery.
| Good to know: Located at 601 Merritt Ave in the Marathon Village complex, tours and tastings available most days. Check corsairdistillery.com for current hours. 21+ for tastings. |
The Best Nashville Experiences Have One Thing in Common
Every experience on this list is unique because it’s specific to Nashville. You can’t recreate any of them somewhere else. They’re built from the city’s particular combination of music history, creative industry, irreverence, and genuine Southern hospitality.
The Big Drag Bus fits that same mold. We’re not a generic party bus experience with a novelty angle. We’re a product of Nashville’s specific drag culture, its Church Street community, and the professional queens who have built careers here. The experience is participatory in a way that most tourist attractions aren’t. You’re not watching Nashville, you’re briefly living inside a version of it that’s joyful, loud, and impossible to forget.
If you’re visiting Nashville and you want to do something different, something that becomes the story you tell when you get home, start here.
| Ready to ride? Big Drag Bus runs public tours nightly from 1517 Church Street in Midtown Nashville. Public tour seats start at $49.95 per person. Private bookings available for groups of up to 26. All riders must be 18+. Not BYOB, drinks available at check-in. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some unique things to do in Nashville beyond Broadway?
Nashville’s most unique experiences include riding the Big Drag Bus, a 90-minute drag-queen-hosted party bus tour, as well as making your own letterpress poster at the historic Hatch Show Print shop, recording your voice on vinyl at Third Man Records, and catching a songwriter round at the Bluebird Cafe. These are the experiences that regulars recommend because they can’t be replicated anywhere else.
What makes the Big Drag Bus different from other Nashville party buses?
Big Drag Bus is Nashville’s only party bus hosted by professional drag queens. Unlike standard party buses that play music and drive around, the Big Drag Bus features live performances, interactive games, and a cast of queens who engage directly with every guest on board. The experience is participatory rather than passive, you’re part of the celebration, not just along for the ride.
Is the Big Drag Bus appropriate for people who’ve never been to a drag show?
Yes, it’s a great first drag experience precisely because it’s interactive and celebratory rather than formal. The queens create an atmosphere where everyone feels welcome, and the bus format means there’s no awkward sitting-in-a-bar-waiting-for-a-show dynamic. Groups of all backgrounds ride regularly, including bachelorette parties, birthday groups, corporate teams, and couples. The common thread is people who are ready to have a good time.
Do I need reservations for these Nashville experiences?
Yes, most of the experiences on this list require advance booking. The Big Drag Bus, Suzy Wong’s Drag Brunch, Hatch Show Print tours, and the Bluebird Cafe all fill up quickly, especially on weekends. Same-day availability is rare during peak season (spring through fall). Book at least a week ahead; two to four weeks is safer for weekend dates.
What’s the best area of Nashville to stay for these experiences?
Midtown Nashville, particularly the Church Street and Gulch areas, puts you closest to the Big Drag Bus departure point, Printer’s Alley, and the Station Inn. From Midtown, you’re also a short rideshare from East Nashville, Centennial Park, and the Country Music Hall of Fame where Hatch Show Print is located. Broadway hotels work too, but Midtown gives you walkable access to the most interesting parts of the city.
