Nashville: Honky-Tonk Pub Crawl & Walking Tour with Comedian

4.89

(304 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

We started right outside the Ryman Auditorium — honestly, I’d walked past it before but never really listened to someone tell its story. Our guide (she called herself “Nashville’s least famous comedian,” which cracked me up) had this way of weaving music history with jokes, so even the facts about country legends felt like gossip you’d hear over a beer. The street was already humming at 3pm — someone strumming guitar nearby, a whiff of barbecue drifting over. I kept thinking, “Yep, this is exactly what I pictured Nashville would sound like.”

First bar stop — can’t remember the name now, but the bartender greeted our group with that easy Tennessee drawl. We got to pick our own drinks (not those tiny pre-set shots), and she slid us some kind of local whiskey I’d never tried. It burned in a good way. Our guide told us about Printer’s Alley as we walked there — ghost stories mixed with tales of country stars sneaking in for late-night sets. Someone in our group tried to ask about Dolly Parton’s favorite bar; our guide just grinned and said, “If I told you that, she’d haunt me.” Maybe she wasn’t joking.

I liked how nobody rushed us between stops — we leaned against brick walls outside one honky-tonk while the sun dipped behind neon signs. At some point, one of the regulars waved at us like we were old friends; maybe he just liked our guide’s jokes (or maybe my attempt at a two-step). The whole thing felt loose and friendly, not scripted or stiff. There were little freebies and discounts at each place too — nothing huge but enough that I stopped counting after my second drink.

I still think about the way the city sounded after dark as we wandered back — music leaking from every doorway, people laughing in clusters on the sidewalk. If you want a day trip in Nashville that feels like hanging out with locals instead of just checking boxes, this honky-tonk pub crawl is it.