What should I avoid in Nashville?

Lower Broadway runs about five blocks, from 1st Avenue up to 5th Avenue, and many first-timers spend all three nights on it. Three nights there is two too many. The celebrity-named bars stack three or four floors of cover bands, and by 10pm on a Saturday the bass from one rooftop bleeds into the next while the sidewalk smells of spilled light beer and fryer oil; a domestic beer on those rooftops runs $9 to $14. Go once, before 6pm, when the bands still play for tips and you can hear the pedal steel over the crowd. Then walk into Robert's Western World at 416 Broadway, where there is no cover, the band plays traditional country, and the fried bologna sandwich comes off the flat-top with a crisp, salty edge for around $6. For a second night, the Station Inn on 12th Avenue South in the Gulch puts on bluegrass most evenings at 9pm, in a low room with mismatched chairs and a cover that is likely $15 to $25.

The mistake that costs the most money is geographic: the Grand Ole Opry House is not downtown. It stands beside the Opry Mills mall, a ride of 20 to 25 minutes that might cost $25 to $40 each way once the show lets out and prices rise. The Ryman Auditorium on 5th Avenue North is the Opry's old home and a National Historic Landmark, and its hard oak church pews are worth a daytime tour even if you never see a show there. This week's Opry 100 show on Tuesday 13 October is at the Opry House, so read the venue line on any ticket before you pay. The Bluebird Cafe catches people the same way: it is a room of roughly 90 seats in a Green Hills strip mall, about 6 miles from Broadway, and tonight's In The Round with David G. Smith, Amelia White and Kevin Gordon is the kind of bill that sells out online days ahead. You'll be shushed if you talk during a song at the Bluebird.

Hot chicken is where menu anxiety hits in Nashville. The dish is fried chicken brushed with a cayenne and lard paste, served on white bread with pickle chips, and the bread soaks up the red oil. Do not order the top heat level at Hattie B's, Prince's, or Bolton's on your first try: medium at Prince's Hot Chicken already leaves your lips numb for 20 minutes, and the hottest tier is a dare that might wreck the next morning. The Hattie B's on Lower Broadway and the one in Midtown can hold a line of 45 to 60 minutes at 12:30pm. Prince's is the family that started the dish, and its counters tend to move faster on a weekday. Bolton's Spicy Chicken and Fish on Main Street in East Nashville is the third name worth knowing, and its fried whiting with yellow mustard is the order if cayenne is not your thing.

Skip the rental car if you are sleeping downtown, where hotel valet tends to run $45 to $60 a night. Nashville International Airport is about 8 miles from Broadway and no train serves it: WeGo's Route 18 bus costs $2, and a rideshare is usually $25 to $35 from the Ground Transportation Center. Event lots near Bridgestone Arena and Nissan Stadium can reach $40 or more on a Titans Sunday. Pedal taverns are the other thing to pass on: you pay roughly $40 to $50 a head to pedal a 15-seat bar through traffic for 90 minutes, and in July that happens in sticky 32°C heat. October is gentler: it was 15°C and clear at 6am on Tuesday 13 October, with 84% humidity, so the air feels damp and cool until about 9am. TTDI rates the city 5.8/10 for solo-traveler safety (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index), and we'd check the license plate on your ride when Broadway empties at 3am.