Best Nashville Hotels

Under the glass domes of the city-sized Gaylord Resort and Convention Center, you'll find 2,800 hotel rooms and three immense, perfectly manicured garden areas. Known as one of the best Nashville hotels, the Conservatory houses tropical plants; the Cascades Lobby burbles with multiple waterfalls, and the Delta area features an indoor river with guests touring via boats. At Christmas, the hotel has a stunning indoor light display with more than a million twinkling lights, whimsical décor and an amped-up holiday atmosphere that alone is worth a trip. An excellent full-service spa, indoor and outdoor pools, and fitness center are also on-site, although the complex is so immense that walking to said fitness center may be workout enough.

Taking a basic box of an office building in a fantastic central location and turning it into a hotel isn't exactly a leap, but turning that building into an energy-efficient, eco-friendly hotel is unusual—and that’s the Hutton. Kudos all around for green bells and whistles like EcoDisc elevators that use hybrid power, bamboo furniture and flooring, LED and fluorescent lighting throughout the hotel, dual-flush commodes in the guest rooms, and card-key lighting systems in guest rooms that ensure lights are turned off when guests leave. In The Hutton’s case, green doesn’t mean lean; we love the beautifully sleek décor in public areas, lushly appointed rooms and excellent location—near Vanderbilt University, a few blocks from West End shopping and dining and a quick ride—via the hotel's free hybrid Lexus shuttle—to the sounds of Broadway.

The location of this Marriott is its main selling point—front rooms overlook Centennial Park and back ones sport a fabulous view of the Vanderbilt football. As one might guess, rooms are hard to come by on home game weekends for the Commodores. The hotel offers 300 well-appointed rooms, wireless Internet connectivity (for $10 a day), a swimming pool and fitness center, Starbucks coffee in the lobby and easy, in-and-out parking.

There’s something utterly charming about this historic train station-turned-hotel, from the gorgeously restored lobby, to the ticket counter that’s now the front desk, to the bathrooms that make up for their smallish size with vintage authenticity. Yes, the corridors are narrow and the elevators painstakingly slow, but the architectural elegance overrides any small inconveniences, making our list of one of the best Nashville Hotels. The Union Station offers some of Nashville's most reasonable rates, even in the busiest of weeks, and we can only surmise that some folks still haven’t figured out that the castle-like former station is now a hotel. Adjacent to the Frist, the Wyndham offers a cozy bar, a fine restaurant and a walking-distance location to all the downtown and District clubs and sights. Ask for one of the rooms overlooking the cavernous lobby with its beautiful wood-framed arched windows—they’re a treat.