7 friends, 2 days, 1 killer hotel room.

Here’s how it all happened.

A couple months ago I was daydreaming about a trip to Nashville, ya know as millennials do, when I came across Bode Hotel - aka a hipster’s paradise. Fast forward a few weeks, and I found myself collaborating with the hotel for a stay at the end of May. After jumping around with excitement, I reached out to all my pals to see if anyone wanted to join in on the fun. Much to our surprise, we managed to get 4 of Peter’s college buds + my childhood bestie to fly out from all across the country.

Our weekend fun started a Wednesday night when Brian and Joe flew in from Arizona and MN. After a couple days of catching up over some delicious chicken, peach beer and a round of TopGolf, we began our 5.5 hour trek to Nashville early Friday morning.

Day #1

If only you could have seen our reactions to the hotel room. Oh my gosh. After punching in our code and passing by bedroom #1, we were welcomed with a bottle of Titos and a personalized note atop the center island in a full kitchen, equipped with floating shelves, modern dishes and a bluetooth speaker. I no joke turned on ‘My House’ by Florida and ran around. Mama I made it.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I wanted to sign a lease at this place and call it home for the next 10 years. But as that was not an option, I decided to take note of all their decor for my future house. I mean there was a guitar on the wall, large yellow couch with fuzzy pillows, modern leather chairs, and insanely cool hanging bulb bedside lights. *swoon*

After spending a few hours enjoying this beautiful oasis (and pinching ourselves), we made our way downtown which was quite literally only a few steps away. Did I mention this was the perfect location?!

Broadway was where all the action was that night, so we naturally decided to join in the fun. We started at Kid Rock’s for dinner & drinks, where we had a view of the bustling street 3 stories below. There was so much music coming from every bar, I swear you could hear a cover of Kenny Chesney in one ear and Garth Brooks in the other. From there we hopped over to the rooftop at Luke Bryan’s for more people watching and another round of beer. The cool thing about these venues is that each floor has a totally different vibe. So once we made our way down from the laid-back rooftop, we found ourselves on the dancefloor of a club the floor below.

Now, I’m not sure if you have ever had the pleasure of viewing our killer dance moves, but to sum it up… at one point in the night when we were annihilating the dance floor, a stranger approached Kelly and asked her “What are all their occupations? Something in IT?” Hahah - maybe it was the basketball dribbling move I was doing or Lhito’s killer macarena. Either way, we slayed.

After stopping for a 1 AM street dog (which were everywhere), we headed back to our hotel and recharged for the full day on Saturday.

Day #2

One by one, the boys slowly trickled onto the patio sipping on some coffee as they recapped the night before, while Kel and I had an impromptu photoshoot in our room (I would say it was the cutest room ever, but I think that is just assumed at this point).

We all slid on our Hawaiian tees (because matching is just too fun) and made our way into the city.

Thanks to the help of Yelp, we found Hattie B’s Chicken and made that our first stop of the day. The line for this place was much longer than expected! In total we probably waited for an hour outside with sweat-soaked shirts to get a seat at this iconic joint. I think I speak for the group when we say it was good chicken, but honestly not worth the wait. If you visit, I would say skip it.

With the 90 degree weather/sun beating down and so much of the city to see, we decided to rent electric scooters and explore - which was THE best choice. It was so incredibly fun to zoom around the Vanderbilt campus and random streets. Unfortunately, we took a couple L’s with 3 of our peeps wiping out, but we rallied, rubbed a little dirt on the cuts and forged on.

Pro tip: We found the Bird scooters to be highest quality, but the Lime scooters to be the cheapest

We slowly made our way back to Bode, where we indulged in Happy Hour at the outdoor hangout area complete with boujee swings, bean bag toss, an outdoor projector and all the desert vibes in the middle of this city. We spent the following hours chatting and laughing, occasionally popping into The Hub (their adorable marketplace) for craft cocktails and sangria.

For our last night, we decided to head back to Broadway for some grub and music. The nachos and chicken tenders at Honkey Tonk Central hit the spot, while we listened to the country singers on stage. It’s amazing how many people flood the streets at night, there is definitely some great people-watching.

We came home late that night and huddled in the living room chatting about life and reminiscing on college memories until we all crashed for the night.

Day #3

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t sad to wake up on Sunday knowing it was our last day together. Once again, we lazily relaxed on the patio before heading to Biscuit Love (another Yelp find) for some brunch. Although the line was somewhat intimidating, we quickly filed into the restaurant for the best biscuits in the city. I think we would all say that this place is worth the wait! We shared an appetizer of Bonuts (Biscuit + Donut hybrid) before devouring our meals. I highly recommend the Southern Benny!

The rest of the day was again spent scootering around. We found our favorite areas to be the Gulch and Centennial Park. Definitely a must-see if you visit.

Overall Nashville was a complete blast! This weekend was SUCH a refresher. I swear it felt like we were back in college - which how it has been a year since we got our diplomas is beyond me!

If you do go, our collective advice would be to rent a scooter to get around and definitely check out the Bode Hotel, especially if you are traveling with a group.

I can’t wait for round 2 sometime soon!

Cheers!

Xoxo - Katie

This post is in collaboration with Bode Nashville. All opinions are my own.

NASHVEGAS aka the best weekend ever