Visitors to Nashville tend to make one of two mistakes: renting a car they never use and pay to park, or assuming everything is walkable and ending up in a rideshare queue at midnight. Which mistake you are about to make depends mostly on which hotel you booked.
SoBro and Broadway
If you are at the Omni, JW Marriott, Westin, Hilton or one of the Broadway hotels, you are inside the walkable core. Music City Center, Bridgestone Arena, the honky-tonks, the Country Music Hall of Fame and dozens of restaurants are all within ten or fifteen minutes on foot. Do not rent a car. Book transportation for three things only: the airport at each end, anything across the river or out of town, and the nights when a big event closes streets.
The Gulch
A fifteen to twenty minute walk from Broadway, or five minutes by car. The Gulch has its own restaurants and bars, so plenty of evenings never leave the neighbourhood. The walk back from Broadway late at night is fine for some visitors and not for others; know which you are before midnight.
Germantown and the Nations
Germantown is a genuinely good place to stay and eat, ten minutes by car from Broadway but a longer, less pleasant walk than the map suggests. The Nations, further west, is car territory. If you are staying in either, plan on a ride most evenings.
Midtown and Music Row
Close to Vanderbilt, five to ten minutes by car from downtown, walkable to its own strip of bars and restaurants but not to Broadway. A good base if your trip is more about the city than about Lower Broadway.
Opryland and Music Valley
Gaylord Opryland is a resort ten to fifteen minutes from the airport and about twenty from downtown, and nothing outside the resort is walkable. Everyone staying there needs transportation for any trip into the city. See the Gaylord Opryland page for details.
Airport transfers from downtown
BNA is about fifteen minutes from downtown hotels, longer in rush hour. Flat-quoted transfers with flight tracking are the simplest arrangement: the chauffeur meets you at baggage claim or curbside on arrival, and collects you from the hotel entrance on departure. For a morning flight, leaving downtown two and a quarter hours before departure is comfortable.
The nights a car earns its price
Titans games, stadium concerts, CMA Fest, New Year’s Eve, and any evening with a convention in town. On those nights Broadway closes, rideshare surges, and the walk back to the hotel is through a crowd. A pre-booked car with an agreed pickup point a few blocks off Broadway costs what it costs and does not change at midnight.
Rates
SUVs are $95 to $125 per hour, the BMW 7 Series $125, and 14 passenger Sprinter vans $175 to $195. Airport transfers are quoted flat when you book. The rates page has the full list.