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Hotel Preston in Nashville. Photo courtesy of Provenance Hotels.

Ever since I visited the Music City last year, I’ve been smitten with Nashville. So when a television show popped up about the place, of course I started following it (no matter how cheesy it can get!).

And when I heard that Hotel Preston is now offering a Nashville Dreaming getaway package, giving guests the chance to experience some of the best of Music City, then of course I was interested.

Located outside the city center and close to the airport, Hotel Preston is a modern-yet-comfy place where you can get unique amenities, such as in-room lava lamps, rubber duckies and pet fish (no, you don’t get to keep the fish). And with the Nashville Dreaming package, guests will get two tickets to a backstage tour of the Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry, and a shot at the mic in the Ryman’s recording studio to record a professionally engineered song to take home on a customized Ryman Records CD. Guests will also get a $25 gift certificate to The Bluebird Café to see a show at Nashville’s most famous songwriter’s venue. And, if that’s not enough, guests will get two tickets to the Country Music Hall of Fame and copies of Volumes 1 and 2 of the “Nashville” soundtrack.

The special package is available through Dec. 30, 2013, and priced from $219, plus tax.

Elvis at Graceland

I recently visited Memphis — you know, that other music town in Tennessee. It’s a little funkier, a little dirtier. But that’s why I like it so much!

Memphis is home to Elvis Presley’s Graceland, Stax Records Museum and Sun Studio, some of the most-storied spots in all American music history. Graceland is…well, Graceland. Stax, considered the Southern equivalent to Motown, produced some of the best in soul music, including Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and Booker T. and the MG’s. And Sun Studio was where Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison recorded. I’d say Memphis has more than enough of its share of street cred.

I visited all three, and all the tours are fun and totally worth the price of admission.

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