It’s hard not to have a good time in the capital of Tennessee, with its mild climate and influx of new energy. Nashville is a place to ignore your diet, stay up past bedtime and wear your dancing shoes. I spent a week there, bar-hopping among the honky-tonks, soaking in culture and history at the National Museum of African American Music and Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, catching a show at the Ryman Auditorium (the original home of the Grand Ole Opry) and venturing out to up-and-coming neighborhoods to discover the city’s dynamic food and shopping scenes. 

I’ve long enjoyed Nashville, but now is an especially good time to plan a visit. Incredibly, no fewer than 35 hotels have opened since 2020 and more are on the way. (The Ritz-Carlton and Edition Hotels groups plan to unveil properties in 2026.) With this in mind, my traveling companion and I stayed undercover at three of the most promising newcomers to see how they measured up to our previously recommended hotel in town, which we checked into first.

The Hermitage Hotel

The Hermitage’s greatest asset is its immediate “wow” factor. First built in 1910, the landmark 122-room hotel has the air of a grand old European hotel, with a proper valet who opened the car door and whisked our bags to a soaring lobby complete with marble columns, vaulted stained-glass ceilings and plenty of comfortable seating nooks surrounding a minimalist bar.