Nashville to Boston road trip: Best stops, distance & drive time

Planning a Nashville to Boston road trip itinerary

The Nashville to Boston drive connects the capitals of Tennessee and Massachusetts.

Nashville is renowned for its country music, but the National Museum of African American Music is also in the Tennessee capital.

The best Nashville experiences include backstage tours of the Grand Ole Opry House, helicopter flights over the city and tasting tours at the Big Machine Distillery. You can also try line dancing classes, the Country Music Hall of Fame and haunted pub crawls. Or, for lavish old homes, visit Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, the Travellers Rest Historic House Museum and Belmont Mansion.

Excellent Nashville accommodation choices include the gloriously evocative Belle Air Mansion and Inn, plus downtown’s grand dame, the Hermitage.

You can save money in Nashville by combining a tour ticket with admission to two top attractions. These combo tickets give you a half day tour of the main sights, plus entrance to the Ryman Auditorium and Country Music Hall of Fame. Find out more here.

Boston is drenched in history, with the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum a good first stop on the revolutionary trail. Other Boston attractions include the New England Aquarium, the View Boston observation deck and the Fenway Park baseball stadium.

There are also hundreds of Boston tour options, some more distinctive than others. Good choices include walking the Freedom Trail with a historian guide and story-packed tours of the Harvard campus. For a more Italian flavour, try a North End pizza and history tour. On a sunny day, try a sightseeing day sail around Boston Harbor.

If looking for the best Boston accommodation options, pick the Langham for luxury or the Lenox for a slice of cool in the Back Bay neighborhood. The Liberty, meanwhile, is a jaw-dropping conversion of a former prison.

Nashville to Boston distance and driving time

By car, the distance from Nashville to Boston is 1,106 miles. You can expect a driving time of around 16 hours and 28 minutes.

The best stops to add to a Nashville to Boston road trip itinerary are Pigeon Forge, Charlottesville and New York City.

For more suggestions, read the guides to the Nashville to New York City drive and New York City to Boston drive.

Nashville to Boston drive: Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Pigeon Forge is popular because of its close proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the US. But so many attractions have built up around the resort town that it’s now much more than a gateway.

Most famous of these is Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park, but there’s also the Titanic Museum, the Beyond The Lens interactive museum and the Rocky Top Mountain Coaster.

Other Pigeon Forge experiences include small group jeep tours in the mountains, guided ATV adventures and wine plus moonshine tours.

Pigeon Forge is also known for its evening shows, whether Elvis tributes, Motown performances, lumberjack feuds or country music extravaganzas.

Nashville to Boston road trip attractions: Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville is home to the prestigious University of Virginia. This college town can be used as a base for exploring local wineries on a wine tour or craft cider makers.

Other Charlottesville experiences include food tours and self-drive audio tours in Shenandoah National Park.  

The real reason to visit Charlotteville, however, is Monticello. The home of polymath president Thomas Jefferson is architecturally stunning and the tours are endlessly fascinating.

For great Charlottesville accommodation options, the redbrick Forum Hotel is amongst the botanical gardens of the UVA campus. The Quirk, meanwhile, has a sense of fun.

Best stops between Nashville and Boston: New York City

Highlights of New York City include the Empire State Building, the 9/11 Memorial Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the American Museum of Natural History.

For great New York tours, try the boat trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, a night time city lights helicopter flight and a Greenwich village food tour.

More unusual options include catacombs tours, a round-Manhattan architecture cruise and a guided exploration of Grand Central Station’s secrets.

You seriously need to shop around to find affordable New York City accommodation. Start looking for deals here.

Boston Seaport.
Boston Seaport. Photo by Jimmy Woo/ Unsplash.

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