I brought my 73-year-old mother-in-law to Nashville. I was worried about the city's party reputation, but we found many ways to have fun.

14.03.2024 - 00:43 / insider.com / Taylor Swift / Dolly Parton / Elvis Presley / Johnny Cash

I live in Australia with my Texan wife, but we head to the US every year to visit her parents.

On each trip, we add a mini vacation with her mother. For our latest one, we spent four days in Nashville.

Considering it's famously a bachelor-trip destination — and one of the top cities Gen Z is moving to — we were worried about finding things for our older group to do amid a young, party atmosphere.

But we had one of the best trips ever. Although we did enjoy some live music at famous honky-tonk bars filled with partygoers, we found much more in Nashville.

Here are some of the best things we did on our trip.

My wife and her mother are huge country-music fans, so we could have spent all day at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. There was much to learn about the early pioneers of country music and more recent contemporaries.

We added a tour of the famous RCA Studios to our museum visit, and I highly recommend it.

We got a behind-the-scenes look at where many music legends recorded and I even got to sit at one of Elvis Presley's favorite pianos.

Naturally, I did my best Elvis impersonation as I pretended to play it.

Walking through the hallowed halls of Ryman Auditorium felt almost cathartic. I could tell why the historic live-music venue is known as the Mother Church of Country Music.

I closed my eyes and imagined the heroes that had graced the stage there, hearing legends such as Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton to modern-day idols like Taylor Swift.

It's hard to imagine a more beautiful venue.

The Johnny Cash Museum has been called the No. 1 music museum in the United States.

I'd say it's a must for any music fan. Although small, we spent a few hours learning about the Man in Black, and I left with a "Cash for President" T-shirt.

As an Australian, I had little knowledge of the history of plantations in the US and thought it was important to educate myself while visiting Nashville.

We did a plantation tour of historic Belle Meade, which gave us insight into a darker past.

The Journey to Jubilee tour we booked explored the history of enslavement at Belle Meade and other plantations in Tennessee from its start and through the years following Emancipation.

It was a sobering, informative tour that's definitely worth a visit.

On our first night, we ate at Prince's, where hot chicken is believed to have originated. We were warned to go easy on the heat levels and settled on medium. I'm glad we did, as even that set my mouth on fire.

Despite the heat, it was delicious, and we went back for a second time during our trip.

One local we met told us to try Martin's BBQ Joint. I was wary as my bar is pretty high. I think Texas has the best barbecue in the world.

I'm glad we tried it. At Martin's, we had the