The Get Indiana team and I spent the weekend in Nashville, Indiana, and we had a blast, the best small town in Indiana. More on that later. We're going to cover where to stay, where to eat, and other fun activities in Brown County. And if you watch until the end, I will share a couple of secrets that we picked up from the locals. First, we're going to get into where to stay. One group stayed in the heart of Nashville at Iris Gardens.
These were awesome. You're right in the middle of everything. Chipmunk Junction, Cloud9, and Sunshine Cottage. Now, each of the cottages we stayed in had room for two guests, but Iris Garden does have three arrangements that can sleep up to four, five, and seven guests. We also had friends staying at the Bear Creek Cottage thanks to Bryant Tadlock with Moon Dance Vacation Rentals. While I was getting settled at the Bear Creek Cottage, Shane and Robert explored downtown Nashville, sourced some wine slushies from Salt Creek Winery, and made a few jerky purchases from the House of Jerky.
They got the teriyaki beef, alligator, and kangaroo. Python and shark were also considered. Once Will rejoined them, they popped into the gem store at Iris Garden. They got a couple bags of dirt. Now, the bags contain gems, minerals, fossils, and arrowheads. And when the soil is sifted away, hidden gems are discovered.
This is a fun activity for families and especially kids. For dinner, there were a few options. We were between the out of the ordinary. We were also looking at Bigwoods. People love Big Woods. We opted to go to the Nashville House.
It had some great comfort food. Honestly, a good recommendation. Maybe if I could go back again, I would probably try Big Woods for night one. It It seemed to be like the spot that locals loved. But after we got dinner, we headed over to Moontown Brewing. Now, Moontown is awesome.
They have a great patio, and they brew some amazing, award-winning local beer here in Indiana. They have three locations, one in Whitestown, one in Carmel, and one in Nashville. It was an awesome place to spend the rest of the evening, and we had such a great time over there. Bobby and the team at Moontown Brewing took really good care of us. After we were done at Moontown, it closes around 900 p. m.
We made a beline to the 19th hole. Now, this is like a sports bar out at the local golf course, and it was a great time. Now, this is one spot in Nashville that stays open a little later than its competitors, and we knew we were in for a good time with live music inside. The 19th hole was awesome. Tons of live music, great drink specials. The food was really good.
Will was going crazy for the pepper jack cheese bites, and honestly, they had some ranch. They were really, really good. I strongly recommend getting those. They had great bar food, live music ripping. It was definitely the most lively part of town. We also got recommendations to go to the Nashville Inn.
We didn't make it over there. We actually chose to go to the 19th hole both Friday and Saturday nights of our weekend there. There it's like a stay and play, so there's ton of like out of town people, locals. It was a really cool mix of people all hanging around Nashville. Now, Saturday morning, a few of us decided to run a couple miles and explore Brown County State Park. This is the largest state park in Indiana.
The park occupies over 16,000 acres and is a great place to go mountain biking, hiking, fishing, camping, or experience guided horseback rides. Brown County is often called the Little Smokies because of its similarity to the Great Smoky Mountains. The stunning views do that comparison justice. For Hoosiers, it's $7 to get into the park, and if you're out of state, it's just N bucks. After we got done at the state park, we decided to go get breakfast at Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Rolls. This place was awesome.
Seriously, some of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had. I got the maple bacon, they had lemon, blueberry, and Robert got the strawberry. They were awesome. I seriously recommend. Like, this might have been one of the best breakfast spots I've had in Indiana. The owners are really awesome.
They've taken over ooey gooey in the last couple years and they do spectacular work. Definitely take a ton of pride in that. I strongly recommend you check it out. When it comes to attractions, we spent most of Saturday at Hard Truth Distillery for their bourbon and barbecue festival. They had bourbon tastings, barbecue tastings, food competitions, tons of live music. Most weekends from May to October, Hard Truth is doing something cool.
Whether it's tours, mixology classes, something cool is always on the menu. They have 300 acres of rolling hills in Brown County. It's a place you need to check out. Make sure you check out their event calendar. Another hot spot in Nashville is the Brown County Music Center. They host a variety of concerts from pop and rock to blues, country, throwback artists.
The music center is a 2000 seat venue located along the banks of Salt Creek and it's close to the action. Amplify Nashville hosts festivals there annually and pre-con parties are held in the music center parking lot. Check out the concert schedule and build it into your Brown County itinerary. There's tons of events happening all the time in Nashville. Whether it's the music center, whether it's at Hard Truth, make sure you check out that calendar and maybe schedule that into like your Saturday activity. I would say wake up in the morning, hit the state park for a little bit, you know, go get some breakfast, shower, do whatever you have to do, and then yeah, go to a concert at the music center or go to Hard Truth.
There's there's some awesome stuff happening there. When it comes to shops, there's a ton of options in Brown County, whether it's clothing, fudge, jerky, toys, like tons of cool stuff and a lot of home decor and stuff like that that you can go into. I will say though, a lot of them close at 5:00. Make sure you check the hours or you have to go Saturday during the day. One of the coolest things is that they're all locally owned. Like artists in the community open these shops.
It's definitely something to check out and it's unlike anything else you're going to see across the state of Indiana and honestly maybe the Midwest in general. One secret that we found is parking can be a little bit of a challenge. So, if you get there and park your car, I would recommend walking to most things. You can leave your car parked for the weekend. There's a few lots that won't charge you or if you do pay the $5, walk around within the town and then the trolley is usually running whether it takes you out to the music center or some of those places. So, try to time that up so you can leave your car in one place for the weekend.
That was a tip that we got from a local and it was awesome. You will have to drive to the 19th hole, but it is definitely worth the drive. Just in general, Nashville does shut down a little bit early. It's like a 9:00 p. m. town.
The one of the only spots stayed open late was the 19th hole and maybe the Nashville in. Overall, Brown County lives up to the hype. Whether you like to eat or drink or experience nature, outdoors, hit the shops, there's something for everyone. What I loved most about Nashville specifically is the proximity. Everything in the main downtown area is all walkable. Whether you want dinner, go shopping, catch a drink, get a wine slushie, that's all walkable.
And Hard Truth or the State Park are like just a couple minutes down the road. So you really don't have to drive super far. One piece of southern Indiana that I've seen is a lot of it you end up driving around the countryside. When it comes to Brown County and Nashville, they have a lot packed into a small area, which is pretty cool. So you can really maximize your trip for the weekend. If you like this video about Nashville and Brown County and want to see more of our guides to the Hoosier State, subscribe to our channel.
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