This U.S. Metropolis Is on Its Option to Changing into the 'Nashville of the West' — and It's A lot Extra Inexpensive, Too

With a dynamic reside music scene, photo-ready murals, and loads of alternatives to put on a pair of cowboy boots, Cheyenne, Wyoming, is an under-the-radar vacation spot for a bachelorette celebration or group journey.

There’s a motive Nashville, Tennessee, is a mecca for bachelor and bachelorette events. At a excessive stage, it’s a spot that caters to the theatricality related to nation music — cowboy boots, sequins, and raucous nights within the honky-tonks on Broadway. Guests can placed on their denim, don a cowboy hat, and embrace a light-hearted aspect of Music Metropolis, if just for a weekend.

Town additionally has a various tradition centered round artwork, vogue, and the meals and beverage world, catering to teams of vacationers with a wide range of pursuits. Your itinerary can embody every thing from music festivals, barbecue dinners, and customised denim appointments to brewery hopping, historical past museums, and excursions of the completely different neighborhoods’ most photographed murals.

Whereas Nashville stays one of many prime cities for pre-wedding celebrations and journey generally — even grabbing a spot on Journey + Leisure’s record of greatest U.S. cities within the 2024 World’s Finest Awards — affordability is an element for guests to contemplate. Relying on the season, most vacationers ought to count on to pay anyplace from $200 to $500 per night time for a three-star lodge in downtown Nashville. In line with Brides, a bachelorette celebration might simply value people as much as $600 for a three-day celebration; although Nashville Luxurious Keep estimates even increased after breaking down the value of lodging, meals, and actions. Fortunately, there’s a extra wallet-friendly, much less populated different to contemplate. Cheyenne, Wyoming is an roughly 65,000-person metropolis that, in some ways, has an analogous attraction to Nashville.

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The capital of the Cowboy State, Cheyenne has an imitable id deeply tied to the Previous West, one which’s been nurtured for the reason that railroad arrived in 1867 and solidified by way of town’s legendary position within the rodeo world. Cheyenne Frontier Days, the world's largest outside rodeo, happens each July, bringing nation music’s largest stars, skilled bull riders, and an entire host of celebrations to city. The Daddy of ‘Em All rodeo isn’t the one motive to plan a visit to this a part of Wyoming, although.

Over the previous couple of years, Cheyenne has grown and advanced in a wide range of areas that create a pure comparability to Nashville — all whereas retaining a comparatively reasonably priced value per go to.

Total Affordability

Lodges are usually the costliest facet of a gaggle journey to Nashville, particularly if the plan is to remain at one among downtown’s most sought-after properties. This isn’t the case in Cheyenne, the place most lodge choices value lower than $100 per room per night time. Positive, a majority of Cheyenne’s properties are run-of-the-mill funds chains, however an evening on the respected, conveniently positioned Little America Lodge & Resort begins round $88 (although costs improve throughout Cheyenne Frontier Days), giving budget-conscious vacationers a bit extra monetary leeway on the remainder of their journey. Moreover, Cheyenne has a spread of free issues for guests to do — a lot of which we’ve outlined beneath.

Honky-tonks and Giant-scale Public Artwork

Renee Jelinek and her husband, Jon, have owned and operated companies — together with The Lincoln, a music venue in a historic theater — in downtown Cheyenne for greater than a decade, and so they’ve witnessed firsthand town’s growth, notably within the music scene. Stay music, she says, was once a rarity; right now, you will discover it practically on daily basis of the week. “Guests used to come back to Cheyenne for the Western tradition alone, however now we’re seeing [them] coming right here for a live performance and having fun with some Western tradition as a bonus, not as the aim,” she tells T+L.

Together with getting tickets to a present at The Lincoln, guests can take a look at the Outlaw Saloon — Cheyenne’s model of Robert’s Western World or Tootsie’s — or Bunkhouse Bar for reside music all through the week. Although Jelinek is hesitant to name Cheyenne a real “Nashville” simply but, she says the Wyoming metropolis has a “vibrant” tradition, showcasing “every thing from cowl bands to arena-level artists,” together with a rising variety of artists creating unique music throughout genres. On the finish of the day, nation music might have a distinguished position in each locations, however it’s removed from the one type of tunes locals and guests can get pleasure from.

The similarities in artwork and tradition between the 2 cities don’t finish with music. In truth, probably the most apparent likenesses makes a right away, colourful look to anybody exploring downtown Cheyenne: large-scale murals. Nashville has Kim Radford’s Dolly Parton mural and Kelsey Montague’s “What Lifts You” wings; Cheyenne has "Ladies's Suffrage" by Chris Hoffmeister and Jordan Dean’s “The Buffalo Mural” and “Cheyenne,” the latter of which is a postcard-style murals that includes galloping purple horses. For a very free group exercise, obtain the Uncover Downtown Cheyenne app to search out every mural and snap an image.

Photograph ops in Cheyenne prolong past murals. Town’s eight-foot-tall, hand-painted cowboy boots, greater than 30 in complete, first started popping up round city as a joint artwork challenge between the Cheyenne Depot Museum Basis and the Downtown Improvement Authority. As the gathering continues to develop, guests can study extra concerning the items through a complimentary audio tour.

Customized Cowboy Hats, Western Put on, and Native Boutiques

If you happen to’ve ever been a part of a Nashville bachelorette celebration, there’s an opportunity somebody within the group requested a cease at Rustler Hat Co. or Planet Cowboy to design a cowboy hat, adopted by a go to to one of many metropolis’s many cowboy boot shops (Boot Nation or Nashville Boot Co.) for Nashville-appropriate footwear. Cheyenne has related choices, albeit on a smaller scale.

At Wild J Buying and selling, prospects can add their very own design aptitude to a hat within the type of pins, feathers, and different equipment. For cowboy boots, there’s the Cheyenne Boot Barn outpost, a group of traditional Western put on housed within the historic, three-story crimson constructing often known as The Wrangler. In contrast to Nashville, the place the perfect purchasing is unfold throughout neighborhoods, Cheyenne’s boutiques are all inside just a few blocks. Together with your new cowboy boots in tow, it’s only a quick stroll to regionally owned outlets Alexis Drake and Indigo Buffalo Turquoise.

Breweries and Distilleries

Cheyenne's meals scene, whereas not fairly on Nashville’s culinary stage, is “on the rise,” says Juan Coronado, chef and co-owner of Railspur. “Within the final 5 to 10 years, extra specialty outlets and regionally owned eateries have flourished and introduced new and daring flavors to Cheyenne.” Town’s spectacular roster of locations to drink additionally falls into this class.

Cheyenne, like Nashville, has greater than a few locations to sip on a regionally brewed (or distilled) drink together with your journey crew. Coronado recommends Freedom's Edge Brewing Firm for its “welcoming ambiance and award-winning microbrews,” and Pine Bluffs Distilling in a neighboring city. “It's good for giant teams, and it's a enjoyable pit cease after an extended journey. In addition they use all regionally grown grains of their whiskey,” he says. If you happen to’d quite keep in Cheyenne, attempt Black Tooth Brewing Firm, Confederate Beer Firm, Chronicles Distilling, and the newly opened Westby Edge Brewing Firm. And don’t overlook to snag the free Daddy of the Malt Move for drink offers at every cease.

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