The short answer is yes – but with one significant condition: the daytime backstage tour is the version worth paying for. The post-show backstage tour, which runs after the evening performances, produces enough negative reviews that it deserves a warning.
The Daytime Tour: What You Actually See
The Grand Ole Opry offers daytime backstage tours seven days a week, running every 15 minutes from 9:15am to around 4:15pm (subject to show schedules). The tour begins in the Circle Room theater – a state-of-the-art presentation space where Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood host an introductory film about Opry history. Then a guide takes the group through backstage.
What you see: the artist entrance where performers walk in on show nights; the uniquely themed dressing rooms where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and hundreds of others got ready to perform; Studio A, the former set of “Hee Haw”; exclusive archival photos; and finally, the stage itself – where you can stand in the wooden circle cut from the Ryman’s floor in 1974.
That moment on the stage, standing in the circle, is the centerpiece. It’s not a gimmick. The wood you’re standing on was the actual Ryman stage floor where Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash performed. A century of country music history is embedded in that circle. Even visitors who are not country music fans consistently report it as unexpectedly moving.
Daytime backstage tour tickets run approximately $32-46 for adults, with children 12 and under at a discounted rate of $12.63 when accompanied by a paid adult. Children under 3 are free. Tours sell out, particularly on weekends – book at opry.com, not through third-party resellers.
The Women of Country Tour
A separate tour option, the Women of Country Tour, runs daily at 9:15am and 4:15pm. It focuses specifically on female artists in Opry history and includes a complimentary mimosa and chocolate. Reviews for this version trend even more positive than the standard tour. It fills up faster.
The Post-Show Tour: Read This Before Booking
The post-show backstage tour, offered on single-show nights after 9pm performances, has a different reputation. Common complaints from TripAdvisor reviewers: long waiting periods after the show where guides use stalling tactics (trivia questions, “who came farthest?”), dressing rooms viewed only from behind velvet ropes rather than entered, rushed stage time, and a surprise $30 photo charge not disclosed upfront.
One reviewer summarized it: “Go for the show. Definitely skip the backstage tour.” Another was more specific: despite the “going backstage” label, it was moving from room to room seeing highlights from behind ropes. The post-show configuration means groups are large, logistics are rushed, and the experience suffers.
If you want to do both a show and the backstage experience, the better approach is to attend an evening show and do a separate daytime backstage tour before or during the same visit.
The Address and Logistics
The Grand Ole Opry House is at 2804 Opry Mills Drive, Nashville, TN 37214. This is approximately 20-25 minutes northeast of downtown Nashville, not walkable from downtown. Take an Uber or drive. Parking is available but can be difficult on show nights.
The Opry is not near the Ryman, the Country Music Hall of Fame, or Broadway. It’s in a suburban campus that includes Opry Mills shopping mall and the Gaylord Opryland Resort. Budget transit time accordingly.
Who Benefits Most
The daytime backstage tour is worth the money for anyone who has any connection to American music history, not just country fans. The story of the Opry – a radio experiment that became the central institution of a genre, housed in a church converted by a riverboat captain, displaced to a suburban theme park and still broadcasting weekly a century later – is interesting.
People who won’t get much from it: visitors with no interest in the context, anyone who would be frustrated by a 60-minute guided tour format, and anyone hoping to interact with performers (the daytime tour happens when no show is running, so no artists are present).
Sources
- opry.com/tours
- tripadvisor.com – Grand Ole Opry Back Stage Tour reviews (multiple)
- viator.com – Grand Ole Opry House Guided Backstage Tour (2025-2026)
- sometimeshome.com – Is the Grand Ole Opry Backstage Tour Worth It? (2023)
- getyourguide.com – Nashville Grand Ole Opry Backstage Tour (November 2025)