Concert Trip Planning: Live Music Travel Guides for Venues, Cities & Festivals
LiveMusicGetaways.com is a music travel planning guide written by fans, for fans. We research the neighborhoods, hotels, transport options, and show-day details for the US’s most iconic concert venues, so you can stop winging it after you buy the ticket. We cover Red Rocks, the Ryman Auditorium, Madison Square Garden, Hollywood Bowl, and more. New venues and cities added regularly. Bookmark us and check back.
Discover. Plan. Experience.
Most music travel guides tell you where to go. LiveMusicGetaways focuses on how to actually get there, where to sleep near the venue, and how to make the whole trip work around the show. That means specific neighborhoods, not just city names. Real transport options, not just venue addresses. This includes what actually works after the show ends and the crowds hit the exits. Every guide on this site was put together by fans who made the trip.
Place to Stay & Plan Your Trip
Tell us your show and we’ll point you to the best neighbourhoods, transport tips, and insider advice for every venue we cover, from Red Rocks to Madison Square Garden.
Explore Legendary Venues & Festival Grounds
Each venue guide on LiveMusicGetaways.com covers the best neighborhoods to stay nearby, transport and parking options, and what to expect on show day. Red Rocks Amphitheatre sits 6,450 feet above sea level in Morrison, Colorado, 15 miles west of Denver. The Ryman Auditorium is a 130-year-old former church in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The Hollywood Bowl has hosted outdoor concerts since 1922 in the hills above Los Angeles. The Gorge Amphitheatre offers one of the most dramatic settings in live music: a natural canyon above the Columbia River in George, Washington. These are the details that make the difference between a good trip and a great one.
Explore Top US Music Cities
Every music city on LiveMusicGetaways.com has its own personality, and that’s half the fun of planning the trip. Nashville’s Broadway strip runs live music seven nights a week. Austin has more live music per capita than any city in the US. New Orleans is the only city in America where brass bands march down the streets spontaneously. We cover nine cities: Nashville, Austin, New Orleans, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, Colorado (Red Rocks area), and Seattle. Each has guides on where to stay near the venues, what the scene is really like, and how to make the most of the days around your show.
Music Concert Travel Tips
The difference between a good concert trip and a stressful one usually comes down to a few decisions made before you leave. Where you stay relative to the venue matters more than most people think. The wrong neighborhood means expensive late-night Ubers or missing the last train. Getting there and back matters even more, and our travel tips section covers the practical stuff the official venue websites won’t tell you: which neighborhoods are actually close, which transport options work after the show ends, what to pack for an outdoor festival at altitude (Red Rocks drops 20°F after sunset), and where to eat when every restaurant near the venue has a two-hour wait. Read our music travel tips before your next concert trip.
- Accommodation Recommendations – From luxury hotels steps away from the venue to budget friendly options within easy commuting distance
- Food & Drink – Best preshow dinner spots, late night eateries for after the encore, and iconic music themed bars and restaurants
- Local Experiences – Music history tours, record stores, instrument museums, and other attractions to enhance your musical journey
- Transportation Tips – Getting to and from venues, parking information, and public transit options
- Festival Survival Guides – Everything you need to know about multiday events, camping options, and packing essentials
Looking for podcasts, YouTube channels, subreddits, and websites that music travelers actually use? We’ve rounded them all up in our Music Traveler’s Toolkit.
Top US Music Events & Concerts 2026
Some years have a show you just know you have to be at, the kind where you buy the ticket before you figure out the logistics. Our Top Music Events guide for 2026 covers the biggest concerts and festivals in the US this year, from Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park to Red Rocks summer season to Jazz Fest in New Orleans. Pick your event and we’ll walk you through everything else: best neighborhoods to stay, how to get there, and what to do with the days around it.
FAQs
It started because we kept making the same mistakes on music trips. Booking a hotel in the wrong part of town, not knowing the parking situation until the night of the show, missing great local spots because we hadn’t done the research. The site is basically everything we wish we’d known before each trip, written up properly so other fans don’t have to figure it out the hard way.
Honestly, it comes down to what you’re into. New Orleans is unlike anywhere else on earth if you love jazz and brass bands. Austin has so much live music happening on any given Tuesday night that the big ticketed shows almost feel secondary. Nashville’s Broadway strip is loud and touristy but genuinely fun. Chicago, Memphis, New York: they all have something real going on. We cover all of them and try to be honest about what each one actually feels like.
Most people get this backwards. They book a hotel they like the look of and then worry about getting to the venue later. Start with the venue instead. Figure out which neighborhoods are actually close, check what the transport situation is like, then find your accommodation. It sounds obvious but it saves a lot of stress on show night.
Some venues you absolutely need one, others you’d be mad to drive to. It genuinely varies that much. A few are right in the city center and rideshares work fine. Others are out of town with limited options after the show ends. We cover this specifically in each venue guide because it’s one of those things that catches people out.
We currently cover Red Rocks Amphitheatre (Morrison, CO), Ryman Auditorium (Nashville, TN), Moody Center (Austin, TX), Madison Square Garden (New York, NY), Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles, CA), Preservation Hall (New Orleans, LA), The Gorge Amphitheatre (George, WA), Thalia Hall (Chicago, IL), and Grant Park / Lollapalooza grounds (Chicago, IL). Each venue has a full guide covering where to stay nearby, how to get there, parking options, and what to do before and after the show.