Start from 20 curated places around Clarksville, TN, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Blackhorse Pub & Brewery
One of Clarksville's most enduring institutions, a proper English-style pub on Franklin Street brewing its own beer on-site since 1992. The fried green tomatoes, Blackhorse pizza, and beer cheese have loyal followings built over decades, and the room feels genuinely settled rather than recently constructed. The veteran-owned operation has become the social anchor of downtown Franklin Street and the first recommendation of essentially every long-term Clarksville resident.
Strawberry Alley Ale Works
A craft brewery and kitchen in a restored historic building just off Franklin Street, combining serious seasonal house brews with Southern-leaning pub food. The chicken and waffles and fish and chips are the kitchen's strongest suits, and the rotating beer list favors locally-inspired names alongside well-executed standard styles. The space has the energy of a downtown brewery that's become a genuine gathering spot for the younger Clarksville crowd.
Trails & outdoors
Dunbar Cave Recovery Loop
A 2.2-mile moderate loop at Dunbar Cave State Natural Area — the best hiking in the immediate Clarksville area, passing through mature hardwood forest and along the limestone ridge that shelters one of the region's most significant cave systems. The cave itself (accessible by ranger-led tour only) was used as a dance hall in the 1930s and shelters rare bat species under ongoing recovery programs. The loop combines varied terrain with genuine natural history.
Clarksville Greenway (Mary's Oak Trailhead)
A paved, nine-mile multi-use trail built on a converted rail corridor, giving walkers, runners, and cyclists a flat, shaded route through residential Clarksville that connects multiple neighborhoods and parks. The Mary's Oak Trailhead is the best starting point for the central section, and the trail's tree canopy makes it significantly more pleasant than the surrounding urban context in summer. Multiple access points allow out-and-back trips of any length.
Things to do
Historic Downtown Franklin Street
The walkable core of Clarksville's revitalized downtown, where a concentrated block of independently-owned restaurants, breweries, galleries, and shops have created genuine foot traffic and a recognizable scene. Blackhorse, Strawberry Alley, Yada, and a cluster of smaller bars and music venues sit within a few blocks of each other. First Thursdays bring gallery openings and extended retail hours that draw the broadest cross-section of the city.
Customs House Museum & Cultural Center Events
Beyond its permanent collection, the Customs House Museum runs a year-round calendar of public events including First Thursday evening receptions, educational programs, community lectures, and the annual Rivers & Spires Festival that takes over downtown. The museum's events calendar makes it the cultural programming hub for the city — not just a static attraction but an active community institution.
Landmarks & sights
Customs House Museum and Cultural Center
Tennessee's second-largest general museum in a stunning Romanesque Revival building originally constructed as Clarksville's federal customs house and post office. The 35,000 square feet of exhibit space cover local and regional history, rotating art exhibitions, and hands-on areas for families — enough to fill a full afternoon. The building itself is one of the best pieces of civic architecture in the state, and the exhibits are substantive rather than superficial.
Fort Defiance Civil War Park & Interpretive Center
A park and interpretive center on a dramatic bluff above the confluence of the Cumberland and Red Rivers, where the earthwork remains of a Civil War fortification anchor a one-mile riverside trail. The view from the bluff — downstream to downtown Clarksville and across the river bend — is one of the best in Middle Tennessee. The interpretive center handles the complex history of the site, which changed hands between Union and Confederate forces, with unusual honesty.