Tim and I stayed here on our most recent visit to Louisville and we had a very nice experience here. Distillery Trail is the place to start your distillery tour experience. Plus, there is more to see and do in this part of Kentucky, with scenic drives, great towns to visit, and restaurants to try. This day includes three must-visit distilleries on Whiskey Row with suggestions for Louisvilles best eats. Dinner: Proof on Main. If you are only planning a quick visit to Kentucky (3 to 4 days tops), I recommend choosing one place and making this your home base. All other times of year, making reservations is advised but might not be absolutely necessary. They offer a comprehensive tour of their facility, including a look into how their bourbon is bottled. They offer both tours and tastings individually, so if you'd rather skip seeing the still and warehouse, you can just sample their wares-- try the sweet and spicy Wild Turkey Honey Stinger! Tonight, sleep in Louisville, Bardstown, or Lexington. Id rather not print the article because of all of the adds. Take your pick from day #4 (the Best of Bardstown), day #5 (Makers Mark and the Kentucky Cooperage), or day #6 (Woodford Reserve, Wild Turkey, Four Roses, and maybe Wilderness Trail). As you drive back to Louisville, you have the option to stop at the Lincoln Boyhood Home and National Museum and/or Santa Claus, Indiana. Summer and autumn are busy months to visit the Bourbon Trail, so I also recommend booking your tours in advance at these times, even on weekdays. And for full details on Bluebird Cafe, read our article How to Visit Bluebird Cafe. It is possible to print maps by choosing the print option in your printer menu. The best time of year for a road trip down the Bourbon Trail: Summer is high season along the trail, so you'll have more crowds to contend with, and hotels will be slightly more expensive. 113 Great Buffalo Trace, Frankfort, KY, US. Seeing as this is the only "bourbon tour" in Louisville proper, it's worth the stop. A visit to Buffalo Trace is definitely worthwhile when you are in the area, even if it is not officially on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. For most people, a combination of tours and tastings is the perfect way to sample the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. This inn has been welcoming guests since 1779. Both times we visited the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, it was the weekend before Thanksgiving. From Bardstown it is a 45 minute drive. The best time of year for a road trip down the Bourbon Trail: Summer is high season along the trail, so you'll have more crowds to contend with, and hotels will be slightly more expensive. The blue markers are restaurant recommendations, Buffalo Trace Distillery, and other notable experiences to add into your Kentucky Bourbon Trail itinerary. Julie Last updated: December 16, 2022 United States 32 Comments. I am not sure. Since it is located off of the Bourbon Trail and does not have the actual log cabin that Abraham Lincoln was born in, this is only worth it if you have an interest in American history or Abraham Lincoln. Many offer tours and a few are very near to the popular distilleries! Bourbon Capital BBQ Challenge. Follow day #4 and #5, sleeping in either Bardstown or Louisville. These are the rickhouses at Heaven Hill. This was our all-around best tour experience. For more ideas of what to do in Louisville, read our article about the best things to do in Louisville. Renting a car gives you the most freedom to explore, but it's not necessary. Louisville, Bardstown, and Lexington make a great home base for this day (and day number 7 below). All of the distilleries are listed inside, with space for your own notes and a stamp from each distillery. The tour takes you through the entire distilling process from start to finish, so you'll get to see the still, the warehouse, and the bottling process. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour is organized into four regionsplease toggle through the drop down menu for official groupings. They have a good beer selection, excellent pulled pork, tasty baked beans and a variety of BBQ sauces. Generally, the default size of the map can be 8.5 By 11 inches. Be sure to click the map to visit www.kybourbontrail.com to plan your trips and get detailed directions to all of the distilleries along the Bourbon Trail! Explore the Kentucky Bourbon Trail experiences and find what youre looking for in our map below. Enjoy like a true Kentuckian: Responsibly. For more restaurant recommendations, check out our article Best Eats in Louisville. It is said to be the oldest western stagecoach stop in America and to be visited by Jesse James ghost. Make sure you check the hours of the distilleries you want to visit before your trip. This grain mixture is referred to as the mash bill. Spring is a nice time to visit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Just look for the giant, golden David statue out front and you know that you are in the right place. The 6 Best Distilleries to Visit in Lexington, Kentucky, Your Trip to Lexington: The Complete Guide, The Top 13 Things to Do in Lexington, Kentucky, The Best Day Trips From Lexington, Kentucky, The Spirits Industry Is Broken, But a Sustainable Revolution Is Coming, 12 Best Things to Do for Free in Louisville, Kentucky, The 11 Best Things to Do in Galena, Illinois, The Kentucky Horse Park: A Complete Guide. The blue markers are restaurant recommendations, Buffalo Trace Distillery, and other notable experiences to add into your Kentucky Bourbon Trail itinerary. It smells so good in here!! This was our favorite tour for several reasons. Touring the distilleries, learning about the origins of bourbon, and tasting lots and lots of bourbon whiskey is an excellent way to spend a long weekend. Cheers, Julie. It smells wonderful and it kind of made me hungry! On the third day, watch the horse races at Churchill Downs. As one of the largest sellers of bourbon in the world, their tour seems to reflect that in having one of the more interactive tours. There are tours and special events at both facilities year round. At the end of this article, we list specific hotel and B&B recommendations for Louisville, Bardstown, and Lexington. During the aging process, a small percentage of the bourbon evaporates per year, what is referred to as the angels share. If you want to take home this aroma, many gift shops sell bourbon-scented candles. Just spent two nights in Bardstown and took the cocktail class which was awesome. We were thinking of going the week before Memorial Day weekend and staying through the weekend. In addition, for a fee we can also make the maps in specialized file formats. Kentucky Bourbon Trail in 1 Day: Follow day #1, where you get a great overview of the distilling process and get to visit three distilleries in Louisville. Children under 21 are welcome on tours, for free or at a discounted cost (and no sampling whiskey for them, of course). How can I safe it to find once again? Our website uses cookies. For the most part, the distilleries are located in and around Louisville, Lexington, and Bardstown. A 24" x 18" layout will fold more efficiently than the 22" x 20" layout for example. Sundays, Mondays, and holidays are the most common days to have limited or no hours. Louisville is the most logical choice, with its relatively central location, abundance of hotels and restaurants, and easy access to the airport. For dinner, opt for classic and refined, or hip and casual. You can also inquire for a quote with our team of cartographers. For more information on these tours and experience, read our article about the distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Santa Claus is a small town filled with Christmas-themed hotels, shops, restaurants, and even an amusement park. This budget hotel gets good reviews and is conveniently located in Bardstown. The tour gives a fabulous insight to the making of bourbon, the property is gorgeous, the history behind Makers Mark is intriguing, and the bourbon is delicious. And we highly recommend lunch at the Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown. Chuckanut Bay Distillery. Bourbon has a wonderful aroma and the rickhouse is the best place tosmell it. We both acquired a taste for bourbon on our long weekend in Kentucky. There are many more distilleries you can visit in Kentucky that are not part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. These last one to two hours and cost more than your typical tour, but you get a hands-on lesson on how to mix a craft cocktail. But there is more to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail than just distillery tours and bourbon tastings. Bourbon is distilled year-round, with the exception of a few weeks during the summer, when some distilleries shut down for routine cleaning and maintenance. One of these is the very famous Buffalo Trace Distillery (which we include on this itinerary). Enjoy the nightlife in Louisville, drive through scenic bluegrass Kentucky, watch a horse race at Churchill Downs, visit the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, or spend the night in a historic tavern. It is a very fun thing to do and it was one of our highlights on our first trip to Kentucky. On this tour you visit micro-distilleries, tour historic sights andtowns in Kentucky, and stay in historic bed and breakfast accommodations. And many distilleries offer longer, behind the scenes tours for a more detailed look at the distilling process. Rather than paying the fee to join the Kentucky Distillers Association, they prefer to offer free tours and tastings to their visitors. Use it to customize your trail experience. This is Louisvilles landmark hotel. If you only have one day on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, the combination of these three tours hits the most important steps in the distilling process. Angels Envy puts a twist on whiskey distilling. Over in Lebanon, hit up the Limestone Branch Distillery, which seeks to make everything as authentic as possible, and as a family-owned and operated craft distillery, their local heritage goes back a few generations. Do you have to be a bourbon drinker to have a good time on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail? The Old Nelson County Jail housed prisoners from 1797 until 1987. During this time, most tours will be full and many will sell out in advance. Races do not run year-round. All content and photography shall not be reproduced without written permission from the Kentucky Distillers Association. You can also spend a few days in Nashville or visit nearby New River Gorge National Park. Learn how to create your own. It's one of the biggest in Bardstown, which is certainly worth seeing. Theres something here for everyone. Their first bottled bourbon dates back to 1870. You will also notice that on some days I have included more than just distillery tours. In order to save paper, set all the borders to 0.3. We opted to take the 30 minute Unlocking the Senses tasting, where we sampled four Bulleit whiskeys. Is May a good month to do the Bourbon Trail? One of our favorite parts of the tour was a visit to the rickhouse. The repurposed stone castle and the rest of the historical property are breathtaking, and the distillerys chic branding (with plenty of merchandise to take home from the gift shop) adds to the overall charm of the location. The barrel making process is a key element in bourbon distilling, and this is the best place to learn all about it, since many distilleries get their barrels here. Renting a car was cheap, driving between the distilleries was easy (and gorgeous), and we could make our own schedule. ), in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited. There are some other very cool things to do in this part of Kentucky and I didnt want to leave those out. Creating a snapshot image is easy since all dimensions are measured in pixels. For lunch, dine at Star Hill Provisions at Makers Mark or Ragettis Italian Food in Lebanon. Sleep in Louisville. A memorial now stands at his birthplace. We saw their vans everywhere! Kentucky's Bourbon Trail now consists of 18 whiskey distilleries. Bourbon Country Map Use this interactive map of Kentucky to plan your visit by finding nearby attractions, hotels, shopping, and restaurants. You'll avoid most crowds, enjoy off-season hotel prices, and the scenery along Kentucky's rural roads is unsurpassed in autumn. Located just outside of Lexington, stay in a suite or one-bedroom apartment, perfect if you like having extra space or a kitchenette. It's a great destination on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour, which focuses on smaller and more inventive distillers. Kentucky Bourbon is perfectly aged. Partners & Sponsors The KY Bourbon Trail Here are some more resources to aide you in making your way to the places that make Kentucky's world-renowned bourbon. How you do it is completely up to you. Take a Tour of Makers Mark. We visited both but prefer the American Stillhouse. We chose the self-driving option. There is even an art museum located inside of the hotel. Cheers, Julie. Located in Bardstown, the Old Talbott Tavern dates back to the 1700s. Even if there is a sober one among the group, it can be a good idea to arrange a local driver for navigating the winding country roads. If you want to do some non-Bourbon activities while road tripping around Kentucky, here are some ideas for you. This distillery is so new that their bourbon is still aging, although they do have other liquor you can sample when you visit, like rum aged in old bourbon bottles and unfiltered vodka. The final distillery is back up near Louisville: The Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Experience. Why not? On Google Chrome, go to Bookmarks -> Bookmark This Tab and then this post will be saved in your bookmarks. In no particular order, the three distilleries to visit in Bardstown are Lux Row, Bardstown Bourbon, and Heaven Hill. They must be designed to work with a standard printing press. Hours vary by day of the week, with more tour times on Fridays and Saturdays. Its centrally located, so you can walk to many of the sights and distilleries on Whiskey Row. If you have concerns then consider alternating driving/tastings with another person in your party, have a designated driver, or take a tour. Visiting the winding trail of bourbon distilleries here (now officially called the Kentucky Bourbon Trail) has become a main draw to the area, and a whole tourism industry itself. Note: This post contains affiliate links. The worst time to visit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, according to the guides that we spoke to, is during the summer months. On our most recent tour in November 2019, we booked all of our tours in advance but only one of them was sold out (the Inside the Barrel Tour at Angels Envy). However, there is a lot more to do in this part of Kentucky than just tour bourbon distilleries. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. It has a relatively central location, so its easy to get to Bardstown, Lexington, and even Owensboro. This is one of our favorite restaurants in Louisville.
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