The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide - The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide 2025
A Kid-Friendly Getaway to Kentucky
2024-12-14 10:21:43
Ancient history comes to life at Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site in Wickliffe. Spot woodland birds on the Woods Walk Trail. See mounds built by Indigenous Peoples and unearthed artifacts.
Study Native American history and birds of Kentucky at Laurel Gorge Cultural Heritage Center in Sandy Hook, where families can also practice the dulcimer, make crafts, learn to make quilts or head outdoors to hike nature trails and kayak Laurel Creek to Grayson Lake.
In Danville, see where Kentucky statehood was born at Constitution Square Historic Site, an outdoor living history museum. Hone painting or drawing skills at the Art Center of the Bluegrass and drop by Plaid Elephant Books for a themed storytime.
Learn how a future leader grew up, following a presidential path from Hodgenville’s Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park to Lincoln’s Boyhood Home at Knob Creek to the life-size historic-moment dioramas at Lincoln Museum near Hodgenville Square, bookended with Lincoln Statues.
Stay immersed in American history with a visit to 18th- and 19th-century Kentucky in Richmond, where frontier, Civil War, emancipation and political history converge at Fort Boonesborough State Park, White Hall State Historic Site and the Battle of Richmond Visitor Center, site of Kentucky’s second-largest Civil War battle.
Get schooled in the state’s coal mining past. In Harlan County, breakfast at Moonbow Tipple Coffee & Sweets, then rail car through Kentucky’s only underground mine tour at former working mine, Portal 31. Near Stearns in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, pack a coal miner’s lunch on the Big South Fork Scenic Railway. Visit the circa 1902 Barthell Coal Camp and abandoned Mine 18 in the Blue Heron Mining Community.
Kentucky museums are packed with familyfriendly adventures in learning, like the creative, immersive and interactive play spaces and exhibits at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History, the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Western Kentucky Botanical Gardens — all in Owensboro.
Trains, as well as planes and an underground boat, share the story of Bowling Green’s transportation history. Explore the Historic RailPark and Train Museum and the Aviation Heritage Park and Museum, then board Kentucky’s only underground cave boat tour at Lost River Cave.
Get interactive with one-of-a-kind experiences at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, Kentucky Science Center, Frazier History Museum, Muhammad Ali Center and the Roots 101 African American Museum — all within one walkable Louisville mile.
In Frankfort, set junior explorers loose to climb Fort Hill in Leslie Morris Park to see the earthworks forts. Tour the Kentucky State Capitol and grounds, the Governor’s Mansion and the Old State Capitol before returning to prehistoric times with a journey through the exhibits at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History.
In Kentucky’s Red River Gorge area, an outdoor classroom awaits with sites like Estill County’s Fitchburg Furnace — the world’s largest — and Three Forks Historical Center and its hodgepodge of relics sparking curiosity. And did we mention Bigfoot? Clay City Inn, home of the Kentucky Bigfoot Research Organization, offers Bigfoot Hunts.
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