2023-12-29 09:36:17
Where else would a four-day, full-on bourbon extravaganza, the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, take place but in Bardstown, the Bourbon Capital of the World®? This bourbon hub is home to the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience, where You Do Bourbon offers a one-of-a-kind tasting and bottling experience, among other curated tastings. Bardstown is also where the independently family-owned and operated Willett Distillery invites visitors into their family history and whiskey-making process.
Neighboring Gethsemane properties, Log Still Distillery and Dant Crossing, have the bourbon afficionado covered with distillery tours, live music, lakeview walking paths, elevated cocktail and culinary experiences and bed and breakfast accommodations.
The name says it all: Shepherdsville/Bullitt County Wine, Whiskey & Ale Trail. Pace yourself for a spirited and sensory-rich journey to seven stops within nine miles of each other.
Need some nibbles? Head to Lebanon for Marion County Country Ham Days in September and 4,000 pounds of country ham plated during its famous Country Ham Breakfast. Some cheese for your ham? Get it on a Foodie Farm Tour, one of more than a dozen interactive farm tours — horse, sheep, garden, farm-to-table — in Oldham County, Farm Tour Capital of Kentucky.
Filled with the largest collection of Patton artifacts in the world, the General George Patton Museum in Fort Knox honors one of America’s most successful and unconventional military leaders. While you’re here, make sure to tour the WWII Barracks Exhibit.
Rent a pontoon boat for a day of boating and fishing on Taylorsville Lake in Taylorsville. Saddle up at Simpsonville’s Shelby Trails Park for an adventure on your horse, guided horseback ride or riding lessons.
Drop the reins and pick up a free mini baseball bat as you follow the timber from forest to field at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory. Pair this museum with nearby major attractions, including the Muhammad Ali Center, Frazier History Museum and the Bourbon District for a well-rounded Louisville experience. Top it off with a music, sunset or dinner cruise aboard the iconic Belle of Louisville, America’s only remaining authentic steamboat from the riverboat era, celebrating her 110th birthday in 2024.
On the Waterfront
Riverfront turkey hunting, trout fishing and horseback riding? Yes, please! These activities, plus hiking, mountain biking, an archery range, disc golf and a launch ramp for canoes, kayaks and small boats draw campers and other outdoor enthusiasts to Meade County’s scenic Otter Creek Outdoor Recreation Area.
One Size Fits All
Elizabethtown’s Freeman Lake Park is the perfectsize day trip: 170 acres of lake with accessible kayak dock for fishing and paddling, whiling away the hours on the 18-hole disc golf course or sports courts (tennis, pickleball, sand volleyball), munching a picnic, ambling along walking trails and poking about historic cabins.
Old-Fashioned Fun
Begin at Frazier History Museum. End up in total bourbon immersion in “Bourbon City,” home of 10-plus distilleries — many of which are downtown and within walking distance of each other — and the Urban Bourbon Trail®, a cocktail and culinary experience reveling in Louisville’s bourbon bars, restaurants and official cocktail, the Old Fashioned.
Milk a Cow
Make cornmeal. Harvest garlic. Pet a thoroughbred racehorse. Choose from 15 interactive farm tours (April-November) in Oldham County, the Farm Tour Capital of Kentucky. Farm tours include activities as diverse as experiencing a bourbon distillery as if you were a distiller yourself at the Kentucky Artisan Distillery and strolling the gardens and greenhouse at Hermitage Farm before enjoying a farm-fresh lunch.
Bring a Bigger Bag
Find all the labels you love at Simpsonville’s Outlet Shoppes of the Bluegrass (aka shopping nirvana) — and at a discount: Tory Burch, Vineyard Vines, Hey Dude, Le Creuset, Fossil. Over 80 designer shops crowd this charming open-air lifestyle center, along with a variety of restaurants.
Fresh and Flavorful
At Maker’s Mark Distillery’s Star Hill Provisions, nosh on farm-to-table dishes made with produce and herbs grown in the garden and sourced locally from nearby farmers, with menus changing based on what’s fresh. Pair with the signature drink, the Gold Rush, made with honey from the distillery’s apiary.
Bardstown/Nelson County: 502-348-4877, visitbardstown.com
Breckinridge County: 270-756-0268, breckinridgecountychamber.com
Elizabethtown: 270-765-2175, touretown.com
Grayson County: 270-259-5587, visitgrayson.com
Henry County: 502-845-9206, henrykychamber.com
Hodgenville/LaRue County: 270-358-3163, lincolnmuseum-ky.org
La Grange: 502-558-3904, visitlagrangeky.com
Lebanon: 270-692-0021, visitlebanonky.com
Leitchfield: 270-259-5587, visitleitchfield.com
Louisville: 888-568-4784, gotolouisville.com
Meade County: 270-422-3626, visitmeadecounty.org
Oldham County: 502-222-0056, touroldham.com
Radcliff/Fort Knox: 800-334-7540, radclifftourism.org
Shelbyville/Simpsonville/Shelby County: 502-633-6388, visitshelbyky.com
Shepherdsville/Bullitt County: 502-543-8656, travelbullitt.org
Springfield: 859-336-5412 ext. 6, springfieldkytourism.com
Taylorsville/Spencer County: 502-902-7039, visittaylorsville.com
Plan your regional road trip!
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