The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide - The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide 2025

Bourbon, Horses & History

2024-12-14 07:17:29

YORK STATUE ON THE LOUISVILLE BELVEDERE, LOUISVILLE

History, mystery, activity, artistry — find it all in this region through grown-up adventures and hometown ghost tales, full-on family-fun outings and a festival that casts a spell, artisan-made works of art and small, distinctive museums.

BERNHEIM ARBORETUM AND RESEARCH FOREST, CLERMONT

MAKER’S MARK® DISTILLERY, LORETTO

WHITNEY YOUNG BIRTHPLACE AND MUSEUM, SIMPSONVILLE

KENTUCKY COOPERAGE, LEBANON

ABRAHAM LINCOLN BIRTHPLACE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, HODGENVILLE

FLYWHEEL BREWING, ELIZABETHTOWN

ROUGH RIVER DAM STATE RESORT PARK, FALLS OF ROUGH

Explore three extraordinary collections, each presenting a different slice of American history.

FREEDOM PARK, LOUISVILLE

In Bardstown, meet Civil War spies, nurses and soldiers in disguise at the Women’s Museum of the Civil War — the country’s only museum of its kind. See highly detailed life-size dioramas depicting key moments in the 16th president’s life, from his Kentucky childhood to his assassination at Ford’s Theater, at Hodgenville’s Lincoln Museum. History is told through vintage automobiles, from a 1910 Brush Roadster — the “Everyman’s Car” — to the muscle cars of the 1960s, at Elizabethtown’s free-admission Swope’s Cars of Yesteryear.

WOODLAND FARM, GOSHEN

Flash around the world’s longest go-kart track on Shepherdsville’s Thunder Road at Kart Kountry, a family entertainment complex that also has bumper boats, batting cages, an arcade and miniature golf. Meade County’s Otter Creek Outdoor Recreation Area brings family fun with a new campground featuring RV, tent and cabin camping, plus hiking and fishing — spectacular Ohio River views on the side.

For adults only, Oldham County’s La Grange Quarry is a crystal-blue, spring-fed sanctuary with floating, canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding, sand volleyball, beaches for lazing and an island for exploring. My Old Kentucky Dome is made for grown-up, countryside glamping getaways in a new geodesic dome in Mt. Washington, with sunset views, a bubbling hot tub, Wi-Fi and more.

TAYLORSVILLE LAKE STATE PARK MARINA, TAYLORSVILLE

Poke around Hodgenville’s Art Gypsy Gallery & Artisan Marketplace with its artist-original watercolor paintings, stationery and high-quality handcrafted leather goods, like wallets, belts and handbags, and Zen atmosphere. Folklore, herbalism, native healing techniques and Kentucky spiritualism converge during October’s family-friendly Battletown Witch Festival in Brandenburg, celebrating the tragic life of “Kentucky’s oldest ghost.”

The best way to see Historic Old Louisville, the country’s grandest Victorian neighborhood? Join author David Dominé on a guided tour of its history, architecture, secrets, scandals, ghost stories and paranormal hotspots.

CHURCHILL DOWNS, LOUISVILLE

4 musts

Grab a Bite

The Whistle Stop, Glendale

Stop and Shop

The Outlet Shoppes of the Bluegrass, Simpsonville

Music, Moments, Magic

“The Stephen Foster Story,” My Old Kentucky Home State Park, Bardstown

Local Heritage & Culture

Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville

Regional Road Trips

HEAVEN HILL BOURBON EXPERIENCE, BARDSTOWN

1 Pontoon boating on Rough River Lake. Fishing for bluegill and channel catfish. Birding on Lake Ridge Nature Trail. Shopping for Kentucky handcrafts. Mini golf, swimming and bluegrass music. Lodging and dining with family and friends. Falls of Rough’s Rough River Dam State Resort Park spells v – a – c – a – t – i – o – n.

2 Where else would the World’s Largest Pocketknife be but in the Knife Capital of Kentucky? See the 6,200-pound Case XX Barlow Pocketknife perched at the entrance of Red Hill Cutlery’s showroom and Kentucky Museum of American Pocketknives in Radcliff.

SWOPE’S CARS OF YESTERYEAR MUSEUM, ELIZABETHTOWN

3 Choose among 15 hands-on farm tours in Oldham County, the Farm Tour Capital of Kentucky: Bottle-feed a baby calf, pet all kinds of horses, milk a cow, have dinner in a horse stall, learn about bison and nod along to live entertainment in the state’s largest beer garden.

4 Experience the wilds of Clermont at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum — a 16,000-acre naturescape filled with Forest Giants, towering trees, a 961-foot-tall historic fire tower, nature trails, edible and sensory gardens and a Canopy Tree Walk hovering 75 feet above the forest floor, among its many delights.

5 It’s full-on bourbon immersion at Bardstown’s Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience. Explore Bourbon 101 and Bottled In-Bond exhibits. Enjoy a guided bourbon tasting. Sip a craft cocktail and savor a bite at the new, upscale Five Brothers Bar & Kitchen — patio and lounge. Browse the gift shop for bourbon-inspired items.

6 Got horses? Bring your four-legged companions to Taylorsville Lake State Park and its 24 miles of forested trails and equestrian-friendly RV and tent campgrounds. The Mt. Eden park, in Spencer County, also offers boating, tubing, skiing and fishing on Taylorsville Lake, plus camping, biking, birding and orienteering.