The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide - The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide 2023
Bourbon, Horses & History
2022-12-22 09:57:10
The president who shepherded the country through the Civil War. A boxer and humanitarian who left his imprint on Civil Rights history. A century apart, their stories intertwine at Hodgenville’s Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park, on the Lincoln Heritage Trail and at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali Center on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.
World-famous setting for the greatest two minutes in sports. Iconic symbol of Kentucky’s homeplace. “We sing one song” – it opens the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs and rings out at the 19th-century mansion Federal Hill, better known as My Old Kentucky Home, containing one of the country’s most complete collections of any historic plantation museum.
Let’s talk bourbon. In Louisville, it’s Whiskey Row, the Urban Bourbon Trail and Frazier History Museum. In Bardstown and the surrounding area, aka “Bourbon Capital of the World,” it’s nearly a dozen distilleries, including Heaven Hill, Log Still and Willett.
Get your gait on with a tour of Simpsonville’s Kismet Farm, home to American Saddlebreds. Get your tölt on at Léttleiki Icelandics, Shelbyville’s historic farm breeding the pony-sized Icelandic horse.
Want a complete picture of Kentucky in one frame? Goshen’s Hermitage Farm is a working thoroughbred horse operation that includes Barn8 farm-to-table restaurant and bourbon bar, gracious accommodations and a botanical garden.
Which trail will you take at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest? “Meditation,” “Edible Garden” or “Forest Giants” – the trail that leads to the genial goliaths Mama Loumari, Little Elina and Little Nis?
It’s more straightforward on the Marion County Trail, where you’ll go directly to Maker’s Mark, Limestone Branch Distillery and Kentucky Cooperage.
REGIONAL ART HIGHLIGHTS
Follow the Marion County Quilt Trail from barn to building on this segment of the Kentucky/Ohio/ Tennessee “Clothesline of Quilts Trail” into Gravel Switch, Loretto and other rural and colorful communities. Each quilt square conveys the traditions and connections of home.
Amble along a 1-mile loop of downtown Shelbyville’s Sculpture Walk to see stainless steel flowers, Butterfly Bench, Wind Horse (representing the Saddlebred) and a picture frame that invites you to become part of the art.
Louisville artist Ed Hamilton puts the icing on the cake – or in this case, view – with his sculpture of an amiable, seated President Lincoln. Adding folk art fun are 28 metal birds comprising “Flock of Finns,” plus other dynamic Louisville Waterfront Park sculptures.
In early October, a juried fine arts show featuring 600 artists sets up in the midst of the country’s largest collection of Victorian homes in the long-running St. James Court Art Show in the heart of historic Old Louisville.
REGIONAL ITINERARY
DAY 1
1 Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, Crestwood
Slip into the Secret Garden to smell hellebores, hostas and other shade plants. Explore plants from the Himalayan Mountains in the Sunken Rock Garden. Be enchanted by a stone castle built by hand. It’s all right here, at one of the nation’s top destination gardens.
2 Whiskey Row, Louisville
Inside a beautifully preserved lineup of Revivalist and Chicago School-style buildings, many with cast-iron storefronts, are half a dozen bourbon distilleries at Ground Zero in Bourbon City. Take a tour. Taste the spirits.
3 The Outlet Shoppes of the Bluegrass, Simpsonville
You know the names: Tory Burch. Kate Spade. Ann Taylor. Michael Kors. Explore some 90 coveted designer outlets offering big discounts in a setting with a welcoming vibe, food court, fountains and a fireplace.
DAY 2
4 Bullitt County Wine, Whiskey & Ale Trail, Bullitt County
Four award-winning wineries, two renowned bourbon distilleries and one brewery – the first brewery in Bullitt County, in fact – make up this fascinating trail.
5 Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History, Bardstown
In the beginning, there was bourbon. This bourbon tell-all digs into the juicy details: Prohibition-era “prescriptions,” Abraham Lincoln’s tavern license, hatchet-swinging temperance warrior Carry Nation and much more. The 5,000-piece collection even includes an authentic moonshine still captured in the hills of Kentucky.
6 My Old Kentucky Dinner Train, Bardstown
Lunch, dinner and themed excursions trundle through Bernheim Forest on 32-mile excursions aboard period restored vintage trains. The dining is fine (seasonally inspired menus), the views are spectacular and the experience is pure nostalgic fun.
TRAVEL INFORMATION
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 877-576-6451, 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
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