Louisville
Whether you’re looking for a weekend getaway or a week long trip, I highly recommend the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. My Dad is a huge bourbon fan and for his birthday we all headed to Kentucky to do the Bourbon Trail and it did not disappoint. I learned so much about the bourbon industry and the distilling process. Plus, you get to taste a lot of bourbon! A couple years ago my dad purchased a Barrel at Makers Mark, and this year he was able to open that barrel and get some bottles out of that barrel.
There are 18 distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. We were there for 3 days and did two distilleries each day, which was perfect. We weren’t rushed and got to really enjoy each distillery. We did do tastings at each location and did the tours. The tours are pretty incredible and completely different for each distillery. Bulliet’s distillery is very high tech, computers and technology run everything, where Makers Mark is very old school.
On the tours you hear about the history of bourbon, how the distilleries came about and some of the unique qualities that make that specific bourbon. Bourbon is make with specific ingredients and the aging process is similar, so you will quickly pick up on the basic knowledge of bourbon.
A few things to know when you’re planning your trip:
Purchase your tours a head of time. This allows you to plan our your schedule and know you have a spot on a tour because some will be sold out.
We chose to drive our selves instead of paying for a tour bus . This allowed us a little more flexibility if we wanted to hangout at the distilleries after the tour and where and when to grab food along the tour. You don’t get drunk during the tastings, as they are a couple small sips of bourbon so driving isn’t dangerous.
We decided to do 2 distilleries per day and it worked out perfectly. We didn’t feel rushed or overwhelmed trying to make the next stop and had plenty of time to enjoy each distillery on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and the drive along the way.
We stayed in Louisville at the Omni Hotel, right around the corner from Fourth Street Live! Fourth Street Live is in downtown Louisville, marked by a giant guitar that is filled with restaurants and bars. At night you can find live music, corn hole boards, bull riding, and crowds of people. The night we went in we got to see Michael Ray perform live! I would love to see this place during the Kentucky Derby. Guess I will have to add it to my bucket list.
We did stop by Churchill downs but didnt do the tour. We just walked around the building and visited the gift shop and museum.
Bottom line is, book your trip now. Maybe even a girls trip!
