These include Willett, Pogue, Boone County, Neeley Family Distillery, Kentucky Peerless, Kentucky Artisan and many others. Cheers, Julie, We are thinking about making this trip in an RV in early November.. are there nice places to stay and how does the pandemic affect things, Hello Jan. As far as to where to stay with your RV, I am not sure, since we had a car and stayed in hotels. Note: Due to COVID-19, distillery tours may be cancelled or offered on a reduced schedule. Take the history and the gorgeous natural settings, and add delicious, often entertaining whiskey tours and tastings, and you'll see why traveling along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail is such a special experience. Morning: Makers Mark. It's no secret that all American states can legally produce bourbon, but Kentucky is the spirit's undisputed . We are wine drinkers. Just look for the giant, golden David statue out front and you know that you are in the right place. In 2019, it was much busier and had we not scheduled everything in advance, we would have missed out on a lot of tours. Surprisingly, it is not part of the official Kentucky Bourbon Trail. 3125 US-231 North, Shelbyville, Tennessee 37160 Featured Old Dominick Distillery Tennessee | Tennessee Whiskey Trail, Hand Sanitizer | Bourbon, Gin, Vodka, Tennessee Whiskey 305 S Front Street, Memphis, Tennessee 38103 B.R. Due to vivid -19? At the end of this article, we list specific hotel and B&B recommendations for Louisville, Bardstown, and Lexington. Renting a car was cheap, driving between the distilleries was easy (and gorgeous), and we could make our own schedule. Some of them include the distance to view and the subject. All three of these cities have great hotel and restaurant options with easy access to the Bourbon Trail. If this is part of a bigger road trip through the USA, visit our United States Travel Guide for more inspiration and travel planning tips. You take a tour, learn about the art and science behind the distilling of bourbon, and end with a tasting. The usual 150-page guide will include maps of the trail, itineraries and cocktail recipes, advice, tasting notes and information on the 19 participating distilleries. There are eighteen distilleries on the official Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Over in Lebanon, hit up the Limestone Branch Distillery, which seeks to make everything as authentic as possible, and as a family-owned and operated craft distillery, their local heritage goes back a few generations. Any advice you have on this front would be greatly appreciated, since Ive heard mixed answers. Most tours cost $10 to $15 (including tastings), and are open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. All of these distilleries offer tours and tastings. The barrel making process is a key element in bourbon distilling, and this is the best place to learn all about it, since many distilleries get their barrels here. A Few Facts about the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. It's located next to a field full of giant rickhouses, which is what the building where barrels of bourbon age are called. If you want a hotel with an awesome location and one that gets great reviews, the Homewood Suites is one to consider. The typical size is Letter to North America and DIN A4 for the rest of the world. This hotels onsite restaurant, Proof on Main, is one of Louisvilles best restaurants and bars. Yes! Twenty minutes northwest of Woodford Reserve, youll find Buffalo Trace Distillery; 25 minutes southwest is Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, home to the Four Roses and Wild Turkey distilleries. Printable Bourbon Trail Map - We offer flattened and free TIFF file formats of our maps in CMYK color and high resolution. Spring is a nice time to visit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The tour takes you through the entire distilling process from start to finish, so you'll get to see the still, the warehouse, and the bottling process. Best Distilleries to Visit on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Kentucky Bourbon Trail Itinerary Suggestions for 1 Day to 1 Week, 12 Best Things to do in Louisville, Kentucky, Louisville Restaurants: Best Eats in Town. And many distilleries offer longer, behind the scenes tours for a more detailed look at the distilling process. Lunch: Doc Crows Southern Smokehouse and Raw Bar or Troll Pub under the Bridge. We have visited the Kentucky Bourbon Trail twice. You can bookmark this post on your browser. Maps & Downloads - Tennessee Whiskey Trail Official Site Maps & Downloads The Google map below represents all members of the Tennessee Whiskey Trail. On day two, visit the distilleries located south of Louisville: Makers Mark, Jim Beam, Heaven Hill, Bardstown Bourbon, and Lux Row. For more distillery rules and Kentucky Liquor laws, check out Kentucky Liquor Laws and The Bourbon Trail. And , even then, their maps are already obsolete before they even hit the plotter. Take a Mixology Class. Kentucky Bourbon Trail in 7 Days: This is our day by day itinerary listed above, in the same order, with suggestions on where to stay. After breakfast at the hotel, its a 30-minute drive to the Frankfort area, where touring the new distillery at Castle & Key is a true gem. Afternoon: Louisville Slugger Museum and/or the Muhammed Ali Center. Say goodbye to Louisville and head south to Bardstown. Similar to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, the Craft Tour takes bourbon touring and tasting to the next level. Take a late afternoon or early evening tour of Michters Distillery. All content and photography shall not be reproduced without written permission from the Kentucky Distillers Association. Jim Beam. LOUISVILLE: Plan your visit to Louisville with our articles about the Best Things to Do in Louisville and Best Places to Eat in Louisville. Most tours teach you the same process about bourbon distilling, with a few differences at each distillery. ), in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited. Chuckanut Bay Distillery. Kentucky Bourbon Trail: The Ultimate Guide, Best Distilleries to Visit on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, 12 Best Things to do in Louisville, Kentucky, Louisville Restaurants: Best Eats in Town. As you drive back to Louisville, you have the option to stop at the Lincoln Boyhood Home and National Museum and/or Santa Claus, Indiana. We were thinking of going the week before Memorial Day weekend and staying through the weekend. Local Chef Ouita Michel is at the forefront of Bourbon Trail gourmet dining, with top-notch restaurants in Midway, Versailles, and Lexington. Old Forester Discovery Tour. When the printout is completed then you can save it as PDF. Learn how to create your own. Kentucky Bourbon Trail in 1 Day: Follow day #1, where you get a great overview of the distilling process and get to visit three distilleries in Louisville. Plus, if you save your ticket from the distillery tour, you can tour their warehouse operation, located in Cox's Creek, for free! Custom-printed maps are perfect for parks departments, companies, and recreational complexes. Learn more about the benefits of printing maps. Enjoy the nightlife in Louisville, drive through scenic bluegrass Kentucky, watch a horse race at Churchill Downs, visit the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, or spend the night in a historic tavern. You can also select Print from your web browsers menu (the web browser menu typically looks like 3 dots in either the horizontal or vertical position). If you have concerns then consider alternating driving/tastings with another person in your party, have a designated driver, or take a tour. Here in Kentucky, we do things at our own pace and you should, too. Tim and I stayed here on our first visit to Louisville in 2016. In 2016, we were able to show up and do a lot of tastings. BUDGET: Hampton Inn Bardstown. The tour is very well done and you get to see a few things that many tours do not include. LOUISVILLE: Plan your visit to Louisville with our articles about the Best Things to Do in Louisville and Best Places to Eat in Louisville. It takes five days to complete this tour. Old Forester is the only bourbon to be continually sold by the same company before, during, and after prohibition. The whiskey cannot be distilled higher than 160 proof, enter the barrel higher than 125 proof, and it must not enter the bottle less than 80 proof. With so many great distilleries spread across the rolling hills of Kentucky, planning a trip on the Bourbon Trail can feel a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, the distilleries are getting more creative with their activities, and some are now offering cocktail classes, food pairings, and in-depth behind-the-scenes tours. Trail builders, on the other hand prefer to be in the woods in order to use chainsaws to make their trails. With driving times averaging about twenty minutes between distilleries, most people can fit in three tours per day (in some distilleries, tours are only offered on the hour). document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Earth Trekkers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn advertising fees by advertising & linking to Amazon.com. Morning: Evan Williams Experience. Tour the distillery, see the hundreds of barrels inside of the rickhouses, and maybe meet legendary Jimmy Russell while you are here. This cocktail class is only offered once a day, so if you like this idea, plan your other distillery visits around this class. These distilleries are located within 110 miles of Louisville, mostly clustered between Louisville and Lexington. Take the first tour of the day to give yourself enough time to get to Green River. We felt thatit was just enough to give us a taste but not so much that it impaired Tims driving. We both acquired a taste for bourbon on our long weekend in Kentucky. The process of creating a map to print is slightly more complicated than creating an image that is static. However, there are few places to visit out this way, if you are interested. To get to Evan Williams and/or to get back to your hotel, consider driving or using Uber (we used Uber while in Louisville and kept our car parked at our hotel). Cheers, Julie. Some of them are new kids on the block, and others have been around since bourbon's inception. By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Abraham Lincoln was born in a one room log cabin in Hodgenville, Kentucky in 1809. Races do not run year-round. It's worth it to buy a bottle here, because you get to dip the top in the iconic red wax yourself! The red markers are the seventeen distilleries on the trail. This is an ultrasonic process that removes impurities and improves the quality and taste, speeding up the refining process without spending years in the barrel. Download the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Distillery Map Download Now Join Our Newsletter Mailing List Fields marked with an * are required First Name * Last Name * Email * If you are a human seeing this field, please leave it empty. All of the distilleries are listed inside, with space for your own notes and a stamp from each distillery. Nearest Green Distillery. Jack Frys and the Brown Hotel Lobby Bar are also great options. With more time, you can make the drive out to Owensboro and visit Green River Distilling Company or drive to Danville and visit Wilderness Trail. More Information for Your Trip to Louisville. Her work has been featured in Washington Post Travel and Publisher's Weekly. If you want to do some non-Bourbon activities while road tripping around Kentucky, here are some ideas for you. Copyright 2023 Kentucky Distillers Association. Kentucky's Bourbon Trail now consists of 18 whiskey distilleries. For most people, a combination of tours and tastings is the perfect way to sample the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. They also operate a bed and breakfast. The KY Bourbon Trail Here are some more resources to aide you in making your way to the places that make Kentucky's world-renowned bourbon. As for tours, it looks like distilleries are still offering tours and tastings, but I would get the full details for each distillery on their website (we have a link for each distillery in this post). Plan to spend at least 2-3 days traveling along the Bourbon Trail, and stop off at some of the many charming Kentucky towns along the route. Eating is important, of course, and luckily, there are tons of local restaurants where you can get a great meal to soak up some of the liquor. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a collection of eighteen bourbon distilleries, is drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Printable Bourbon Trail Map- We offer flattened and free TIFF file formats of our maps in CMYK color and high resolution. You will drive through scenic bluegrass Kentucky, with horse farms as far as the eye can see. It is said to be the oldest western stagecoach stop in America and legend has it that Jesse James left behind bullet holes in the tavern.