What not to miss on and off Kentucky's Bourbon Trail
- JULIE WHITE
- 2 hours ago
- 17 min read
Kentucky is all about Bourbon, but is that all there is on offer? We spent a week on the famous Bourbon Trail™, to find out more.
"We love your accents. Where are you from?" followed us around for our week in Kentucky, closely followed by "Why did you guys come here?"
Indeed, why did we make our first journey from Scotland to the Bluegrass State? We came for bourbon, BBQ, and the blues, having researched and written about the distilleries on Kentucky's Bourbon Trail™ for over a decade.
The Kentucky we found is a beautiful land of corn, interspersed with farm buildings and the occasional field of grazing horses. The landscape of forests, high ridges, and valleys, is bordered to the north by the mighty Ohio River and to the west by the storied Mississippi.
For outdoor lovers, Kentucky is a hidden playground. With dozens of state and national parks, each one a pocket of wild beauty. There’s no shortage of hiking trails, lakeside escapes, and remote campsites under starlit skies. Urban adventurers will find cities brimming with culture, food, and music. The state certainly punches above its weight when it comes to museums.
As for the horses, well they’re part of a million acres of farmland dedicated to equine breeding, racing and sales, and with races as famous as the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky is also known as the Horse Capital of the World.
But it’s the corn fields that stretch as far as the eye can see that dominate the landscape, and from which Kentucky's legendary distilleries craft 95% of the world’s Bourbon, in distilleries both young and old, using secret recipes and methods passed down through generations.
Since 1999 the Kentucky Distillers' Association (KDA) have sponsored the Kentucky Bourbon Trail®, in order to promote whiskey tourism. What started with just 7 distilleries has developed into 60 stops to explore in 2025. You can hit up the household names, such as Jim Beam or Evan Williams, but you'll also discover intimate, innovative craft producers along the way too. And as far as whiskey tourism is concerned, it’s been a massive hit, injecting over $9 billion annually into Kentucky's economy. In 2024, the Bluegrass State welcomed a record 2.7 million visitors to its iconic Bourbon Trail™, and it’s growing year on year. And, like us, more than 76% of all KBT visitors now come from outside Kentucky.
We based ourselves in Louisville for a week, the largest city in Kentucky, and home to urban distilleries and many more attractions to boot. Abandon ideas that you can do all the distilleries in one visit. You need to gift yourself time to discover the stories behind the brands. Whilst many visitors come into the city for a weekend and hit up the few distilleries in town itself, it’s worth the extra time to get out of the city and explore the neighbouring counties. You’ll be rewarded with not just great bourbon, but with history, craft, scenery, and a real sense of place.
We fell in love with Kentucky, it's authenticity and the renowned southern hospitality. It's a place that lingers in our senses, our photographs, and our memory. Whether you're kayaking across glassy lakes, sipping bourbon beneath a string of porch lights, or simply swapping stories in a bar or watching the clouds drift over a ridgeline, you’ll find something memorable here: stillness, depth, and the sense that you’ve wandered into a quieter, slower kind of magic.
Our guide to what to see on and off the Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Kentucky Bourbon Trail® Welcome Centre
Tucked into the heart of downtown Louisville, the wonderful Frazier History Museum still proudly hosts the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® Welcome Center It’s the first stop for many bourbon pilgrims, a place where maps are unfolded, itineraries take shape, and the story of Kentucky’s most iconic spirit begins. On the museum’s main floor, you’ll find everything from expert travel advice to the immersive Spirit of Kentucky® exhibit, a beautifully curated deep dive into the people, process, and passion behind bourbon.
As of May 2025, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® Passport & Field Guide program is being phased out. The program will continue to honour and award Passports and Field Guides that were purchased and registered before July 1, 2024, until July 1, 2025. With an ever-growing roster of distilleries, the powers that be thought it too daunting to have a passport stamp book that couldn't be completed. However, I loved mine. The thrill of ticking off destinations and collecting stamps shouldn't be underestimated.
Collecting souvenir stamps at travel destinations remains a popular way for visitors to capture and remember their adventures. One well-known example is the U.S. National Park Service’s Passport to Your National Parks program, which has sold over 1.3 million passport books since it began in 1986. Travellers can collect unique ink stamps from nearly every national park site, and has even inspired a passionate community of park explorers who connect through clubs and annual gatherings. I've got mine.
I know from experience that Japan embraces a similar custom. I returned last year with my beloved notebook filled with goshuin, individual stamps from many of the temples, beautifully hand written by priests or staff members. And, like thousands before me, I also ran round collecting special eki stamps at train stations and cultural sites.
And did you know that Switzerland even has a Cheese Passport? You can stamp it at four dairies in Switzerland: Appenzell, Einsiedeln, Emmental, and Gruyere. If you get all four stamps within 2 years, you get a Grand Tour snack box with a Victorinox cheese knife. I'll be hunting them down when I visit later this year.
Despite the rise of digital travel tools, the tactile charm of collecting physical stamps continues to captivate many, offering a meaningful and nostalgic way to document the places they've explored. It's just a simple joy, and the world needs more of that.
As I said, don’t try and do everything. Pick the distilleries that you’re interested in and do your homework if you can beforehand, as some are closed on certain days or closed for refurbishment. It’s a long way to come to be disappointed. See our tips at the end of this guide.
Louisville
We cannot include all the attractions in this city, but here are a few that we recommend.
Frazier History Museum
A great place to start your Kentucky journey, is the Frazier History Museum, as it gives a terrific background to the state and its famous citizens and culture. The museum addresses the recent checkered history of Louisville too, in a very sensitive manner that certainly gave us pause for thought. We learned so much in this wonderful museum and they even offer guided tours and bourbon tastings.
Old Forester Distillery
Shoehorned into a row building, right on Louisville’s Whisky Row, Old Forester was the first tour we did and it’s one not to miss. The rack room is like a cathedral of whiskey, and you even get to see barrels being charred in front of your eyes. A real multi-sensory experience. The distillery opened in 2018 and was built on the original Brown-Forman site from the 1800s. They even survived a fire during renovation. We were lucky to have a fabulous tour guide, who delivered southern charm in spades.
Kentucky Peerless
Kentucky Peerless was a real treat. Revived in 2015 by Corky Taylor and his son Carson, descendants of original founder Henry Kraver, the distillery operates under its original federal designation, DSP-KY-50—a nod to its roots dating back to 1889. What sets Peerless apart is its commitment to a grain-to-bottle process, all under one roof. From milling and cooking to fermenting, double-distilling, and barrelling, every step is handled on-site, ensuring quality and consistency. The tour was terrific.
Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory
Need a break from bourbon? Right across the street from the Frazier History Museum is the Louisville Slugger Museum. You can’t miss it, as there’s a 120-foot-tall baseball bat in front of the building. Even those, like me, who aren’t baseball fans will find something of interest here. It’s the home of the bats used by the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, and Ken Griffey Jr., and they have daily factory tours and some fascinating exhibits. You even leave with a mini bat. It has recently been renovated and is now even more visitor-worthy. It's one of my favourite sports museums.
Angel's Envy
Angel’s Envy, the super-premium whiskey owned by Bacardi Limited, opened its doors in 2016 and is yet another urban distillery in downtown Louisville that we recommend visiting. A true cathedral of spirit, we had a particularly good tasting and tour. The distillery continues to grow, recently adding new experiences and tasting rooms, a retail space, new bar, and events space. They also offer a bottle-your-own experience. The bourbon they produce is finished in Port Wine or Rum casks.
Rabbit Hole
Rabbit Hole Distillery is a truly modern glass temple to the science of distillation, which opened in 2018, and we loved it. A fully immersive guest experience, you see every step of the process in this urban distillery, from grain to bottle. This was one of the most hands-on tours we did, with unique experiences, and certainly is one not to miss. To top off your visit, there’s a bar with a terrace offering views over the city. The perfect way to enjoy a warm evening, with a bourbon or cocktail in hand. And damn fine cocktails they are too trust me.
Evan Williams
Another visitor centre in Louisville is Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, which is on Whiskey Row. You will see some production here, in their artisanal distillery. But this experience stands out as it transports you back in time, as historic Louisville is brought to life for you in a series of rooms and streets that help to tell you the story of the brand.
Michter's Distillery
Michter's Distillery, within the meticulously restored 19th-century Fort Nelson building, houses a working distillery and tour that pays homage to the brand's roots dating back to 1753. The experience culminates with a tasting of their acclaimed whiskeys and a visit to the Bar at Fort Nelson, renowned for its expertly crafted cocktails.
Stitzel–Weller Distillery
Another distillery we managed to visit is Stitzel-Weller, a 20-minute Uber ride out to Shively, a suburb of Louisville. The distillery has produced spirits for countless historical brands. Founded in 1935, sold in 1972, and closed in 1992, it reopened as a tourist site in 2014 for Bulleit Bourbon, who now have their own visitor experience in Shelbyville. It’s now the home to Blade and Bow whiskey and has a museum and, if you want to rest a while, the Garden & Gun Club cocktail bar.
Copper & Kings
Not everything in Louisville is centered around bourbon. The folks at Copper & Kings bring you fabulous pot stilled brandies in their contemporary, urban distillery. Their unique tour goes behind production where you can witness, in sight and sound, their sonic aging process. The pulsing beats of Bob Marley were perforating the maturation cellar on the day we visited. They also focus on environmental sustainability, with a welcome centre in repurposed shipping containers, a butterfly garden, solar panels, furniture made from scrap from the renovation of the building, and if you ride your bike to the distillery, they even give you 50% off your tour. We certainly made room for their brandy in our suitcases.
Muhammad Ali Center
Located on Museum Row in the heart of historic downtown Louisville, Muhammad Ali’s hometown, The Muhammad Ali Center is a multicultural center with an award-winning museum dedicated to the life and legacy of the boxing champion. Sadly, it was closed on days that we could visit, but we will definitely visit next time we’re in town.
Kentucky Derby Museum
With a range of guided tours and a General Admission ticket that includes a historical walking tour of the Churchill Downs Racetrack and access to the Museum exhibits, at the Kentucky Derby Museum visitors can really explore the history of one of the most famous horse races in the world. Sadly, we just couldn’t fit it in our packed distillery schedule, but we will visit next time.
The Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind
If you want to do something really different in Louisville, then we can highly recommend a visit to the American Printing House for the Blind museum. It will certainly get you thinking about something many of us take for granted, our sight. It has a tour where you can see braille books being produced and an interactive museum that has many interesting exhibits. We know this museum wouldn’t feature on many travel itineraries, but we found our visit fascinating and thought provoking. It is currently closed for renovation, with an exciting new immersive exhibition gallery being added in 2026. I will definitely be back to see the changes.
Bardstown Bourbon Co. Tasting Room
If you can't make it out of town then some of the distilleries are opening tasting rooms in downtown Louisville to save you the trip. Bardstown Bourbon Co. opened their beautiful tasting room in 2023. The space blends hands-on bourbon education with immersive digital storytelling, all anchored by a sleek full bar where creative craft cocktails take center stage.
Central
Centred around the charming town of Frankfort, the Central region of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail is home to giant's of the whiskey tourism industry: Bulleit, Castle and Key, Four Roses, Woodford Reserve and Wild Turkey. With new distilleries opening up soon such as Heaven's Door, these hills and valleys are filled with spirit and stories.
Frankfort
The small but perfectly formed capital city of Kentucky, Frankfort sits on the shores of the Kentucky River between Louisville and Lexington. With an impressive Capitol building, a historic downtown with a range of independent stores, it’s a pretty lunch stop before you hit one of the distilleries in the area.
Buffalo Trace
Head an hour out of Louisville and you’ll find the home of one of my favourite bourbons, Buffalo Trace, owned by the Sazerac Company. Not a member of the Kentucky Bourbon trail, for reasons you can read in our guide, this distillery is nestled in a valley next to the Kentucky River. Packed with historic buildings and bags of charm, for more than 200 years, Buffalo Trace Distillery has been at the forefront of the Kentucky bourbon industry, and they welcome more than 400,000 visitors each year. It’s certainly one to book well in advance, as it is very popular. In April 2025, torrential rains caused the Kentucky River to flood large parts of the distillery campus, including the visitor centre buildings. Operations and tours were initially halted, before a modified visitor experience was introduced, featuring a pop-up retail space and outdoor tastings for guests. The clean up is well underway and tours will no doubt be back bigger and better soon. I encourage you to book this tour to support the wonderful team there.
Bulleit
Another stop on our trail trip was Bulleit. Bulleit was only founded in 1987, but is already one of the fastest-growing whiskeys in America. It opened a new distillery in Shelbyville in 2017 and a distillery visitor centre in 2019. As well as tours, they have a retail store, cocktail bar, and outdoor patio where they host lots of events.
Bardstown
It takes about an hour to drive the 44 miles between Louisville and Bardstown, but this pretty, small, historic town was worth the stop as it was small enough to have a quick walk around and grab a bite to eat in before heading to one of the distilleries. This is often referred to as the Bourbon capital and you're surrounded by the well-known Jim Beam, Makers Mark or Heaven Hill, to the newer Boundary Oak, Limestone Branch, Log Still, Bardstown Bourbon Company, Preservation Distillery and Lux Row Distillers.
Jim Beam
If you get time to head to Clermont, then I urge you to visit one of the most famous of all bourbon brands, Jim Beam. The distillery is over 200 years old and opened new facilities in the autumn of 2021, featuring an updated tour, some very instagrammable barns and a new restaurant, The Kitchen Table, which we enjoyed. If you have more time, and certainly more money, you can even fill your own barrel, write your own message on it and watch it go off to the rickhouses for maturation. There’s also the new Fred B. Noe Distillery, a modern production facility for Freddie Noe, the brand’s eighth generation distiller, which has its own tasting room and sensory lab, where Beam will create small-batch whiskies and other innovations.
Bernheim Arboretum and the Forest Giants
Right opposite Jim Beam is the massive Bernheim Arboretum. With 40 miles of bike and hiking trails available, and plenty of space for peace and tranquillity in nature, this is a welcome pit stop whilst visiting the Bourbon Trail. The Forest Giants trail is one mile each way, leading from the Visitor Center, and features three giant sculptures by one of my favourite artists. Danish native Thomas Dambo makes unique characters using recycled wood all around the world. I have had the pleasure of hunting down many of his trolls and they are a welcome addition to any woodland walk.
Heaven Hill
Please make time to head to Bardstown and visit the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience, which opened in June 2021. It is one of the most in-depth tours we have ever done, without us seeing any actual production, which happens off-site. The Shapira Family have owned and operated the distillery since 1935, and it is the largest family-owned and operated distillery in America. After your tutored tasting experience, you can spend time in the comfortable Five Brothers bar, browse through their large shop, or take part in an immersive You do Bourbon experience, where you can taste, bottle, and personalise your very own bottle to take home. Just book well in advance, as the You Do Bourbon experience was booked up when we visited. What we appreciated, however, was the sheer quantity and quality of their impressive self-guided tour through their archive. Split into five galleries, we spent several hours learning all about the distillery and family history, including the fire in 1996, where they lost whiskey and facilities valued at $30 million. This is the story of a phoenix from the ashes.
Lexington
About 90 minutes by car from Louisville is the state’s second-largest city, Lexington. Here you can learn all about racehorses, as it’s the home to the Kentucky Horse Park, which welcomes over 500,000 visitors from around the world each year.
If you're still thirsty for more bourbon, then the Lexington area boasts new architectural distilleries at Town Branch and Wilderness Trail, plus the relaunched historic names such as James E Pepper, as well as Garrard County Distilling Co., the first commercial distillery in the formerly dry county just south of Lexington since the 1800s.
Western
The widening Western region of the Bourbon Trail covers an area between Louisville and Nashville. It was, in fact, the route by which we came through, having spent a few days in Tennessee's famous music city. 7 distilleries have popped up here and they're all worth checking out. But there are things for nature lovers too to enjoy.
Mammoth Cave
UNESCO World Heritage Site Mammoth Cave is also 90 minutes away from Louisville in a huge state park, and we stopped there en route into the city from Nashville. This impressive subterranean landscape is the world’s largest cave system, which can be seen up close via several guided tours, that must be booked quite a way in advance, as they sell out fast. You can pick a tour that suits you for time and mobility. We had just a few hours, so went on their Frozen Niagara tour, which was well worth the pit stop.
Bourbon Trail tips:
Tip 1: Book in advance
Book your distillery tours ahead, even several months ahead like we did. Even then, you might need to use a spreadsheet to figure out the logistics of visiting a good number of distilleries in your allotted time. Each has tours of differing lengths and opening times, so you will need to read up on how long each tour will take and allow for extra time just to soak up some atmosphere whilst there. There is no point in rushing the bourbon experience. It’s made to savour after all.
We couldn’t get into several distilleries we wanted to see, not just because of our packed schedule, but some like Wild Turkey were closed for renovation (gutted, as this was a distillery I especially wanted to see) and others like Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, Michters and Willet were fully booked….and that was 3 months before we made our trip!
Tip 2: You won't be able to do it all
A week isn’t enough to do all the distilleries. You could ignore the tours and just visit the shops and bars, which is certainly not what we’d recommend, as you don’t get the whole experience. And time off the trail to soak up the culture and scenery of Kentucky should not be missed. We will be back…..and have already started planning.
Tip 3: Plan what you'll be buying
Another tip is to plan what bourbon you’d like to purchase and make it something you can’t get back home and remember those duty free/custom allowances. Being strategic will maximise suitcase space. As our bourbon cabinet can attest, we certainly maxed out both our duty free allowances
Tip 4: You can't always buy what you want
You will find that there’s a lot of products that you can’t buy, just because of the very odd rules around distribution in Kentucky. The distilleries make the bourbon, then sell it all to a distributor, who then sells it back to the distilleries for their on-site stores and sells the rest to liquor stores and the hospitality trade. You will often find that the bourbon you like in a tasting, is one of the ones you just can’t get, so prepare to be disappointed sometimes. The bourbon is also only brought into the distilleries on certain days, and you need some inside knowledge of when this delivery will take place too, as they can sell out fast and attract queues around the block of thirsty buyers. On the plus side as a tourist, it’ll stop you from buying too much and leave luggage space for other bottles, but the whole system seems crazy to us in the UK, where we are so used to going to a distillery and buying from all their range including distillery own special releases.
Tip 5: How to get it all home
We maxed out our UK entry duty-free allowance, spreading the bottles across our suitcases, wrapped in jeans tied up with elastic bands to protect them (a method that worked a treat and which we have used when visiting wineries and distilleries around the world). You could buy bottle bubble wrap bags before you travel, if you're that organised.
Just make note of your airline and country of entry allowance. You don't want all that lovely bourbon to be impounded. If you're from inside the US then you'll be fine packing bottles in your trunk, lucky you!
If you can’t buy all the bottles you want at each distillery, then you’ll have lots of gift items that you can fit into your suitcases to choose from. I bought distillery-themed Christmas baubles, candles, sweets, home décor and bar items as well as lots of bourbon coffee, which is also perfect for packing around bottles in a suitcase to protect them on your journey home.
Tip 6: Get out of town
Do get out of Louisville, as Frankfort, Bardstown and Lexington are worth a visit after seeing the distilleries that surround them. The countryside is also lovely and you will need some time in nature after all that bourbon tasting.
Tip 7: Getting to and from those distilleries
If you need to book on a tour bus, then try to get ones that don’t put you with stag dos/bachelor parties. We found many of the small tour bus groups arrived at distilleries with drunk guests on board, who somewhat spoilt the experience for the rest of us. We all like to imbibe, but this is a craft product with history that needs to be given more attention than a quick shot.
We used our hire car for anything out of Louisville, obviously with one of us being the designated driver. If you bring small glass bottles and pop your tastings into them if you've drawn the short straw, you can enjoy them later.
Where we stayed:
Hotel options were pretty limited for a week in July (peak tourist season), and we wanted to feel more at home in Louisville, so we booked an Airbnb in the historic Henry Clay building hosted by Ashlyn.
This was perfect for us, one bedroom, Wi-Fi, a kitchen, and a parking space, which was ideal for our hire car. Ashlyn looks to have refurbished the apartment since our visit, and we can highly recommend her place. Say hi from us.
When we visited, we must mention that the city was extremely quiet, almost like a ghost town in places, as not everything opens all week. It can be tricky to find places for food on a Sunday, as even Subway was shut! There wasn’t a large supermarket in town that we could walk to, and even bars at night were pretty quiet. I'd have to go back to see if this has changed, now even more people are heading on the Trail.
Getting here:
We were on a 3-week road trip from the UK, travelling from Atlanta to Detroit, so we came into Louisville by car, which was extremely easy. Having the car made visiting distilleries out of town a breeze, but you can use tour companies that operate small tour buses for this if you don’t have a car at your disposal. The car sat in the parking garage for 4 days, so it wasn’t the best use of the rental financially, but we appreciated the convenience.
We drove 3 hours up from Nashville, which does have direct flights from the UK. We left Louisville and went on to Chicago, 5 hours drive away. We split the journeys up with things to see along the way.
Louisville does have an airport, but from Scotland most flights needed either two or three connections.
Getting around:
Apart from the hire car, we found Louisville is quite walkable. We also tried the scooters available to hire around town, but found them more expensive than an Uber for the two of us, so we stuck to Uber for most places at the edges of town.
Photographs: ©Julie White unless noted otherwise
Disclaimer - The views and opinions expressed are solely my own. I paid for the tours in full, unless mentioned specifically, and any comments reflect my personal experiences on that day. Please drink responsibly. Please visit so you can foster your own opinion and feel free to research the brand and the visitor centre in question for yourself.
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