If you’re unfamiliar with Louisville’s attractions, let me brief you: Churchill Downs - home of The Kentucky Derby, Louisville Slugger Baseball bat factory and museum and of course, bourbon. Louisville also has a little bit of southern hospitality, BBQ & fried chicken and did I mention, bourbon? What makes this destination a perfect long weekend getaway, Louisville is a easy and quick 5 hour drive from Chicago. To see what I packed for a 4 night trip, view my blog post here.

I’ll start off with the important stuff: Bourbon

With Covid, if you’re serious about hitting different distilleries for tastings, I would suggest making reservations for tastings and tours. We did not make reservations but got creative and still had plenty of bourbon! We went to Bardstown and ate brunch, tasted at Preservation and bought to-go cocktails at Angel’s Envy.

Next up, lets talk about the food. With the amount of bourbon flowing, there has to be plenty of good food - here is where we ate: on our first night, we headed to Doc Crows on Main Street. They are known for their bourbon collection from around the world and honestly, the entire menu looked good! In the NULU neighborhood, we enjoyed Royals Hot Chicken and their alcoholic shakes and fried chicken. Sticking in the NULU neighborhood, we stuck found a brewery and courtyard with several restaurants. We landed on Emmy’s Squared with pizza and a salad.

There are few other things to do than drink bourbon and eat southern food in Kentucky and we did those too! We walked through the Bernheim Forest trails. It felt great to stretch our legs (only 2-ish miles) and see a few wooden giants. Obviously, we had to go to Churchill Downs - where the Kentucky Derby takes place. As a former horseback rider, I really enjoyed this! The museum is very interactive and be sure to go in the morning - you may see horses practicing on the track! And lastly, we took a tour at the Louisville Slugger museum. For any baseball lovers or someone who likes to see how things are made, this is perfect!

One our drive, we stopped about halfway for lunch in Indianapolis but made another stop at Bear Wallow Distillery, a distillery in Brown County, Indiana, close to camping and hiking. The drive just to the distillery was very scenic!

We loved the beer at West 6th Brewery in the NULU neighborhood in Kentucky, that is originally located in Lexington, but opened another location in Louisville.