KY- Louisville, Lexington?

[SJ]

We are driving to a wedding in Kentucky next weekend and will pass right through Louisville & Lexington.

The wedding is on Friday, and we have all of Saturday & Sunday to take our time getting home (Chicago). Any ideas of things to see/do on the route? Restaurants to hit up in either city?

Thanks!

[marshian85]

We did a road trip through Kentucky last summer and are also from Chicago. Some things we did:

Louisville:
- Kentucky Derby Museum. If you like horse racing at all, this is interesting. And you can see a race!
- Lynn's Paradise Cafe. We went here for dinner. Delicious food and a very eclectic building. We also passed a guy cooking pizza out of a truck and at least 50 people were waiting. So if you can find him, you're golden!

Lexington:
- Kentucky Horse Park. If you like horses, this is pretty fun. More fun for kids, I think, but we enjoyed it.

Other:
- Whitewater rafting on the Cumberland River. We did this in the Corbin area - it was fun. Rapids are mostly class II, a few IIIs.
- Mammoth Cave National Park. Really awesome cave system. They have tons of tour options. We did the Historic Entrance tour and really loved it. Bring a jacket - it's cold in the cave!
- Bourbon Trail! There are many options for distilleries and almost all have free tours and tastings. We went to Buffalo Trace. They gave us an hour-long tour which was really awesome. Then we tried multiple versions of their bourbon. They also make a bourbon creme - it's like Bailey's Irish Cream. So tasty!

[Dusky]

I'll ditto PP with the Bourbon Trail. Buffalo Trace, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, and Woodford Reserve are located between the two cities, more or less.

Louisville attractions also include the Zoo, the Louisville Slugger Factory, and the Frazier History Museum (which mainly features arms and armor) all of which are enjoyable depending on what you're in to.

As far as places to eat are concerned I'd suggest Alfalfa's in Lexington.

[Deleted]

If you stay in Louisville you must stay at the 21c museum/hotel. It's consistently rated one of the top hotels in the country and it's a pretty unique atmosphere. It's in the middle of Museum Row on Main:

www.museumrowonmain.com/

Here is a National Geographic piece that includes the Bourbon Trail:

travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/road-trips/bourbon-trail-kentucky-road-trip/

Mammoth Cave is very interesting if you're into that sort of thing. Just be warned that the area surrounding Mammoth Cave leaves a lot to be desired. Cave City is kind of a burned out tourist town with a spackling of low end newish hotels planted around fast food restaurants and old motels that haven't been updated since the 60's. Go there for the cave and the surrounding park.

I'm assuming that you will be traveling on I-65 and please be aware that the Kennedy bridge in Louisville is having lane closures and there can be long waits and re-routes. You might want to read the following information and map it all out accordingly. It's a clusterfuck.

transportation.ky.gov/District-5/Pages/I-65-Construction.aspx

[SJ]

THANK YOU!!

[taratru]

If you stop in Louisville, you really need to go to the Muhammed Ali Center. So inspirational.