Me and my brother and Dad booked a guy's trip to Louisville October 20-23rd. I was dumb enough to not research the tours and tasting and they all are booked up for the weekend.

Anyone that's been have any advice? I have joined a few waiting lists but I'm hoping we can walk in and get in on the tours. Wishful thinking?

My wife took me to the bourbon trail for my birthday in October 2018.

We only made a reservation at Woodford Reserve and Makers. We walked into Wild Turkey and Buffalo Trace. BTW, many distilleries (like Buffalo Trace) do not pay money to participate as a member of "The Kentucky Bourbon Trail". Make sure you expand your search to any and all bourbon distilleries. Kentucky is much smaller than Texas. Don't be afraid to drive around.

There is an Evan Williams "Experience" in downtown Louisville that had plenty of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof and 12 y/o Evan Williams for sale. It was very close to the Louisville Slugger facility. Angels Envy, and Michters were also in Louisville.

The Jim Beam distillery is huge. I would be amazed if they were 100% booked. There is a satellite Four Roses facility with rick houses, gift shop, and tastings near the Jim Beam distillery in Clermont.

Makers Mark will probably be tough to get into.

Heaven Hill is huge, and Willet is very close to Heaven Hill. Most novice bourbon fanboys probably drive by Willet.

I loved Kentucky. The fall foliage is beautiful, and plenty of limestone hills and cliffs. Every city seemed like it was about 1 hour from Louisville. Louisville suprised me. It has a decent downtown that reminds me of Fort Worth circa early 2000s. Baxter Avenue is a great part of town.

The Kentuckians I met were all super friendly, and happy to point you in the right direction.

My advice: Don't stress out. Just be flexible and willing to explore.

Thanks. I hope you are right. Supposedly there is a bourbon boom right now. After COVID, and being Fall, all the places booked up 3 months in advance.

Im sure we can wing it and get in a few of these places.

Keep checking back. See if there's a waiting list if anyone cancels. You can still go to the distilleries gift shops and look around. Find out if when they're releasing anything special that weekend.

Was able to book a tour at Jim Beam Distillery for Saturday. I got on a few waiting lists as well. Hopefully something opens up for Buffalo Trace….

This is an excellent post about Louisville and the bourbon tours available around Kentucky. I was there for work a few years ago and did the walk-in free Buffalo Trace tour. I was not prepared for the smell when I got out of the car and went in...I really think that's what heaven smells like.

Boom has been going on for a decade now.

Try some of the places in Louisville. And try some
Of the lesser known places

The VIP tour at Old Foresters is my favorite. I really enjoyed Willett down in Bardstown and it's next to Heaven's Hill.

I was there in late August with my dorm buddies. Stayed in Louisville. Only did 2 tours; once you go to a couple, they all repeat the same things

The Evan Williams tour was pretty good. Got to taste 4 bourbons, including the Master Blend and Red 101? (I forget the name). But they had plenty of ECBP available and the Toasted Barrel as well to buy in gift shop. If you're looking for these, get em here and buy as many as you want. Not guaranteed to have these at the Heaven Hill distillery

Angel's Envy tour and taste was amazing. Highly recommend this one. All they had was the bourbon and rye. Also has their own bar to try different selections

Peerless tasting was good too. Had some rare stuff for sampling and they were delicious. Nice ryes

In Bardstown:

Heaven Hill is awesome. Just did the tasting only but got to sample 5 different ones: ECBP, EC Toasted, McKenna 10 yr, Heaven Hill BiB, Parker's Barrel Finish. Also they have a very cool bar upstairs with a huge selection of their stuff to try. If you do a tasting, it allows you to buy a rare bottle that they're selling. They had the Toasted Barrel when I went and was only limited to 1.

And down the street is Willett. I didn't do a tour but bought tried their rye. Holy hell that is good stuff. Wish I had bought 2 bottles instead of 1. They had the purple label bourbon to try, but at $50/pour, I declined. They also have a restaurant upstairs


Wanted to do Buffalo Trace but all their tours were booked. No free walk-ins anymore for sure


Just bring an extra suitcase and a bunch of bubble wrap. No doubt you'll be coming back with a boat load of bourbon

I love it. Thanks for all the information, guys!

Went to Louisville in 2017 and had an amazing trip based out of Louisville. We booked an Air BNB near Audubon Park and it was awesome. Some people do the trail based out of Lexington or Bardstown. Louisville with a rental car is manageable and fun.

If you're in Louisville, Many liquor stores do tastings and can open up bottles that you could never afford for per ounce drinks, Tried a PVW 23 for $40 as opposed to trying to find a bottle. Totally worth it if you want to try this way. The one store that had an amazing selection of options and barrel picks was "Westport Wine and Whiskey" in Louisville.

As far as the distillery tours go, your mileage may vary depending on your interests and preferences.

Buffalo Trace- Out of all the tours, this one is a "Must go". beautiful scenery, Book the "Hard Hat" tour for the full experience (book early, fills up fast. Ask for Freddie as your guide if possible). Don't even think about buying Blanton's or hard to find bottles. They only had Wheatley Vodka and Buffalo trace in their shop. They have a huge gift shop as well. The tasting was their "White Dog" Un-aged distillate, Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, and then you could try their Bourbon Cream IIRC. Overall, if you only get to do one full tour/tasting experience, this should be it.

Woodford Reserve- Smaller grounds, nice tasting paired with chocolate in the tasting room. Bottling room access on tour was very interesting. Very loud too with the glass bottles. Very cleaned up tour and "higher end" it seemed like. Tasting was paired with chocolates and had notes and tasting wheels. They have a restaurant on site too.

Willett- Bardstown area distilleries are neat and less refined experiences than the bigger ones closer to the city. Willett had you tour the grounds and then gave you access to their gift shop. Willett has a whole experience now with a bed and breakfast/restaurant that wasn't there when I went. You can buy bottles in their shop that are harder to find and aren't as widely distributed. They also have a good tasting of all the different ones they make if you like their stuff.

Heaven Hill/Bourbon Heritage Center- Heaven Hill seems to dominate the Bardstown area. This was much more "museum-like" with a smaller tasting. Got to try the "Very Old Fitzgerald 12" in their tasting, just ask if they have it. Very good. They have a large gift shop with some rarer bottles of Elijah Craig if you're lucky.

Four Roses- We did the bottling plant tour which is much smaller than the main one. Very simple tasting of their yellow label, small batch and single barrel. Nothing too special on this one. Gift shop had a lot of options for gifts, tumblers, glasses, etc.

Makers Mark- The other "must visit" tour from our experience, the grounds are beautiful, the gift shop lets you dip your own bottle or anything you would like to dip in red wax, they also have a good tasting and selection. They've opened up their experimental lab and the Maker's 46 side of things. Cool to see how they warehouse it in a climate controlled environment. They have an amazing restaurant on the grounds too called "Star Hill" that was outstanding.

Jim Beam Urban Stillhouse- This was in Downtown Louisville and was a touristy place, but you can bottle your own custom bottle and have it engraved.

Angel's Envy- In the middle of downtown Louisville. This tour was great and had a great tasting with orange-chocolates.Their rye was one of the our favorites. All of the bourbon chocolates you sample at all the distilleries are made in Downtown Louisville not to far from there at Art Eatables. Pack a few for the trip home to have with whiskey later.

All the distillery tours are pretty similar, to be honest. A few really stand out to me, but overall its very similar.

We ate at some great restaurants, Doc Crows was great, Garage Bar was good too, especially their charcuterie. Haymarket was a cool dive bar with great bottles. The Eagle bar had great fried chicken and a cool beer hall atmosphere too. Feast BBQ had good BBQ and frozen whiskey and ginger ale.

Let me know if you want anymore recommendations.

We had the most fun at 3 Boys. It's small, but they pack a lot in to it. We hit them up right after we did Four Roses and before Buffalo Trace. Makers grounds may be one of the most beautiful sites I've been on, incredible. Castle & Key was pretty cool too.

A recent NY Times story about Bourbon Trails in Kentucky:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/10/travel/kentucky-bourbon-whiskey-trail.html

And a website referenced in the article which lists distillery trails from around the country:
https://www.destinationdistillery.com/

We did this last winter.

I didn't realize until about a 1-2 months prior we needed reservations. Many of the websites showed they were full, but after placing some phone calls to the tours we were interested in, they ALL had availability even though the website said otherwise.

We stayed in Louisville, around the corner from Whiskey Row, which was a great location. Everything we did was by walking or picking up an electric scooter, other than an out of town guided day trip.

Hands down the best experience was the Old Forester tour, get to see barrel making process on a small scale, and they also had the largest pours of any of our tours.

We were able to get in to the rooftop bar of Rabbit Hole without doing a tour, and that was a really nice experience, but that isn't something that is available without some smooth talking.

For the tours we did out of Louisville we used Mint Julep Experiences, they have several good day trips.

As someone else mentioned, definitely hit up Art Eatables, every distillery seems to do a chocolate of some sort and they all come from Art Eatables, great chocolate that pairs awesome with Bourbon(think an old fashioned by just sipping and eating a little chocolate.) Louisville Slugger tour was a neat experience, and didn't take a lot of time if you pop over after picking up some chocolates.

When down by Angel's Envy we really enjoyed the Brewery that is in the baseball stadium, Goodwood Brewing, they have great food, and good beers. But they have an off menu item, Old Fashioned Experience, they freeze all of the items for an old fashioned in to an ice cube, and then it dissolves in to the bourbon.

We also spent a quite a bit of time at the Irish Pub on whiskey row, they happened to have Birthday Bourbon, along with many others sought after.

One place I haven't seen mentioned here is a Speakeasy style bar that is one block off Whiskey Row, Hell or Highwater, you have to have reservations, and we made them a month in advance. Really neat experience.

I've done this trip twice.

Best overall tour experience--and its not close. Old Forrester in Louisville. Also, I loved Makers Mark (best grounds for a tour), Wild Turkey (looks like a traditional distillery), and Buffalo Trace (great history, Freddie is awesome, but not so great selection or tasting choices at the tour).

Not worth your time--Bulleit, Angels Envy, or Lux Row.

Not bad--Woodford Reserve

On my list for next time--Heaven Hill and Four Roses

We also really enjoyed Bardstown as well. A complete break from traditional distilleries in look and feel, but an excellent tour and tasting.

Has anyone stayed in Lexington? GF and I are going later next month and were planning on flying into and staying in Lexington. Arrive Sunday and taking the Old Taylor tour @ Buffalo Trace on Monday afternoon. Heaven Hill "You Do Bourbon" tour and Makers Mark on Tuesday. Trying to get on waiting list for Woodford on Wednesday. Returning late Wednesday night.

Should I just go ahead and fly into Louisville and stay there? Got the reservations booked and have a flight on hold but can always change.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks and Gig 'Em!

Wife and I stayed at the 21C in Lexington a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. Walking distance from several bourbon bars. You are also close to Keeneland if you want to check out horse racing.