10 Top Activities in Kentucky

By the Backseat View

4 Day Kentucky Road Trip

Kentucky is a beautiful state with gently rolling pastures filled with thoroughbred horses. The pastures give way forests, and rugged mountainous areas that surround trendy cities in this southern, centrally located state. Road tripping through Kentucky brings horse races, The Ark, Louisville’s Bat Museum, Zoos, and Mammoth Cave. Kentucky is also home to bluegrass music, bourbon, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. A side goal was to mark Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana off the list of states to visit. Fall road trips are the best so let’s hop in the car for a four-day Kentucky Road Trip.

Top Activities in Kentucky

Lexington

Lexington is known as the Horse Capital of the World and the area is breathtakingly beautiful. Kentucky produces 95% of the world’s bourbon so you can tour distilleries in Lexington and around the state. I fell in love with Lexington and the entire state of Kentucky so I’m already planning return trips.

1. Keeneland Race Trace

After a six-hour drive, we arrived for the afternoon horse races. Y’all, Keeneland’s race track is one of America’s most beautiful with meticulous landscaping. We loved the excitement of the horse races and the prep area where visitors can view the horses up close. Everyone should dress to the nines and go to a horse race here at least once. However, we were fine in boring, regular clothes. It was so much more than we were expecting. Make sure to buy a program so you know who’s racing.

We had $15 covered seats in the grandstands and I think that’s better than just standing near the track for $7. Gambling makes it more fun, so I gave everyone $25 and we bet amongst ourselves. Taylor left with $75 so maybe that wasn’t my best idea. When they aren’t racing, take the track tour. Lexington was the prettiest area we saw in Kentucky. Have a great weekend trip by adding horse farm tours and a University of Kentucky basketball game.

2. Kentucky Horse Park

The Kentucky Horse Park is the only park in the world that’s a working horse farm, educational theme park, and horse competition facility. With over 1,000 acres, the Kentucky Horse Park offers a place to visit and ride horses, and watch horse presentations and shows. The International Museum of the Horse is the world’s largest equestrian museum available to tour. With over one million visitors a year, the park and campground stay booked.

3. Mill Ridge Farm

While Mill Ridge Farm is one of many thoroughbred farms near Keeneland open for tours, it’s rated the best. Several champion horses call the farm home and people come to meet their favorite horses. The $35 tours last around 90 minutes and must be bought in advance on this 6th-generation farm.

Mary Todd Lincoln House

The childhood home for Mary Todd Lincoln is open for $15 tours filled with period furniture, portraits, and furnishings. The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park with the first Lincoln Memorial and his boyhood home is another historic stop to add to your Kentucky Road Trip closer to Mammoth Cave.

Camp Nelson

Camp Nelson National Monument is an important Civil War site for my history buffs only 20 miles from Lexington. Historic sites such as Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site are endless in Kentucky.

Red River Gorge

The Red River Gorge is an hour from Lexington for my hikers and campers. Visit the Natural Bridge State Resort for riding a cable car to the natural bridge. If you want hikes filled with deep gorges, rivers, and 150 natural arches, this is your stop. The Red River Gorge is a rock climbing mecca. Another park to explore are Cumberland Falls State Resort Park

BBQ

You can’t visit Kentucky and not have a barbecue plate for dinner. Red State BBQ is small with a long line of customers. The ribs are mouthwatering along with the juicy pulled pork sandwiches, mac-and-cheese, and brisket. It’s an award-winning locally owned restaurant.

Clarion Hotel Conference Center

Outside Lexington, we drove by a hotel, Clarion Hotel Conference Center, with a sign stating $70 rooms. Well, I decided to take a look since this was a last minute trip due to cancelled football practices. The old hotel had been remodeled with an Olympic-sized pool, hot tub, and a full-sized gym with a basketball court. The guys were convinced we were going to be killed in the “Bates Motel” but it was the best hotel for the price. Lexington is an hour’s drive to the Ark.

4. The Ark Encounter

The Ark is built to Noah’s original specifications and it’s incredible. Everyone should travel to see the inspiring Ark. We bought tickets in advance and arrived at the opening to avoid crowds. There’s a 15-minute outside walk to the Ark so if it’s raining, be prepared. There are lots of signs and it would take hours to read all the displays. The Ark is over 500 feet long with three decks so it’s a decent amount of walking.

Signs give possibilities of how eight people could feed 7,000 animals every day with tubes for water and food distribution. You could spend two hours like we did or four hours here depending on the crowd. The Ark is expensive at $60 an adult and $32 for youth. For an extra cost, there’s a zoo with camel rides, zip lines, kids activities, and a buffet restaurant on site.

Creation Museum

There’s a Creation Museum that’s 45 minutes away with an entrance fee of $50 a person. The grounds are beautiful and the museum is two stories. There’s zip-lining, a zoo, and two restaurants.

Cincinnati Zoo

After The Ark, we drove 40 minutes to spend the afternoon at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. We were impressed with the beautiful zoo and spent about three hours. The kangaroo area allows you to walk through the exhibit and pet the animals. The elephants have a nice five-acre habitat to roam. They have giraffe and penguin feedings, hippo barn tours, and Galapagos turtle petting. Online tickets are affordable averaging $25. After the zoo, we drove the two hours to Louisville, KY.

Louisville

As far as cities go, Louisville is underrated in my opinion. It has activities, museums, restaurants, historic hotels and horse racing without the crowds. I’m sure the crowds show up for spring racing weekends but fall break was empty. Would I spend the weekend in Louisville over the endless crowds in Nashville, absolutely. While Louisville is Kentucky’s most northern city, on the Indiana border, it embraces it’s southern roots.

5. Louisville Mega Cavern

As we passed a sign for the Louisville Mega Cavern, we decided to “risk death” and go inside. The entrance was a little creepy heading into a cave but it turned out to have cave tours, zip lines through the cave, tram rides, and rope courses. This adventure is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The boys had a blast for two hours navigating the challenging ropes course in a cave environment with lights and music.

We overnighted at The Hampton Inn located in downtown Louisville.

For the Love of Baseball

6. Louisville Slugger

Louisville Slugger Museum welcomes you with a 120-foot-tall replica of Babe Ruth’s Bat at the front door. The factory tour shows you how they make 1.8 million bats a year. You can hold historic bats that were held by Mickey Mantle, Cal Ripken Jr, and Derek Jeter. There are 90-mph fastballs for you to take a swing at. For the love of baseball, let the guys have an hour and a half to explore all the famous bats. You get a free miniature bat at the end of the factory tour. Tickets are time-entrance and $23.

You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” Babe Ruth

After the museum, we walked around downtown and drove the 1.6 miles to The Big Four Bridge.

The Big Four

The Big Four Pedestrian Bridge connects Kentucky to Indiana so we walked across. The bridge is about a mile long and takes 40 minutes. The bridge is at Waterfront Park has playgrounds and swings for adults. The Indiana side, Jeffersonville, has a park and easy access to downtown restaurants. Honestly, we didn’t walk back, JB drove the car to Jeffersonville. We ran out of time to visit the Howard Steamboat Museum in Jeffersonville housed in a mansion built in 1894.

Once we were done exploring the clean city, we headed about seven miles away to the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs.

7. Kentucky Derby

We toured Churchill Downs home to the Kentucky Derby and it lived up to my expectations. The Derby Museum with outfits and the horse winners from 150 years of Derby history brings the race to life. I loved all the outrageous hat displays.

The Greatest Race is a 360-degree, immersive film that puts you in the excitement of the Kentucky Derby race. Basic Track Tours are $20 and last around 25 minutes with a tour of the Grand Stands and a view of the track. There are almost a dozen other tour options.

Where Legends are made!

Mint Julep & Derby Pie

The Derby Cafe serves all the Kentucky inspired dishes from Hot Brown, Derby Pie to Mint Julep. The Derby Pie is similar to Pecan Pie with chocolate chips.

8. Louisville Zoo

The Louisville Zoo has Koalas and an award-winning gorilla forest. All the regulars, giraffes, lions, and elephants, are here with colobus monkeys and pygmy hippos. The zoo tickets are around $20 depending on the day.

The Muhammad Ali Center

The Muhammad Ali Center holds the heavyweight champion’s memorabilia, shadow punching with Ali and punching bags. It’s five floors and takes a couple of hours.

Bernheim Arboretum and Forest

The Bernheim Arboretum and Forest is a 16,000-acre nature preserve that’s 30 minutes south of Louisville. There’s an easy two-mile loop to meet all the wooden giants. Giants are a fun addition to any road trip. You could spend all day exploring.

KFC

We could have driven 30 miles outside Louisville to the headquarters of Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner at The Harland Sanders Cafe and museum. However, we stayed in town for a delicious dinner at Royals Hot Chicken on Market Street.

Old Spaghetti Factory

I know the Old Spaghetti Factory is a chain but the building is historic and the food is always fabulous. Louisville has so many fantastic food options, you could make an entire post on food.

Lodging

• We concluded our tour and overnighted at the same Hampton Inn in downtown Louisville. It’s an hour’s drive to Mammoth Cave.
• The Seelbach Hilton Hotel is a historic hotel with a famous old speakeasy, The Rathskeller. It’s where Al Capone escaped police raids and Scot F. Fitzgerald wrote parts of The Great Gatsby.
• The Brown Hotel is where I’m staying when I come without the kids. Since 1923, it’s been elegant, timeless and the creator of the famous “Hot Brown” sandwich. The Brown has been rated the best hotel in Kentucky and The South many times.

9. Mammoth Cave

Mammoth Cave National Park is the world’s longest 400-mile cave system. There are 10 cave tour options from easy to hard. Being a last minute trip, most of the tours were booked two days out due to fall break. The Domes and Drips Tour is the most popular two-hour tour going through the most decorative parts of the cave. Mammoth Passage is an easy tour that lasts about an hour. The park is huge with hiking, canoeing, kayaking, and boating activities. If you want to overnight near Mammoth, there’s a Hampton Inn in Cave City.

10. Feed Kangaroos

The Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo is seven miles outside Mammoth Cave. I didn’t know this small roadside zoo was here so we weren’t prepared to stop. Petting and feeding kangaroos and wallabies sounds like fun. There’s also a cave tour included in the pricing.

Safari Park

Dutch Country Safari Park is 10 miles outside Mammoth Cave. You ride in their hayride-style wagon to feed the animals. There are lots of animals to see and feed. It’s around $35 for adults.

Lost River Cave

The Lost River Cave is in Bowling Green, KY about 40 minutes from Mammoth for boat rides through a cave.

Nashville

We drove the hour to Nashville for Hattie B’s fried chicken for lunch since it was on our way home. Nashville is a great place to spend an extra night to tour the Grand Ole Opry, Country Music Hall of Fame, or the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. If you are flying, Nashville is usually the cheapest airport.

Our family loved Kentucky and felt is was affordable. Spend a week and fall in love with Kentucky. Thanks for reading my Top 10 Activities in Kentucky! I have provided links to other road trips and weekend family trips.