Here’s Our Best & Worst Things From Kentucky

Shae and I recently left Kentucky after spending 6 weeks there as the 12th state on our 5 year, 50 state road trip.

I didn’t have high hopes for Kentucky when we arrived. I was looking forward to all the bourbon, but my impression of the state before visiting wasn’t great.

I’ve been converted. Kentucky is now rivaling Wisconsin as my favorite state of the road trip so far. The problem now is that I enjoyed Kentucky so much, it’s going to be difficult picking the best parts for this post as so much of it was excellent.

Here’s a look back at some of our favorite – and not so favorite – things from our time in Kentucky.

Favorite Accommodation We Stayed At

Stephen – In terms of location and cuteness, I’ll go for the Airbnb we stayed at in Louisville.

Shae – That’s a tough call. For the experience? The Hyatt Place in Lexington for their exceptionally friendly staff. For the location and accommodation? Our Airbnb in NuLu in Louisville.

Favorite Meal

Stephen – It’s a toss-up between Sonny’s BBQ in Corbin and Feast BBQ in Louisville. I think I liked the food a little more at Feast BBQ, but the service and value at Sonny’s BBQ was excellent.

Shae – I loved the salad I had at Feast BBQ in Louisville but my favorite food and experience was Saul Good and their sriracha shrimp flatbread, pomegranate margarita and cookie skillet.

Most Disappointing Meal

Stephen – I was struggling to think of somewhere we ate that I was disappointed by and was drawing a blank. Shae wrote her answers before me which reminded me about Hi-Five Donuts. I got a carrot cake donut which was fairly good, but mainly because of the carrot cake topping – the donut itself wasn’t that great.

Shae – I was really excited about Hi-Five donuts in Louisville. You know I love me some donuts and I was really disappointed by the taste and price of Hi-Five.

Favorite Free Activity

Stephen – It’s a close decision between the free tour we took at Buffalo Trace Distillery and hiking at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. I think Buffalo Trace gets the win as it included free whiskey, vodka and Irish Cream.

Shae – The Buffalo Trace Tour was my favorite free activity. Even though I don’t drink bourbon, I loved that we could do this free activity as a family, including Truffles, and learn cool information.

Favorite Paid Activity

Stephen – For the experience, the Kentucky Derby. For the thrill, underground ziplining. For the hospitality, wine tasting at Harkness Edwards Vineyards.

Shae – I have a few choices and it’s hard to pin down just one. I really enjoyed the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, but there’s also the Underground Zipline adventure at Louisville Mega Cavern and the tours at the various race horse activities including the Kentucky Derby. I enjoyed each for different reasons and I can’t pick just one!

Favorite Pet-Friendly Activity

Stephen – The Buffalo Trace Distillery tour ranks highly, simply because it’s not often that Truffles gets to come on something like that.

I think my favorite though was hiking to Dog Slaughter Falls, even though it took three attempts on two separate days. The second day involved hiking 10 miles and Truffles did the entire thing on her little legs.

Shae – I really enjoyed the Bone Soiree Dog Brunch.

Least Favorite Activity

Stephen – The Rebecca Ruth Candy tour. It’s not that it was boring as such, it’s just that we did so much fun stuff in Kentucky, this didn’t stand out as memorable for me.

Shae – Going out of our way to visit Abraham Lincoln’s Birthplace and Boyhood Home, only to find out they were replicas and not in the right places! They were just extra time out on our moving day that we didn’t really need to have taken.

Favorite Hike

Stephen – I have a couple – our hikes at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park and Carter Caves State Resort Park were both incredibly beautiful.

Shae – We had a few beautiful hikes. On the one hand, I really loved the hike along the river near Cumberland Falls on Stephen’s birthday. Then there’s the fun hike we did at Land Between The Lakes near Paducah where we met new friends, Robbie and Sandy. But I think I really enjoyed the slightly shorter hike we did at Carter Caves State Resort Park. Dog-friendly, natural bridges, beautiful weather – it was a really great hike.

Favorite Quirky Thing We Did

Stephen – Finding all the Forest Giants In A Giant Forest at Bernheim Forest was my favorite quirky thing we did.

Shae – Hunting for Forest Giants In A Giant Forest comes to my mind first. It’s followed closely by visiting the birthplace of KFC.

Favorite Memory

Stephen – Finally reaching Dog Slaughter Falls at the third attempt.

Shae – I loved sitting by the water with our new friends Robbie and Sandy while chatting about everything from religion to politics, traveling and life as dog parents.

I also loved meeting up with my mom and stepdad in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. Canoeing with our new friend Maggie on Elkhorn Creek. The Bone Soiree also meant we got to meet up with friends from Cincinnati and I got to meet Paco and Lola! My favorite memory overall is probably wine tasting with my mom at Harkness Edwards Vineyards.

Funniest Moment

Stephen – Trying to walk down to the river in flip-flops at Mammoth Cave National Park and slipping, landing on my butt in the mud.

Shae – Probably the zipline race against Stephen when he shouted that I was losing… and by funny I mean maddening!

Thing We Most Regretted

Stephen – Wearing shorts and a t-shirt to the Kentucky Derby. It was raining and much colder than I was expecting, so another layer (other than a thin poncho) would’ve been welcome.

Shae – Besides having bad donuts and going to Lincoln’s sites? Not getting my Kentucky-shaped pin for our collection.

Something We Missed And Want To See

Stephen – What’s nice about our 6 weeks in Kentucky is that we did so much, there isn’t anything I regret missing out on. If I had to pick though, I guess I’d say all the restaurants in Louisville that we didn’t get to eat at, mainly due to our budget.

Shae – I’d love to go back to Kentucky and see the Kentucky Oaks and the City Museum in Frankfort.

Our Biggest Surprise

Stephen – How much I loved Kentucky. It has tons of beautiful state parks, so I loved getting to hike so much. The food was excellent, the bourbon was great (although that wasn’t a surprise) and I enjoyed our entire time.

Shae – How much I enjoyed all the horse activities. I love animals but I’ve never been much of one for horses. I like to look at them, pet their noses and that’s about it. But it was really interesting to learn more about the life of a race horse and see the journey that leads a horse to become a Derby champion.

My Kentucky Drinking Game Would Be…

Stephen – Take a drink every time you see somewhere that looks like a horse farm.

Shae – To take a drink every time you see something with bourbon in it – honey, candy, various drinks and more.

Summary Of Kentucky In 10 Words Or Less

Stephen – Bourbon, hiking, good food, good weather – what’s not to like?!

Shae – Full of horses, very dog-friendly and better than expected.

Kentucky Cities We Visited In Order From Favorite To Least Favorite

Stephen – This is the hardest list I’ve had to make from all of our states so far. Most have been fairly easy, but each city in Kentucky had a ton of fun things to do in and around the area.

I normally just list them in order, but I want to add an explanation for each this time.

1. London – I was surprised that this came first, but it was near Cumberland Falls State Resort Park and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and so it had good hiking. Our hotel was good value on points, the birthplace of KFC was nearby, as were some great restaurants like Sonny’s BBQ and Wrigley Taproom & Eatery.
2. Louisville – This ever-so-slightly edged out Lexington. It helped that the Airbnb we booked was in NuLu which was a fun area to be based in and meant lots of stuff was within walking distance.
3. Lexington – We spent 2.5 weeks there and it felt like we made good use of all that time to explore the surrounding area.
4. Horse Cave – Although it’s fairly isolated, there were still enough activities to keep us busy for 5 days.
5. Paducah – I enjoyed our time in Paducah, but it wasn’t quite as memorable as the other cities we stayed in.

Shae – Ugh… I don’t think I have any that I didn’t love. Hmmm… I make this list under duress.

Lexington

London, Louisville, Paducah, Horse Cave (all tied for 2nd!)