Best of Kentucky tours are back in 2019! These exciting tours visit Bourbon Country and Horse Country for a full-day experience. Springtime in Kentucky is the perfect time to join a public tour group on an adventure to Sun Valley Farm and Buffalo Trace Distillery.
What to Expect
Best of Kentucky tours depart from the Omni Louisville Hotel in downtown Louisville at 8:00 a.m. select dates. Tickets are required in advance. You’ll meet your Mint Julep tour guide there to lead the entire experience.
Sun Valley Farm
First, you’ll travel through Horse Country to Sun Valley Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. Sun Valley is a picturesque horse breeding farm and nursery. That means in the spring each year, they have plenty of foals (cute baby horses!) in their rolling green fields and stables. Family owned and operated for more than 20 years, Sun Valley Farm has produced more than 200 stakes horses worldwide!
Your horse farm tour includes learning about the history of the land, Sun Valley’s connection to bourbon, and the inner workings of everyday life at a breeding farm. Many tours include a chance to pet yearlings or weanlings as well as lots of photo ops with mares and foals.
Be sure to wear closed-toe shoes you don’t mind getting dirty – this is a working horse farm! You’ll go ‘behind the fences’ and get insight into the fascinating world of thoroughbred breeding and racing.
Southern Lunch
Next, enjoy a farm-fresh lunch at a local restaurant. Location varies, but trust us, we know the best places to eat in Kentucky! We work with locally-owned restaurants across the state to provide a menu of Kentucky favorites to pick from. Your lunch and a non-alcoholic drink are included with your ticket. If you’d like to purchase a beer, wine or other alcoholic beverage on your own at lunchtime, feel free. Most restaurants we choose offer craft beer or bourbon cocktails.
Buffalo Trace Distillery
Your final stop is historic Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. For more than 200 years, this distilling location has been part of bourbon history. Buffalo Trace is the oldest continually operating distillery in America!
Many famous brands are distilled here including Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, E.H. Taylor, George Stagg, Van Winkle, Blanton’s, Elmer T. Lee and more! Your tour will include a look at a few parts of the distilling process. Routes vary but many tours go inside a bourbon warehouse and walk the bottling line.
You’ll finish with a tasting of whiskeys and spirits made on site. Most tastings include Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, Wheatley Vodka, Bourbon Cream or other spirits depending on availability.
You’ll return back to the Omni Louisville Hotel in downtown Louisville around 4:00 p.m. That gives you plenty of time to enjoy the Derby City including great restaurants, Louisville attractions and Urban Bourbon Trail® stops!
Best of Kentucky Tours in 2019
Tours are limited to 23 guests. The cost is $139 per person. Tickets for Best of Kentucky bourbon and horse farm tours can be booked online or by phone at 502-583-1433.
- March 29
- April 18
- May 26
- July 7
- Sept. 1
