Best Things to Do in Louisville

If you dream about sipping the amber-hued whiskey, there’s no better place to start than Whiskey Row. The block-long stretch is home to Bourbon institutions like Doc Crow’s Southern Smokehouse and Raw Bar and Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen, both of which have been awarded America’s Best Bourbon Bar by The Bourbon Review.

Urban Bourbon Trail is a curated set of bars and restaurants showcasing rare bourbons and foods that complement them. It tours Louisville’s 11 distilleries, including Brough Brothers Distillery, the first African American-owned distillery in the state.

When you’re ready to explore Kentucky’s rolling hills, head out on the iconic, original Kentucky Bourbon Trail and get your passport stamped at 17 distilleries, including Four Roses, Maker’s Mark, Wild Turkey and Woodford Reserve. For more information, visit The Kentucky Bourbon Trail Welcome Center on the ground floor of the Frazier History Museum.

Louisville is chock-full of state-of-the-art museums, many of which are located downtown on Museum Row. The famous Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory lives on this street with the world’s largest baseball bat tilting against its facade. Inside, guests can walk through exhibitions about the history of baseball and tour the Slugger factory. Frazier History Museum has historical artifacts like the bows and arrows of Geronimo and a bourbon gallery where visitors can make a model bourbon barrel. There’s also the family-friendly, interactive Kentucky Science Center, which provides hands-on learning opportunities for kids, and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, which focuses on contemporary art, design and textiles. Elsewhere in Louisville, the Speed Art Museum is the oldest, largest and foremost museum of art in Kentucky. It possesses the work of masters like Monet, Picasso and Rembrandt. 

The centrally located neighborhood spans 48 tree-lined blocks and boasts the country’s largest number of pedestrian-only streets as well as the highest concentration of stained glass windows. What was initially built as a suburb of Louisville in the late 19th century has since blossomed into an architectural wonderland, full of brick masterpieces and buildings designed in Beaux-Arts, Queen Anne and Romanesque styles. Architectural enthusiasts can book guided walking tours to learn more about the neighborhood and its bespoke fixtures like the beloved Belgravia Court. 

Several festivals and shows take place in the historic area annually, including the St. James Court Art Show from September 30 through October 2. 

The Old Louisville Holiday Home Tour allows visitors to tour the inside of Victorian mansions for 65 bucks. 

Make sure to mark your calendar for May 24 through August 6, 2023, when the 63rd season of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival will kick off in Old Louisville’s Central Park with free performances.

A great place to learn about the city’s Black history is on the Louisville Downtown Civil Rights Trail, a self-guided walking tour  downtown that takes you past 11 markers, each explaining sit-ins and events that occurred during the Civil Rights era push for desegregation. You can also visit the newly opened Roots 101 African American Museum. It’s “Protest to Progress” exhibition displays artifacts from the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and a large painting of late Louisville resident Breonna Taylor. 

Ali left an indelible mark on his hometown, one you can explore through tours and a museum that chronicles his life’s work. The Footsteps of Greatness self-guided walking tour traces Ali’s journey through the city streets, stopping by his childhood home, the gym where he first learned to box and his last resting place at the historic Cave Hill Cemetery, among other sites. 

After you finish walking, head to the Muhammad Ali Center to learn more about Ali’s history, view footage of his fights, practice your shadow boxing and educate yourself on his social justice endeavors.  

Eighteen of those 123 parks were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, known as the “Father of American Landscape Architecture” and designer of a little area in New York City known as Central Park. One of Olmsted’s original designs is Cherokee Park, a tranquil park circa 1891 that has a two-and-a-half-mile scenic loop, vast meadows and gently rolling hills spread out across 389 acres. The park is situated in the Beargrass Creek valley and has just about anything you could want from the great outdoors, including an archery range, bike trail, golf course, horseshoe pits, rugby field and even a dog run for Fido. Today, all of Olmsted’s masterpieces are maintained by the Olmsted Parks Conservatory, which works to preserve each slice of flourishing green space. 

Louisville is a fabulous place to travel to all year round, but visiting during Derby season is the proverbial cherry on top. Since 1875, the Kentucky Derby has been held at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of May, known as Derby Day. It’s the longest continuously running sporting event in the country, but the entire race lasts only two heart-pounding minutes as the horses gallop around the track. The Kentucky Derby Festival, however, runs for two weeks before the May race. During the festival, Derby lovers can don their seersuckers and wide-brimmed hats to numerous events, including daily waterfront festivities, block parties, parades, a wine festival, marathons, bike races and even a steamboat race featuring the historic Belle of Louisville. The pièce de résistance is the Thunder Over Louisville fireworks extravaganza, an annual tradition that kicks off the festival and is the largest fireworks display in North America. If you can’t make it to Louisville during Derby season, check out the Kentucky Derby Museum on the grounds of Churchill Downs. The expansive thoroughbred museum features exhibitions about jockeys, horses and owners and maintains a collection of historic Derby artifacts from former competitors. The museum also gives multiple walking tours of Churchill Downs, including a 20-minute stroll out to the historic race track — mint juleps not included.

Situated near the Conrad-Caldwell House Museum in Old Louisville, 610 Magnolia is the beloved brainchild of chef/owner Edward Lee, a James Beard finalist who has appeared on “Iron Chef America,” “Top Chef” and “Mind of a Chef.” If you love fine dining like we do, then the six-course prix fixe menu here can’t be missed. Chef Lee uses local and seasonal produce and meats to create a rotating menu of dishes that pair Louisville’s Southern influence with European-leaning techniques. The result is exciting dishes like carrot-almond panna cotta with snap peas, dry-aged squab with green lentils and sesame Brussels sprouts, and the mainstay dessert Bourbon Aficionado consisting of drunken banana cake, butterscotch, chocolate, Pappy maple syrup, corn, brown butter ice cream and smoke. Make sure to plan accordingly and make reservations at the popular eatery before you travel. 

Jack Fry’s was established in 1933, making it one of the oldest restaurants in Louisville. The restaurant was originally opened in The Highlands by Jack Fry and his dear wife Flossie. (Writer’s note: Flossie Fry is such a cool name.) The story goes that Jack loved horse racing, bootlegging and gambling, and the restaurant became known for attracting patrons who liked the same. After closing in the early ’70s, the restaurant opened a decade later in 1982 and has since undergone renovations to turn it into an upscale establishment. Today, Jack Fry’s serves fine dining staples like escargots, bone-in ribeye and veal tenderloin accompanied by a bourbon gastrique. Make a reservation here to make sure you have the chance to try stand-outs like crispy pimento cheese arancini and shrimp and grits with red-eye gravy. 

Beat the heat with a scoop of gourmet ice cream that goes beyond Baskin-Robbins and their beloved 31 flavors at Louisville Cream. The sweet downtown shop has been scooping its artisanal ice creams since 2014 and uses local dairy, preserves and fruits to concoct their creative flavors. Visitors can taste tried-and-true staples like chocolate or French vanilla ice creams, but the fun is in the shop’s unique varieties like bourbon baklava, pistachio honeycomb and root beer float ice cream. OK, maybe banana pudding and red velvet Swiss roll too – how delicious do those sound? Louisville Cream is the ideal treat after a long day on Museum Row or the Churchill Downs race track.  If you don’t have time to stop by the shop, you can find the ice cream at grocers around Louisville and restaurants like Mayan Café. 

Coffee and chocolate chip cookies are always a good idea. Luckily, owner Brooke Vaughn made that good idea a constant reality at Please & Thank You. The downtown location of this sweet spot opened just over a decade ago, and Vaughn has since opened two other locations in Louisville. Each eclectic café varies by design, with the flagship location boasting a jukebox so you can pair your cookies with tunes. The coffee here is just as important as the cookies, with innovative drinks like Thai iced coffee, rosemary lemonade (on the rocks, of course), a butterscotch latte and the decadent ganache latte with dark chocolate and mallows. If you’re looking for a quick, caffeinated snack on the go, opt for “The Basic,” a 12-ounce cup of hot coffee and a warm chocolate chip cookie for just $5. We’ll take one, please and thank you.

Shirley Mae’s Café is one of the most culturally significant restaurants in Louisville. Located in Smoketown, a neighborhood with historically Black residents dating back to the Civil War era, the restaurant is located in a 19th-century clay brick building owned by local legend Shirley Mae Beard. The restaurant first opened in 1988 and has been serving some of Louisville’s best soul food for 34 years. We’re talking barbecued ribs, house-made mac and cheese, Southern fried chicken wings and braised turnip greens, all made with love by Shirley Mae and her eldest daughter, Chef Theresa. Make sure you save some room for incredible desserts like blackberry cobbler, sweet potato pie and their famous b’nana puddin’. 

If Louisville had a Derby trail, Wagner’s Pharmacy would be a noteworthy stop along the way. The diner is celebrating its 100th year of service this year and has garnered a reputation as the go-to place for Derby folks looking for a reprieve. The eatery features a modest menu of American diner staples and is located less than a half a mile from Churchill Downs, earning it cameos in Kentucky-forward films like “Secretariat” and “Elizabethtown.” Rumor has it that equestrians used to come to Wagner’s Pharmacy after it was established in 1922 and buy cigarettes on credit. Over the years, the “World Famous Diner” walls slowly became covered with images of past Derby winners and notable individuals who had visited. Hungry tourists and jockeys can feast on the aptly named Trackside Platter, served hot with two biscuits, two eggs and a potato or tomato, or dine on the Derby sandwich with warm, honey-glazed ham, mayonnaise and melty Swiss cheese on a bun.