Feel the excitement build as your flight descends into Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati Airport. Pick up your hire car and make your way to your hotel, where you can relax after your flight, or drop off your bags and head out to explore the city.

For a first taste of Kentucky bourbon, try Mainstrasse Village or Roebling Pointe, where you will find a collection of characterful bars, often with live music into the night.

Embassy Suites Cincinnati – RiverCenter or similar

Depart Covington this morning and head south towards the state capital, Frankfort, roughly a 1.5 hour drive. A small, welcoming city on the banks of the Kentucky River, Frankfort is home to Buffalo Trace, who offer a range of tours of their iconic, and expanding, distillery.

Downtown, enjoy a ride on the free Frankfort Trolley (Tuesday to Saturday, April to October), before getting back on the bourbon trail with a visit to Castle & Key, who will be pleased to show you around their magnificent premises, complete with towers and turrets, or prepare for you an ‘Old Fashioned’ to drink in their beautifully kept gardens.

The drive from Frankfort to Lexington, where you’ll be staying for two nights, takes around 40 minutes.

Covington > Frankfort > Lexington 105 miles

Hilton Lexington/Downtown

Lexington has a great range of artisan coffee shops and bakeries for a leisurely breakfast. After which, wonder down to the city’s aptly named ‘Distillery District’, home to the James E. Pepper Distillery and Barrel House Distilling Co., which both offer tastings and tours. 10 minutes by taxi takes you to Bluegrass Distillery, established in 2012, where you can try their unique Blue Corn Bourbon.

Lexington is also the self-proclaimed ‘Horse Capital of the World’ with over 450 thoroughbred and standardbred farms in and around the city. For equine enthusiast, the Kentucky Horse Park has a number of museums and holds regular events, and in April and October you can catch an afternoon of racing at the Keeneland Race Course.

Hilton Lexington/Downtown or similar

‘Aging since 1780’, Bardstown in bourbon central. It’s just over an hour’s drive west from Lexington, giving you plenty of time to explore the wonderful Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History, before enjoying a tour and tasting at the stylish and state-of-the-art Bardstown Bourbon Company, or the historic Willet Distillery, who specialise in hand-crafted, small batch and single barrel rare selections.

15 miles northwest of Bardstown, on the edge of the Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest, is one of the Kentucky’s best known exporters, the James B. Beam Distilling Co., makers of Jim Beam. A range of tours and cocktail making sessions are available. Take the chance to explore the forest too; there are a number of trails to choose from.

Lexington > Bardstown 60 miles

Hampton Inn Bardstown or similar

This morning, travel west to Owensboro, around a 2 hour journey journey. On the southern banks of the Ohio River, Owensboro is the spiritual home of bluegrass music (think banjo, guitar, mandolin, double bass, fiddle, and unavoidable foot tapping!). Learn more at the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum, perhaps before visiting the Green River Distillery for a tour or ‘Sit & Sip’ session. In the evening, why not try mutton BBQ for dinner, a Kentucky speciality, before checking out who’s playing in town.

Bardstown > Owensboro 110 miles

Hampton Inn & Suites Downtown Waterfront or similar

Last stop Louisville. There are several distilleries within walking distance of each other in the city centre, that offer tours and tastings, including Old Forester, Angle’s Envy and Copper & Kings. And to see where it all started in 1783 (before Kentucky was officially a State), stop by the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience on ‘Whiskey Row’.

You have two days to explore this energetic city, with the Muhammad Ali Center and Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory both worth a visit, as well as Churchill Downs, for first class horse racing between April and June and October and November.

Owensboro > Louisville 105 miles

The Seelbach Hilton or similar

Your Kentucky bourbon tour comes to end today. Head north from Louisville to Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati Airport to catch your flight (a couple of bottles in your bag to share your Kentucky experience when you get home!).