Whether you’re into live music, craft beer, chef-driven cuisine, American history, family fun or exploring the outdoors, there’s a Kentucky experience for you.

Churchill Downs

No matter how long you’re visiting, there are endless ways to keep you busy. From handcrafted bourbon to culinary traditions, make memories in the Bluegrass State. Kentucky’s can-do spirit is alive and well throughout The Bluegrass State. You can see it in the jockeys who race majestic thoroughbreds to victory at the Kentucky Derby, and taste it through the master distillers who craft 95% of the world’s bourbon.

HOUSEBOAT CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

Inspiring landscapes and adventures abound in Kentucky – on land, on water and even underground.

Here you’ll find hikes and horseback rides on rolling hills of the bluegrass. Rock formations that draw climbers from around the world. Mountains that sing with history and adventure. Wild rivers that beckon paddlers and anglers. The longest known cave system on earth. And lakes that make Kentucky the ‘Houseboat Capital of the World.’

Discover the legendary places and experiences that inspired Daniel Boone to proclaim: ‘Heaven must be a Kentucky kind of place.’

THE COUNTRY MUSIC HIGHWAY

The shimmer of an Appalachian dulcimer. The woody lilt of a fiddle. Even the burble of a mountain creek or the rhythmic clip-clop of a horse’s hooves. Music knows no bounds in Kentucky.

Brandi Carlisle | Railbird2019

As the birthplace of bluegrass, Kentucky’s impact on American music is profound, and the state’s musical roots extend all around the Commonwealth – from Rosine, home of ‘Father of Bluegrass’ Bill Monroe, to the Country Music Highway, a tuneful stretch of Eastern Kentucky where more than a dozen country legends got their start. If you want to get to the soul of Kentucky, all you’ve got to do is open your ears.

For country music fans, the hills and hollers surrounding U.S. 23, AKA the Country Music Highway, are hallowed ground. Music and storytelling traditions run deep in this part of Kentucky, which has produced more hit country artists than any other region per capita, including Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gayle, The Judds, Chris Stapleton, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tom T. Hall, Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Dwight Yoakam and Patty Loveless.

BLUEGRASS CULINARY SPECIALTIES

Food traditions in Kentucky are older than the state, but this is also a destination that’s on the culinary cutting edge. Feast on farm-to-fork cuisine crafted by world-class chefs with products supplied by Kentucky Proud farmers. Discover Bluegrass specialties from Hot Browns to bourbon balls, and beer cheese to West Kentucky barbecue. Indulge in epic food experiences all around the Commonwealth from gourmet restaurants to hole-in-the-wall diners, where you just might have the best meal of your life. Plan your foodie trip or try a recipe, and pass the burgoo!

Ottos Kentucky Culinary

FRIENDLY, WARM AND WELCOMING

Kentucky culture is diverse and distinctive, from Daniel Boone, to Abraham Lincoln, to Muhammad Ali. Civil War battlefields and small town Main Streets are here, plus urban delights too. Kentucky is horses, bourbon and ice cold Ale 8 on a hot sunny day, and folk artists and poets, spiritual pioneers, musicians, chefs and African-American trailblazers. There are the bright fall colours of the Red River Gorge on a crisp clear day, and the strains of bluegrass music like you’ve never heard it played floating on the breeze of a summer evening in a little town you never knew existed.

This is a place where the people are friendly, warm and welcoming, with a culture made rich on the strength of countless stories, traditions and unique encounters that offer experiences found only in the Bluegrass State. Travel advisors – and their clients – are invited to explore the possibilities and plan a trip to Kentucky today!

For all the latest destination details about Kentucky see https://travelsouth.visittheusa.com/en-ca/state/kentucky.