Group Trip on the Bourbon Trail

One of our favorite trips was the birthday trip that I planned for Chris last year. Chris likes planning. He plans most of our trips, and he is not a fan of surprises. So, I couldn’t completely surprise him with the trip, but he was surprised by the great planning and what a wonderful time he had. Chris is a fan of bourbon, so I thought it would be a great idea to take him and some friends on a bourbon tour.

It’s good I wasn’t trying to create a complete surprise, because I needed some input from Chris to design the perfect birthday bourbon tour. First I needed to know if he was even interested in a bourbon tour. Then I needed to know which distilleries he would like to visit and who he wanted to go on the trip with us. Once I had this information the preparation could begin. In this episode, we share how I laid out and planned the trip, and all of the fun things we did.

Show Notes

[04:22] The first thing that Di did when planning this trip was ask Chris key questions. You will get a really great experience if you hire one of the companies that offer tours.

[05:11] Chris looked at the guest list, and they were all bourbon fans. Chris is a fan of Blanton's bourbon, so they had to go to Buffalo Trace Distillery. 

[06:05] Some people on the guest list were fans of Woodford Reserve and Four Roses Bourbon, so these distilleries were also added to the tour.

[06:32] Chris chose the locations from a list where he had to choose the east or the south route.

[07:04] The tour is a full day tour that includes admission to most of the distilleries.

[07:18] While planning, we needed to know which route we were going to take and how many people were going to be on the tour.

[08:01] We were planning more than the day of touring. We had to plan how to get there and how to get home, because we had 13 people in our group.

[08:29] We needed to create an itinerary for a group that told people where to be and when to be there.

[09:12] We also rented a van, so we could all drive down together. 

[10:22] This was a 3-day weekend and the tour was planned for Saturday. We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Louisville.

[11:48] We arrived Friday afternoon, so we went to Churchill Downs horse track and had a couple of mint juleps. Di picked a winner that everyone bet on except Chris. 

[13:48] When we went back to the hotel, it was happy hour. They had free food and the waitresses bring you drinks. It was like a huge party. 

[15:53] Then we had dinner at a pizza place called Birracibo. The windows made it feel like we were sitting outside.

[16:56] That left the rest of the night for us to have fun on Fourth Street Live. This is where they have live concerts on the street, and there are bars and restaurants.

[17:51] The first place we went was the Sports and Social Club. They had cornhole, bowling, and beer pong. It was like a college bar for grownups. 

[20:07] Then we went to PBR the pro bull riding bar. It's a country bar where you dance. 

[21:10] We were right around the corner from the hotel. We had a big day in the morning, so we walked back. 

[21:28] We used Mint Julep Tours for our excursion. We also brought a cooler. 

[23:37] Our driver Dan picked us up early in the morning. We had a really nice private bus. 

[25:09] We saw famous horse farms on our way to Woodford Reserve. The grounds and buildings were beautiful and a bus took us to the distillery. 

[28:35] The storage warehouse with the stacked barrels was really interesting. Then we went into a tasting room. You get a row of bourbon and chocolate bourbon balls that pair with the whiskey. 

[32:56] We went to a restaurant called Addies. We had drinks and really good food. 

[33:49] Then Dan took us to Four Roses. At Four Roses, we had a quick tasting and then headed to Buffalo Trace. 

[37:55] We had another tour, and then it was time for the tasting. If you want a tour where you drink this is the one. 

[40:25] We got back to the hotel around 5:30 which was just in time to get ready for Chris's birthday dinner at Brendon’s Catch 23.

[41:35] It's good to make reservations beforehand when you have a large group. We had a great table, birthday cake, and a wonderful time.

[42:13] Di was thorough with the planning, but she also left some time for flexibility in the schedule. After dinner, we had time to go to the casino. 

[43:29] The next morning, we had a nice ride back and got to chat with our friends. 

Links and Resources:

Become a Fly Insider

Mint Julep Experiences

Fourth Street Live!

Embassy Suites hotel 501 S. Fourth Street, Louisville, KY 

Lyft  get up to $5 off with your first ride

Waldorf Astoria and the Conrad Hotel and Resorts Get a $100 daily credit when you stay 2 or more nights and book at least 3 days in advance

Blanton’s Bourbon

Buffalo Trace Distillery

Woodford Reserve

Four Roses Bourbon

Churchill Downs

The Sports and Social Club

PBR Louisville

Brendon’s Catch 23

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