Went to Louisville in 2017 and had an amazing trip based out of Louisville. We booked an Air BNB near Audubon Park and it was awesome. Some people do the trail based out of Lexington or Bardstown. Louisville with a rental car is manageable and fun.
If you're in Louisville, Many liquor stores do tastings and can open up bottles that you could never afford for per ounce drinks, Tried a PVW 23 for $40 as opposed to trying to find a bottle. Totally worth it if you want to try this way. The one store that had an amazing selection of options and barrel picks was "Westport Wine and Whiskey" in Louisville.
As far as the distillery tours go, your mileage may vary depending on your interests and preferences.
Buffalo Trace- Out of all the tours, this one is a "Must go". beautiful scenery, Book the "Hard Hat" tour for the full experience (book early, fills up fast. Ask for Freddie as your guide if possible). Don't even think about buying Blanton's or hard to find bottles. They only had Wheatley Vodka and Buffalo trace in their shop. They have a huge gift shop as well. The tasting was their "White Dog" Un-aged distillate, Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, and then you could try their Bourbon Cream IIRC. Overall, if you only get to do one full tour/tasting experience, this should be it.
Woodford Reserve- Smaller grounds, nice tasting paired with chocolate in the tasting room. Bottling room access on tour was very interesting. Very loud too with the glass bottles. Very cleaned up tour and "higher end" it seemed like. Tasting was paired with chocolates and had notes and tasting wheels. They have a restaurant on site too.
Willett- Bardstown area distilleries are neat and less refined experiences than the bigger ones closer to the city. Willett had you tour the grounds and then gave you access to their gift shop. Willett has a whole experience now with a bed and breakfast/restaurant that wasn't there when I went. You can buy bottles in their shop that are harder to find and aren't as widely distributed. They also have a good tasting of all the different ones they make if you like their stuff.
Heaven Hill/Bourbon Heritage Center- Heaven Hill seems to dominate the Bardstown area. This was much more "museum-like" with a smaller tasting. Got to try the "Very Old Fitzgerald 12" in their tasting, just ask if they have it. Very good. They have a large gift shop with some rarer bottles of Elijah Craig if you're lucky.
Four Roses- We did the bottling plant tour which is much smaller than the main one. Very simple tasting of their yellow label, small batch and single barrel. Nothing too special on this one. Gift shop had a lot of options for gifts, tumblers, glasses, etc.
Makers Mark- The other "must visit" tour from our experience, the grounds are beautiful, the gift shop lets you dip your own bottle or anything you would like to dip in red wax, they also have a good tasting and selection. They've opened up their experimental lab and the Maker's 46 side of things. Cool to see how they warehouse it in a climate controlled environment. They have an amazing restaurant on the grounds too called "Star Hill" that was outstanding.
Jim Beam Urban Stillhouse- This was in Downtown Louisville and was a touristy place, but you can bottle your own custom bottle and have it engraved.
Angel's Envy- In the middle of downtown Louisville. This tour was great and had a great tasting with orange-chocolates.Their rye was one of the our favorites. All of the bourbon chocolates you sample at all the distilleries are made in Downtown Louisville not to far from there at Art Eatables. Pack a few for the trip home to have with whiskey later.
All the distillery tours are pretty similar, to be honest. A few really stand out to me, but overall its very similar.
We ate at some great restaurants, Doc Crows was great, Garage Bar was good too, especially their charcuterie. Haymarket was a cool dive bar with great bottles. The Eagle bar had great fried chicken and a cool beer hall atmosphere too. Feast BBQ had good BBQ and frozen whiskey and ginger ale.
Let me know if you want anymore recommendations.
