The Bardstown Visitor Center is inside the old courthouse at 1 Court Square, the building in the middle of the square downtown. It’s open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., the staff can tell you what’s on this week, and the free visitor guide and maps cost nothing. Weekend hours vary, so call (502) 348-4877 before a Saturday stop. Even if you never go inside, the square around it is the best place to start a walk: the 1779 Talbott Tavern, the old jail and John Fitch’s monument are all within a few steps.
Where it is and how to get in
Court Square is where North Third Street (US 31E) meets Stephen Foster Avenue (US 150), and the courthouse sits in the middle of it. The Nelson County Courthouse building dates to 1892 and is one of the contributing buildings in the Bardstown Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1983. The tourism office occupies space inside; some listings give it as suite 102.
Cross carefully: Third Street and Stephen Foster Avenue are both through highways, so use the crosswalks.
Park for free on the surrounding streets or in the public lot at 113 E. Flaget Ave., a block north. The getting around and parking guide has more options.
Hours and contact
Visit Bardstown’s travel information page lists the office as open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern. Saturday and Sunday hours have changed over the years and by season, and different listings disagree, so treat weekend opening as a maybe and phone first.
- Phone: (502) 348-4877
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: visitbardstown.com
The office is run by the Bardstown-Nelson County Tourist & Convention Commission. Nelson County’s 3 percent transient room tax helps fund it, so your hotel bill is paying for the maps.
What to pick up and ask about
Come with a few specific questions and you’ll get far more out of a five-minute stop.
The free visitor guide. Visit Bardstown publishes a free guide you can download from its site before you travel. It’s a good overview of attractions, lodging and dining listings, with a map.
This week’s events. Staff know what’s happening on any given weekend, from Friday-night concerts in the park to living-history days at the Civil War museum. The events calendar on this site covers the year, but local desks hear about the small things first.
Walking-tour options. Visit Bardstown lists a Historic Downtown Walking Tour based at One Court Square. Ask what’s running and when, or follow the self-guided walking tour at your own pace.
Distillery questions. Each distillery sells its own tickets online, so book directly. Staff can help you sort out which ones are open on the days you’re in town, which is worth knowing: Willett closes on Sundays and Bardstown Bourbon Company runs no tours on Mondays or Tuesdays.
Transportation. If you haven’t lined up a designated driver, ask who’s running private tours that week.
The same building also houses the Bardstown Tour House (One Court Square, #101, (502) 348-9545), a separate visitor-information business. Don’t confuse the two when you call.
Planning help before you arrive
You don’t have to be in town to use the office. Weekend visitors, who may find the door closed, get more out of a weekday phone call or an email to [email protected] while they’re still planning. A few questions are worth asking ahead:
- Which weekends are busiest for your dates, and whether a festival or a big concert at Log Still’s amphitheater is filling rooms.
- Group planning. Visit Bardstown keeps a group-lodging list of hotels that handle blocks of rooms, useful for weddings, reunions and bourbon clubs.
- Special releases and events that don’t make national listings, such as the Bardstown Collection, a Bardstown-only bottling from several local distilleries, due for release on November 19, 2026.
For the quick facts most people call about (drive times, the closest airport, the weather), this site’s getting to Bardstown guide has the answers.
About that Bourbon Trail passport
Older guides tell you to pick up a Kentucky Bourbon Trail passport and collect stamps. That program is over. The Kentucky Distillers’ Association retired the Passport & Field Guide after July 1, 2025, and now points visitors to a free online planner called Build Your Own Bourbon Trail. There are no stamps to collect at the courthouse or at the distilleries. The official Kentucky Bourbon Trail welcome center is at the Frazier History Museum in Louisville, not in Bardstown. For how the merged trail works now, read the Bourbon Trail from Bardstown.
What’s around Court Square
Step outside and you’re surrounded by the town’s oldest stories:
- The Old Talbott Tavern, 107 W. Stephen Foster Ave., built in 1779 and still serving hot browns and burgoo daily.
- The John Fitch monument on the square. Fitch made the first successful steamboat run on the Delaware River in 1787, died in Bardstown in 1798, and was reburied here under a monument Congress paid for in 1927. His story includes a replica of his first boat.
- Jailer’s Inn, the old Nelson County jail from 1819, now a bed and breakfast, half a block west, with the Old Pioneer Cemetery behind it.
- Circa 1856, Chicken Cock Whiskey’s tasting room in the big yellow house across from the Talbott.
- Hurst Drug at 102 N. Third St., with an old-fashioned soda fountain inside a working pharmacy (closed Sundays).
- Bardstown for the Arts, a cooperative gallery for more than 40 local artists, now at 110 N. Third St.
Hadorn’s Bakery is a block away on West Flaget, so the ideal weekday visitor center stop starts at 7:30 a.m. with a Yum Yum and ends at 8:30 a.m. when the office opens (Hadorn’s is closed Mondays).
Court Square events through the year
The square is Bardstown’s living room. Cheers to Bardstown fills the area with music, food and cocktails on Kentucky Bourbon Festival Saturday. The free Halloween Spooktacular brings trick-or-treating downtown in late October (Tuesday, October 27, in 2026). Light Up Bardstown switches on the town’s Christmas tree, lampposts and wreaths on the Friday after Thanksgiving, with North Third Street closed from Flaget to Court Square from 5 p.m. The Kiwanis Christmas Parade follows on the first Thursday of December. On any of those days, arrive early for parking.
Other places to get visitor information
A few other desks help fill gaps. My Old Kentucky Home State Park has its own visitor center, where same-day mansion tour tickets are sold in person. Distillery visitor centers, such as the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience, are the best source for their own tours and releases. For bars and restaurants inside the walkable downtown, Circa 1856’s page and the Main Street directory list current hours.
Pair it with
Start your first morning here, then walk the square and head to My Old Kentucky Home for the 9 or 10 a.m. mansion tour. The one day in Bardstown itinerary builds a full day around that start.
