Downtown Bardstown is easy: park for free on the street or in a public lot off Flaget Avenue, and walk. Court Square, the Old Talbott Tavern, the Basilica, the Getz Museum and a string of tasting rooms and bourbon bars are a few blocks apart. Everything else takes wheels. My Old Kentucky Home is a mile east, the in-town distilleries sit on the edges of Bardstown, and the bigger names are 20 to 35 minutes out in the countryside. No public transit serves the town and rideshare is hit or miss, so a car, a tour company or a sober friend is part of every good plan here.
Parking downtown
Parking in Bardstown is refreshingly low-stress. Street spaces around Court Square and along North Third Street, Stephen Foster Avenue and Flaget Avenue are free; check posted signs for time limits. Chicken Cock’s Circa 1856 page points visitors to street parking on South Third Street and Stephen Foster Avenue, and to a public lot at 113 E. Flaget Ave. Locals also point visitors to a free city lot between Third and Fourth streets off Flaget, one block from the old courthouse, and Mammy’s Kitchen directs overflow to the city lot behind the restaurant. No paid garages turned up in town.
A few spots need extra planning:
- The Rickhouse restaurant, in the basement of Spalding Hall, has limited parking and an entrance that’s easy to miss. Look for the cast-iron gates under the old stone stairs on Xavier Drive.
- The Civil War museum complex on East Broadway includes free parking with admission.
- On Arts & Crafts Festival weekend in October, booths take over the City Hall and Parks & Recreation lots and the streets around Spalding Hall. Park farther out and walk in.
- During the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in September, parking is on the street or in cash lots nearby, and the festival runs a paid $30-a-day shuttle from a Louisville hotel.
What you can walk to
Pick a downtown bed and you can leave the car parked for most of a day. Everything in the table below is within a few blocks of Court Square.
| Stop | Where | From Court Square |
|---|---|---|
| Old Talbott Tavern | 107 W. Stephen Foster Ave. | On the square |
| Bardstown Visitor Center | 1 Court Square | In the old courthouse |
| Jailer’s Inn and Old Pioneer Cemetery | 111 W. Stephen Foster Ave. | Half a block |
| Circa 1856 tasting room | 103 E. Stephen Foster Ave. | Across from the Talbott |
| Hadorn’s Bakery | 118 W. Flaget St. | About a block |
| Basilica of St. Joseph | 310 W. Stephen Foster Ave. | A few blocks west |
| Spalding Hall, Getz Museum, the Rickhouse | 114 N. Fifth St. / Xavier Dr. | A few blocks northwest |
| Civil War museums | 310 E. Broadway | A few blocks east |
| My Old Kentucky Home State Park | 501 E. Stephen Foster Ave. | About 1 mile east |
My Old Kentucky Home is walkable on a mild day, but most people drive the mile, especially with a 9 a.m. tour or an 8 p.m. show at the amphitheater. The self-guided walking tour strings the downtown stops into a route.
Outside the historic core, Bardstown turns car-dependent. Walk Score rates the city as a whole low, and the chain hotels on Chambers Boulevard, Morton Avenue, Frost Avenue and East John Rowan Boulevard are a five-minute drive from the square. If walking to dinner matters, where to stay compares the neighborhoods.
Getting to the distilleries
Bardstown’s distilleries fall into three rings. Heaven Hill (Gilkey Run Road), Willett (Loretto Road), Bardstown Bourbon Company (Parkway Drive), Lux Row and Preservation (Sutherland Road) are on the edges of town, each a short drive from Court Square. Circa 1856 and the Old SteelHouse tasting room are downtown and walkable. The rest sit out in the county and beyond, with these routing times from Court Square (add 10 to 20 percent for real-world driving):
| Destination | Miles | Drive (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Four Roses Warehouse & Bottling, Cox’s Creek | 11.8 | 18 min |
| Log Still Distillery, Gethsemane | not measured | about 20 min |
| James B. Beam Distilling Co., Clermont | 15.5 | 24 min |
| Bernheim Forest, Clermont | 15.8 | 27 min |
| Maker’s Mark, Loretto | 20.6 | 34 min |
| Limestone Branch, Lebanon | 27.7 | 34 min |
Two quirks to know. You can’t drive to Heaven Hill Springs Distillery; the tour boards a shuttle at the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience. And Kentucky law allows one tour experience per distillery per day, so a second visit to the same place means a second day.
Who drives? Your options
Settle this before the first tasting. Kentucky takes impaired driving seriously, the roads between distilleries are two-lane, curvy and unlit, and a “small pour” at four stops adds up. Your realistic choices:
A designated driver from your group. Your driver can still take the tours (ask when you book whether a non-tasting option exists), and Heaven Hill runs a designated-driver program. It’s the cheapest option, and the driver still gets the tour, the gift shop and lunch.
A local tour company. Kentucky Bourbon Boys, family-run since 2011, is the one Kentucky Bourbon Trail transportation partner based in Bardstown; it builds custom private days and can be reached at (502) 777-0761. The trail’s transportation partner list names about a dozen more, most based in Louisville or Lexington.
A hotel shuttle. The Trail Hotel runs a distillery shuttle for guests, coordinated by its “Bourbon Butler” service.
Rideshare and taxis. Visit Bardstown’s transportation page mentions both but names no providers. You may find a car downtown, but getting one back from a rural distillery at 5 p.m. is a gamble. Book ahead instead.
The bourbon tours and transportation guide compares operators and prices, and drinking responsibly covers Kentucky’s alcohol laws for visitors.
Walking with a drink: the Bourbon Capital District
Downtown Bardstown has a designated Bourbon Capital District where you can carry a drink bought from a licensed vendor inside the district between noon and 9 p.m., every day. It makes a gallery stroll or a walk between tasting rooms more fun. Stay inside the district, finish or toss the drink when you leave it, and never carry one into your car.
Getting around with limited mobility
Downtown is old, and so is much of its infrastructure, so expect curbs and steps. Many historic inns and restaurants are in 19th-century buildings with stairs; the Rickhouse, for one, is down a flight of steps, with possible step-free access through the bar. Among distilleries, Log Still describes itself as fully ADA-compliant. The accessibility guide goes into lodging, tours and parking in more detail.
Quick tips
- Arrive in daylight if you’re new to the area; the county roads are dark at night.
- Carry cash for small purchases. Hurst Drug’s soda fountain, for one, adds a card surcharge.
- Fill up on fuel in town before a loop to Loretto, Lebanon or Gethsemane.
- Book dinner downtown on distillery days so the last drive of the day ends at your hotel, and walk from there.
- On Bourbon Festival and Arts & Crafts weekends, park once in the morning and don’t move the car until you leave.
- Stop by the Bardstown Visitor Center on Court Square for a paper map and current event parking notes.
