witravelmom

Hello!

We are a family of four, kids 9 and 5 (almost 6) who will be road tripping from Wisconsin to Kentucky in mid March during our spring break. We picked this location as it fits with about an 8 hour drive from our home. We are looking for ideas of how to plan the 7 days. We will have 9 days total, but two days will be spent traveling back and forth. My kids travel well and we will mix things up with places for the kids, some history for the adults and nature for both. We like to stay active on trips, but will also need to carve out pool time at hotels for the kids. I am specifically looking for how much time to spend in certain area. We have some places in mind, but are not attached to anything in particular. I guess I am looking for some routes suggestions for what is doable with the time that we have. Here are some things that have come up with our search of places we would like to see: Mammoth Caves, Slugger Museum, Louisville Science Center, Louisville zoo, Mega Caverns, Newport Aquarium, Shaker Village, Abraham Lincoln sites, horse farm (racing history) and Red River Gorge and Natural Bridge State Park.

What is doable from that list in 7 days and anything you think we are missing from our list that are good for kids. I think we would only like to move hotels up to 3 times, so can do day trips from some of those locations. If you have any ideas for hotels/lodging that would be great especially if they are unique.
Thanks!

Gretchen

You might enjoy Pleasant Hill--a resstored Quaker community. Around Lexington are the horse farms and an exhibit--Kentucky Horse Farm, or something like that?

rncheryl

A couple of suggestions: we were shut out of a Mammoth Cave tour without reservations. So plan ahead. Will probably apply to horse farm tours as well.

We were surprised how much we enjoyed a tour of Churchill Downs. We did the Behind the Scenes Walking Tour.
https://www.derbymuseum.org/plan-a-visit/tours.

Enjoy: Kentucky is beautiful and the people are friendly.

witravelmom

Thank you for the ideas. I did hear that it is very important to make sure you do reservations for the Mammoth Caves in advance.

Here is what I am thinking regarding itinierary. Again nothing set in stone and we will likely take things out, but here is what I am thinking and what we can do from each location.

Arrive Sat March 16th and stay for 3 nights in Louisville. I am thinking we will not have much time there the first day. During this time we would like to do Slugger Museum, Mega Caverns, Louisville zoo, Louisville Science Center, and maybe Churchill Downs.

Tuesday March 19th stay over somewhere near Mammoth Cave with plans to do the cave this day. Any other ideas in this area?

2 nights in Lexington area (Wed March 20th-Thurs 21st). Maybe a horse farm if we don't get to Churchill Downs, Abe Lincoln sites, and Shaker Village. Day trip to Red River Gorge and Covered Bridge.

1 night (Fri March 22nd) stay near Newport so kids can do aquarium either later on Friday or right away on Saturday. From there we will head back to Wisconsin.

I realize that I may have overbooked us for a few areas and will take out things as needed. Would you add additional days to some locations and take away from others or reverse the order that we do things? Anything we are missing that our kids would miss?

exiledprincess

Besides the fact that the weather can still be pretty "iffy" in mid-March (our last wintery mix in NW-to-NC IN last year was in late April), the current partial government shutdown is affecting the National Park Service. It may go on for some time, per some media sources. You should verify how it would affect any visit to any national park, such as Mammoth Caves.

It might be wise for you to make an "alternative indoor" list for your other destinations as well, just to be on the safe side.

Are you going south on I65 to Louisville? If so, you might wish to consider the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, if that is of interest to your group.

witravelmom

With being from Wisconsin we are quite familiar with the weather being iffy and will be willing to change our plans as needed each day for weather related issues. Good point about the issues with the National Parks. It seems that there are other caves in the area if this extends into March.

We haven't worked out our plan for what route we will take to Kentucky yet. I appreciate the suggestions of something to do along the way to break up the trip and will look into this.

For what we would ideally like to do from above did we give enough time knowing we need to change this as we go for each location: 3 nights Louisville, 1 night near Mammoth Cave, 2 nights Lexington area and 1 night near Newport?

exiledprincess

Yes - did see that you are from WI from your screen name. But up that far north, you are more likely to have snow at that time of the year. Whereas going further to the south at some points along this drive, it's more likely to be a wintery mix (snow/rain/sleet/ice). Driving any of those interstates, through the flat rural areas, in that type of weather is no picnic.

Of course, anything can happen at that time of the year. You could have 70 d F one day and 20 d F the next. Just that roller-coaster type of weather at that time of year (mid-March into April, especially).

JMHO, you need to revisit the amount of time you have scheduled for traveling, even if the weather is decent. Especially if you are planning on driving around the Chicagoland area (not just Chicago but the 'burbs and the surrounding areas). Just a word to the wise: Make sure that you avoid the weekday rush hour traffic which is basically from 6 a.m.-9:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. That will slow your travel down a lot.

TDudette

I didn't read carefully your exact itinerary but agree with all of the above....especially the Shaker Village. Just north (I think) of Louisville is the Kentucky Horse Park. If you don't get to the very interesting Churchill Downs museum (and if you do!), it is very interesting:

https://kyhorsepark.com/

In Louisville, the Louisville Slugger Museum might be of interest:

https://www.sluggermuseum.com/

Downtown Louisville used to be hotel, art, music and theatre friendly---others can update you here.

I enjoyed the Stephen Foster home and show and a tour of a bourbon maker place.

The park system is first-rate--nice hotels state-wide.

Have a great time and please report back!

Gretchen

If you are spending a night in Newport you ought to cross the river and see Cincinnati. It has some interesting German background.

witravelmom

There is so much to see and do. I did think about adding some time in Cincinnati. I heard they also have a nice zoo. If those who have been to both Louisville and Cincinnati zoo have an opinion on which one is better let me know. My husband is huge into German background stuff and I did not realize it was big in this area.

I think generally we will stick to the loop I suggested above and maybe move add a day or take a day away from some location. We will have 7 full days in Kentucky with 2 days for traveling to and from, so 9 days total. I am thinking now 2 days in Louisville, 2 nights near Mammoth Caves, 2 nights in Lexington and then 1 night in Newport/Cincinnati area. We can also reverse the order and start in Newport area and then leave for WI from Louisville. If anyone has suggestions on the best way to do the loop We will have the Sunday the 24th for an extra travel day back if we need to adjust for bad weather or traffic.

Once we have our order in place we will sit down as a family and decide what we would best want to see with some back-up options in place. I think we will limit ourselves to two activities/sites/attractions per day and then add if we have energy.

Thanks for the suggestion of the Stephen Foster home and that may be a great idea to add in if the weather does not cooperate. While I would love to do some bourbon tasting/tours with two kids I think we will need to pass on this. We have the Kentucky Horse Farm on our list.