Not sure what to do on your next vacation? Check out this list of the top 15 activities in Kentucky, USA that you won’t want to miss! From strolling around and exploring parks, all the way up through sightseeing tours and historical landmarks – we’ve got something for everyone. Get ready for an unforgettable experience!
The Best Thing To Do in Kentucky
Ark Encounter
- Address: 1 Ark Encounter Dr, Williamstown, KY 41097, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (27573)
- Phone: +1 859-727-2222
- Website: Link
- Opening hours:
Monday: ClosedTuesday: ClosedWednesday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PMThursday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PMFriday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PMSaturday: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PMSunday: Closed
5 Replies to 15 Cool and Unusual Things to Do in Kentucky
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Top 15 Things To Do Kentucky, USA
Mammoth Cave National Park
- Address: Kentucky, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (9921)
- Phone: +1 270-758-2180
- Website: Link
- Reviews:
I had not been in many years. The visitor center is much nicer now. We booked the Extended Historic Tour. The tickets are easily bought online. We gathered at a nearby shelter where our guide told us a bit about the tour and what it would entail. We then walked to the cave entrance. Inside is quite an amazing experience. With the Extended tour, you get to see remnants of the huts where TB patients were kept in attempt to treat their disease. Our tour guide was fabulous in telling us about the cave an its history. The tour is a little over two miles and two hours. There are quite a few steps/stairs. However, there are several breaks (with benches for sitting) where the tour guide talks about the cave. There are other tours available to match your level of fitness and what you might to see there. Highly recommended.By Stuart Yancy (6 months ago)Tour was nice. Well organized, but the caves didn’t have a lot of natural formations. One part of our tour did, but the rest was a long walk through the cave. We took the Grand Avenue tour, very challenging for my wife and I (fairly decent shape for approaching 60). If you are here you kinda have to check out mammoth caves, but we enjoyed some one of the local privately owned caves much more. Crystal Onyx Caves where amazing. See my review on Google.By Don Konrath (A Day In the Life) (6 months ago)This was a great National Park. Quite large, but the sites are spacious and somewhat private. There are no amenities, such as water or electricity, so generators might be nice. We did well with just boondocks g and a pumpkin at the end. Very nice bathrooms everywhere. The small camp store is well stocked with basics and there was a laundry and post office. We took two tours, one we bussed to, and one was a walk to the original entrance and inside. Both were ranger led and our rangers were excellent and very well informed. So worthwhile. A great visitors center with gifts galore and it is here where you arrange your tours. Great experience.By Amy Del Prete (8 months ago)One of my favorite national parks to visit! We did the historic tour that was 2 hours long with two small children under 8. This tour was rated as a moderate hike but they were able to do it! There are more ideal hikes for smaller children but my youngest child of 5 was able to do this one. Make sure to visit this park in the fall when all the leaves are changing colors. It is a beautiful park!By Kenneth Giraldo (3 months ago)This is a very very beautiful, calm, family friendly park. We took the Mammoth Cave tour and it was a fabulous experience! Make sure you check ahead about times and you may want to book ahead. The tour guides (they refer to themselves as rangers, but they are definitely not full force Park rangers.. more like Yogi Bear rangers) are very knowledgeable and give useful information throughout the tour. Unfortunately there were some rowdy small children on our tour, so that impeded the enjoyment a bit unfortunately… so be mindful of the crowd you are taking the tour with. There are all kinds of Hands-On experiences to enjoy while waiting for tours to start.. as well as overpriced gift shops. Food concessions, hiking trails, picnic areas,.. just about everything you can think of is here. There are even cabin rentals, a hotel and a post office! Be mindful that the visitor center closes fairly early evening and they also close their restrooms. I would definitely plan to spend a few days but also a day trip is worth it if you are in the area. We do not have an rv, but I can say that there were dumb spots and ample parking spaces.By MicheLLe HoLLifieLd (9 months ago)
Cumberland Falls State Resort Park
- Address: 7351 KY-90, Corbin, KY 40701, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (7108)
- Phone: +1 606-528-4121
- Website: Link
- Opening hours:
Monday: Open 24 hoursTuesday: Open 24 hoursWednesday: Open 24 hoursThursday: Open 24 hoursFriday: Open 24 hoursSaturday: Open 24 hoursSunday: Open 24 hours
- Reviews:
Very relaxing. Good for photos, kids, hikers, fisher people. Loved the Cumberland Falls, caught a rainbow photo. The hours for the park staff are limited though, they seem short-staffed. The coffee cart guy didn’t show up that day, which was a total bummer. But the mining for gems was excellent (you buy the gems from the gift shop) and the park environment is so well maintained. Paths are clean, easy to walk. Steps have metal handrails. Be sure and observe the railed off areas. Don’t go there! The morning we were there a lady fell off one of the rocky outcrops and went over the falls. She had dropped her phone.By Lisa Stansbury (4 months ago)Don’t forget to use Hᴏᴛᴇʟʙoʟʟʏ.ᴄᴏm when booking a room. This site will compare hundreds of booking websites and normally will have prices much cheaper than others! Thank me later on! This hotel is one of the best in the area. I have been coming here for a long time. If you decide to stay here you for sure will love it I’m sure!
Such a beautiful park with amazing views! There is a trail to follow that leads to different angles to see the waterfall. Trail is not difficult at all. Not crowded when we visited during the week. Parking is close to the entrance where the gift shop is. This is definitely on my list to visit again.
By Carlos Campbell (5 months ago)Had a blast !! The falls were absolutely beautiful and the many trails are scenic with nature . And as a bonus there are 2 more waterfalls hidden along the trails. Dog slaughter falls and eagle creek falls. Would definitely recommend a day trip here or camp out for the week. Go check it out for yourself you won’t be disappointed.By JoJo Carpenter (4 months ago)It was a nice affordable vacation spot. The staff was super friendly and the location was beautiful. The horse ride was very fun. And the hikes are tree covered which helped in 99 deg weather. Unfortunately the pool was closed. The food at the restaurant wasn’t so good and unfortunately the food in the closest town over was really bad too. There was no refrigerator in the room. So we couldn’t bring our own food either. The fall is very nice, but it was difficult to find the photo opportunity and observation deck ( all the way in the back corner there are some stairs that take you down). Despite the food shortage we enjoyed our time there.By Tanya Wells (VidaWells) (6 months ago)This is our 2nd time coming here. We really love this place. It is very handicap accessible. The fall is absolutely beautiful. They have restrooms and a visitor center a snack bar and funnel cake food truck. Lots of parking too. We stayed at a nearby campground so it was really easy to drive the 5 miles to get there and have a great time.By Sherry Clay (4 months ago)
Louisville Mega Cavern
- Address: 1841 Taylor Ave, Louisville, KY 40213, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.5 (7047)
Kentucky Horse Park
- Address: 4089 Iron Works Pkwy, Lexington, KY 40511, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (4297)
Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo
- Address: at Exit 58, 3700 L and North Turnpike Road, I-65, Horse Cave, KY 42749, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.5 (3210)
Dinosaur World
- Address: 711 Mammoth Cave Rd, Cave City, KY 42127, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.4 (2787)
Fort Boonesborough State Park
- Address: 4375 Boonesboro Rd, Richmond, KY 40475, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.5 (1744)
Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill
- Address: 3501 Lexington Rd, Harrodsburg, KY 40330, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.6 (1716)
Raven Run Nature Sanctuary
- Address: 3885 Raven Run Wy, Lexington, KY 40515, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.8 (1213)
Ashland – The Henry Clay Estate
- Address: 120 Sycamore Rd, Lexington, KY 40502, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (684)
Mary Todd Lincoln House
- Address: 578 W Main St, Lexington, KY 40507, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.6 (528)
Conrad-Caldwell House Museum
- Address: 1402 St James Ct, Louisville, KY 40208, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.8 (371)
White Hall State Historic Site
- Address: 500 White Hall Shrine Rd, Richmond, KY 40475, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.7 (275)
Apple Valley Hillbilly Garden and Toyland
- Address: 9351 US-68, Calvert City, KY 42029, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.6 (191)
Kentucky State Capitol
- Address: 700 Capital Ave, Frankfort, KY 40601, United States
- Map: Click here
- Rating: 4.6 (169)
That’s it for our list of the best things to do in Kentucky! If you have any arguments or additional information, please leave a comment. We love to hear from our readers too!
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Pros: beautiful, much bigger than expected, informative, interesting, lots to see and do.
Wheelchair, walker and stroller friendly. Staff is friendly and helpful.
Cons: take your own drinks unless you want to pay $3.17 for a soda and $2.50 for water. Parking is $15,
Went Memorial Day weekend and naturally it was very crowded. Things to buy there are too expensive.
But experience was great! Glad we made the trip to go.
You’ll spend a good 3-5 hours there and not even mean to. There are 3 levels, multiple snack shops, restroom on every floor, gift shop on ground floor. There are little cafes outside the Ark with seating on the outside, the zoo is next to the Ark as well. You park, then you are bussed up to the Ark.
highly recommend going.
Awesome experience! We took our 9 year old grandson and we had a great time. The amount of reading in the displays is overwhelming but great, great information. The camel ride and Virtual Reality experience were our grandson’s favorites. The food at the all you can eat buffet was all very good and at a reasonable price. Everything was reasonably priced, especially compared to Disney or other major attractions. The quality of everything was on the level of a Disney experience but for a lot less!
What an awesome experience! Great for all ages. My 2.5 year old loved it, my husband and I loved it, and my parents loved it. Really puts it in perspective from your childhood thought process of a big boat. The ark held all the animals! This ark encounter sure gave you a real life feel for what is believed to be as accurate as possible. Play areas for kids. A zoo connected to it with some interesting animals! Allow the entire day for fun….we had to cut ourselves short unfortunately. We will definitely be back!
They offer stroller rental. Only $10!!!! Worth it, especially without the hassle of bringing your own.
This was amazing! I’m so thankful that we were finally able to see this! Very well done, so lifelike! This was well researched and very informative. They answered any question you could think of about the Ark, the animals, what it must have been like, and how could it all have been done. We also saw the virtual encounter that took us back in time to the Ark & the flood! We loved it all! We bought a ticket bundle with the creation museum and saved a little bit. We went to creation museum the day before, then a full day at the ark.
First time visiting the ark and it was AMAZING!!! What a great experience. Very biblical oriented and You’re immediately overtaken in awe and admiration of the ark. It was bigger than I thought!!! Gives you a whole different view about how catastrophic the flood was and how much work it took not only to build but to maintain the animals and carry the food. It answers a lot of questions and gives you perspective on possible ways things got done. You walk a lot and it has 3 or 4 levels that gradually go all the way up, there’s elevators too and chair you can rent for handicapped people and also strollers for toddlers, please wear comfortable shoes. It takes around 4 to 5 hours seeing everything at a moderate pace The ark gets really packed so try getting there early. We purchased tickets in advance and drove 6 hours but it was well worth it!! I highly recommend the buffet on site and also the 3D experience and petting zoo for children. Lots of souvenirs at the end. I recommend the beverage bottle with unlimited refills as well!
We got the ark encounter tickets along with the creation museum and it saved us some money!