THE US KENTUCKY DESTINATIONS RIGHT:


Evan Williams Bourbon


Experience FAR RIGHT:


Mammoth Cave BELOW:


BB Riverboats, Ohio River


PREVIOUS PAGE:


Kentucky Derby


SAMPLE PRODUCT


America As You Like It offers a week in Kentucky from £1,240 including car hire and flights in February. americaas youlikeit.com


USAirtours


offers an eight- night Kentucky & Cincinnati itinerary


from £1,419


including flights, accommodation and car rental. usairtours.co.uk


United flies to the US from five UK airports, with connections to Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati.


Flights from Heathrow to Lexington start at £760.


united.com


guides offering plenty of historic insight, but for a more intimate experience, suggest the family-owned Evan Williams ($12 for an hour’s tour). As the first commercial distillery to have opened in Kentucky, it has a long history, and downstairs there’s a real-life speakeasy which opened during the days of prohibition, when the bourbon and farming industries took a severe battering. evanwilliams.com


w MAMMOTH CAVE But the big surprise was to be found farther south in the calmer, smaller city of Bowling Green, where I found myself exploring the underground Mammoth Cave, a Unesco World Heritage Site and National Park whose labyrinth of dark, limestone chambers stretches over 400 miles. Here the rocks look like a cluster of frozen cacti, and monster faces seem


Frozen Niagara Tour, which costs $15. nps.gov/maca


Our senses awakened to the cave’s sounds of dripping water and the smell of damp, earthy air


to peer down from the ceiling. Ducking every two seconds to avoid a collision, I was grateful for the lights – until our guide switched them off and we were plunged into the pitch black, senses awakened to the sounds of dripping water and the smell of damp, earthy air. Despite all that, Mammoth Cave is a memorable experience that’s well worth recommending. There are several tour options, ranging from the six-hour Wild Cave Tour for adventure seekers to the simpler one-hour


w LEXINGTON Of course, Kentucky wouldn’t be Kentucky without its horse heritage. The Kentucky Derby sees more than 150,000 visitors from across the world flock to Louisville’s Churchill Downs every year – next year’s race is on May 6 – but it’s not the only time or place clients can see the races. Over at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington we were lucky enough to catch the first day of the Fall Meet, which takes place for three weeks every October, with its Spring Meet taking place in June. If clients are looking for an authentic,


all-American experience, this is it – think groups of preppy college kids and well-heeled families tucking into hotdogs, burgoo stew and bourbon cocktails, while cheering on their horses with the type of enthusiasm


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