Central Kentucky is bourbon country. Its rolling meadows, limestone-filtered streams, and cool hardwood forests have long provided ideal conditions for producing the honey-colored drink as crucial to Kentucky legend as Daniel Boone himself.

Overview
The bluegrass byways winding through bourbon country make for a great road trip. These lanes, including 31E, 52, 127, 60, among others, connect Louisville, Bardstown, and Frankfort in a large triangle, taking in numerous distilleries offering free tours and tastings and revealing pockets of rich southern history. A drive along the Bourbon Trail provides glimpses of white-water rapids and grazing Thoroughbreds—both great for riding—and even whiffs of mint growing wild along the roadsides, lending the landscape the aroma of a perfect julep.

Start in Louisville
Stroll along the Ohio River to reach the Belle of Louisville steamboat (4th St. at River Rd.; +1 502 574 2992; www.belleoflouisville.org), where Travis Vasconcelos plays the calliope. "Louisville would not exist if it weren't for steamboats," he says. "The city grew up on the Falls of the Ohio, where the boats had to stop until the water rose high enough to pass."

The Heart of Bourbon Country
The heart of bourbon country lies about 40 miles south of Louisville, where Knob Creek winds through low, cave-pocked hills to join the Rolling Fork River. At this site in 1780, Waddie Boone, a relative to Daniel, established a small distillery, one of the first in Kentucky. Three decades later, in 1811, a farmer named Thomas Lincoln moved into a farm on Knob Creek, not far from the distillery, along with his wife, daughter, and young son, Abraham. That cabin formed some of the earliest lasting memories for our nation's 16th President. Today Knob Creek is better known as the name of one of several boutique bourbons produced along the route that have gained popularity over the past decade. Many aficionados of America's native drink have turned away from mass-produced brands to hand-crafted spirits that better capture the authentic flavor of the place.

Bardstown
Grab a walking-tour map at the Bardstown's Welcome Center (One Court Sq.; 800 638 4877) listing 48 historic buildings. Cross the street for a bite at the Old Talbott Tavern (107 W. Stephen Foster Ave.; +1 502 348 3494; www.talbotts.com), where bourbon has been served for more than 200 years. Next door is the 1819 Nelson County Jail, once the oldest working jail in Kentucky but now a bed-and-breakfast called Jailer's Inn (+1 502 348 5551, www.jailersinn.com). At the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History (114 N. 5th St.; +1 502 348 2999; www.whiskeymuseum.com), learn about whiskey in general and bourbon in particular.

My Old Kentucky Dinner Train
The best meal in Bardstown is on wheels. My Old Kentucky Dinner Train (602 N. 3rd St.; +1 859 881 3463; www.kydinnertrain.com) departs from the town's stone depot for a 40-mile lunch or dinner excursion. The train has three beautifully restored 1940s dining cars and two 50-year-old diesel locomotives. The Eisenhower Car, which in 1969 carried the family of the 34th President during his funeral procession, is supposedly haunted. Fortify yourself with a bourbon on the rocks, then ask any server for ghost stories and a quick, informal tour.