Planning Your Trip
A Kentucky Bourbon Distillery Two and a Half Hours From Nashville
One straight run north on I-65 separates Nashville from Bardstown — 154 miles, one time zone, and the difference between Tennessee whiskey and Kentucky bourbon.
Bourbon & Oak has no Nashville location and no Tennessee location. There is one distillery, in Bardstown, Kentucky, 154 miles north of you. We say that plainly because the results for "bourbon distillery near Nashville" are full of pages that imply otherwise.
The good news is that the drive is about as simple as American road trips get: I-65 north, until Tennessee runs out and then some. Two and a half hours later you are in the town that calls itself the Bourbon Capital of the World, with more working distilleries inside fifteen minutes than Nashville has inside two hours.
The Drive From Nashville
154 miles and about two and a half hours. I-65 north the whole way, through Bowling Green and on past Elizabethtown, and there are two sensible ways to finish it.
The quicker one: leave I-65 at Exit 93 in Elizabethtown for the Bluegrass Parkway east, then come off at Exit 21 for US-150 into Bardstown. The prettier one: stay on I-65 to Exit 112 and take KY-245 east through Clermont, past Bernheim Forest, and into town through open bourbon country. The second costs a handful of minutes and is worth them.
Reset your watch. Somewhere between Cave City and Elizabethtown you cross from Central into Eastern time and lose an hour. Every season we have Nashville visitors arrive an hour late for a booking because of it, so build the change into your departure time rather than your arrival time.
- 154 miles, about 2 hours 30 minutes on a clear run
- Fastest: I-65 north to Exit 93, Bluegrass Parkway east, off at Exit 21 (US-150)
- Prettier: I-65 north to Exit 112, then KY-245 east via Clermont
- You lose an hour crossing into Eastern time in south-central Kentucky
- Louisville Muhammad Ali International (SDF) is the nearest airport to us if you would rather fly
Worth Stopping For On I-65
The middle two hours of this drive have more to them than the interstate signage suggests, and if you are making a weekend of it there is no reason to do the whole thing in one push.
- Mammoth Cave National Park, the longest cave system known anywhere, signposted from Exit 53 at Cave City
- Bowling Green, roughly an hour in, for the National Corvette Museum
- Jim Beam's home site at Clermont, if you take the KY-245 finish
- Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, on the same road
Tennessee Whiskey Is Not Kentucky Bourbon
If you have already done the Tennessee Whiskey Trail you arrive with a head start, but the two spirits are genuinely different and it is worth knowing how before you taste.
Both are corn-heavy and both go into new charred oak. The difference is the Lincoln County Process — the sugar-maple charcoal mellowing that Tennessee whiskey passes through before it is barrelled, and bourbon does not. It strips a particular set of sharper notes and leaves a rounder, sweeter spirit. Kentucky bourbon goes into the barrel unfiltered, which is a large part of why a high-rye Kentucky pour arrives with more edge on it.
Our post on bourbon versus whiskey works through the legal definitions properly if you want the full version before your flight, and the wheated versus high-rye piece explains what to expect from either side of our line-up.
Planning the Trip
Five hours of driving makes a same-day round trip a real commitment. Plenty of people do it, but it means an early start and no more than two tours.
The standard Nashville version of this trip is two nights. Drive up Friday, spend Saturday on the trail from a Bardstown base, and drive home Sunday morning before the traffic builds on I-65.
- Book tours before you set off — rickhouse walks are small-group and go weeks in advance
- Two distilleries a day, not four. The flights compound and the drives between stops are slower than they look
- Bardstown rooms are scarce during Kentucky Bourbon Festival week in September; Louisville at 45 minutes and Elizabethtown at 25 are the fallbacks
- Kentucky's drink-drive limit is 0.08 and the roads around Bardstown are rural and unlit — nominate a driver at the start of the day, not the end of it
- Tell us when you book if you are the designated driver and we will plan your tasting around it
If You Cannot Make the Drive
We ship, but the rules for sending spirits across state lines are set state by state and they change, so check the shipping page for the current position before you order. An adult signature is required at delivery wherever we can send a bottle.
Allocated releases are the part worth planning around. They arrive in fixed quantities that cannot be increased, they move quickly, and no page can promise them — the online collection shows what is genuinely in stock at any given moment.
Common Questions
Frequently Asked
- How far is Bardstown, Kentucky from Nashville?
- About 154 miles, or two and a half hours on a clear run. It is I-65 north almost the entire way, leaving the interstate at Exit 93 for the Bluegrass Parkway or at Exit 112 for KY-245.
- Is there a bourbon distillery near Nashville?
- Tennessee has a strong whiskey trail of its own, but Bourbon & Oak is not part of it. We have one site, in Bardstown, Kentucky, 154 miles north — the closest point where several working bourbon distilleries sit within minutes of each other.
- Is Bardstown in a different time zone from Nashville?
- Yes. Nashville is on Central time and Bardstown is on Eastern, and the boundary crosses I-65 in south-central Kentucky between Cave City and Elizabethtown. Driving north you lose an hour, so set off earlier than the map suggests.
- Can I do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail as a day trip from Nashville?
- Technically, with a very early start and two tours at most, but that is five hours of driving in a day. Two nights based in or near Bardstown is the trip most Nashville visitors are happier with.
- What is the difference between Tennessee whiskey and Kentucky bourbon?
- Tennessee whiskey is filtered through sugar-maple charcoal before it goes into the barrel — the Lincoln County Process. Bourbon is not, which leaves more of the raw distillate character in the barrel to develop. Everything else, from the corn-dominant mash bill to the new charred oak, is broadly the same.
- What is the best route from Nashville to Bardstown?
- I-65 north to Exit 93 in Elizabethtown, then the Bluegrass Parkway east and off at Exit 21 for US-150, is the quickest. Staying on I-65 to Exit 112 and taking KY-245 east through Clermont adds a few minutes and is much the better drive.
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