Carolyn Always Earley

3-day trip to Louisville – April 2026

I recently traveled to Louisville for work and, while it wasn’t my first time in the city, I was only there for 2 days last time so I had more time to try new places during this trip. I flew in on Tuesday and flew home on Friday.

Travel Day:

To get to Louisville from Phoenix, you will generally always have a connection. On my way there, I connected through Chicago O’Hare – a stressful airport to connect through if you have a short layover like I did. My layover was supposed to be about 40 minutes (already tight), but of course we were running a few minutes late. By the time we got to the gate, it was 17 minutes to boarding time and my app said it would take 17 minutes to get to my gate from the other terminal. Thankfully I was in row 13 so I was able to quickly grab my carryon and let the few rows in front of me know that I had a tight connection and they let me get off right after first class. My colleague and I power walked through the airport and made it with a few minutes to spare.

Once I arrived at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF), with a free upgrade to first class for the 1 hour 15 minute flight, I grabbed a taxi to head to my hotel. One of the things I like about this airport is that it’s so small, you just walk around the side of the building and there are less than a dozen taxis lined up. You walk right up to one and go – no line, no waiting. My hotel, Louisville Marriott Downtown, was about 10 minutes from the airport.

When I got to the hotel, my immediate thought was that it reminded me of any other downtown Marriott I’ve stayed at (for example, it looked exactly like the one in Orlando) and that it was nicer than the Louisville Marriott East we stayed at last year. By the time I arrived, I wanted to quickly freshen up and grab dinner since it was about 6:30 PM and I was starving. I ran up to my room on the 9th floor, changed and came back down to eat at Porch. I sat at the bar and tried the Woodchuck Blueberry cider and their fish and chips. Both were delicious! (I had wanted to try the southern fried chicken, but I was disappointed to learn that their only gravy option had mushrooms in it. Oh well.)

Day 1:

Our team (and 3 of their spouses) had dinner plans at Doc Crow’s for Wednesday night after our all-day meetings. But first, we decided to grab a drink at the nearby Troll Pub Under the Bridge. This was a hole-in-the-wall type bar but you could tell they get a lot of tourists, and they had bourbon flights (as you would generally expect from any bar in Louisville). As we exited the Troll Pub to go back up (from a different entrance/exit from where we entered), we ended up walking through a speakeasy on our way to the main road and decided to return to check that out later.

The food at Doc Crow’s was pretty good. Since we had a group of 9 people, we tried quite a few things on the menu and everyone enjoyed their meal. I ordered the Doc’s fried chicken (which was OK) with sweet potato fries (which were incredible). My drink, the Winterberry Bourbon, was also incredible.

After, we went back to the speakeasy – which I just tried to locate the name of on the map and it’s not showing me anything. We exited Doc Crow’s and turned right to go into Monk’s Road Boiler House and went down some stairs and the speakeasy was behind the bookcase. The vibe was classy and laidback, as you would expect, and we were able to grab a nice couch plus some chairs and have a relaxing nightcap.

Day 2:

Our meetings were only scheduled for half the day on Thursday, so some folks had early flights and others were staying on for vacation. I had more meetings on Thursday and made dinner plans with a friend who was also in town. We decided to grab dinner at Monk’s Road Boiler House since it had such good reviews. This was an elegant place and I’m glad we went on the early side as there was a line of people waiting to get in as we were leaving. We got the crabcake appetizer (so good!) and I tried the Cannelloni, which was also delicious. The waiter was attentive and friendly, and he even brought us a free cheesecake.

2-day trip to Louisville in April 2025

Last year, we also went to Louisville in April but, at that time, there were tornadoes. Thankfully, the one coming towards our hotel decided to go in another direction somewhat last minute; and while the rest of my team was rudely awoken and scared, I slept right through the whole thing. (Not sure if that’s good or bad since obviously if the tornado did hit our hotel, I likely wouldn’t be here now telling you this story.)

We had one really nice evening in which we all went downtown near the Louisville Slugger Museum. First, we stopped by the Bardstown Bourbon Tasting Room. I had a very cute cocktail that came in a tiki glass, which I loved. Most people tried bourbon flights (what they’re known for), but I really just can’t get into drinking straight bourbon.

Next, we walked over to The Bar at Fort Nelson, on the 2nd floor of Michter’s Distillery. It had a very elegant vibe, and you could tell there were a few locals there who were grabbing a drink after work. The cocktail list was extensive and unique, and the bartenders were very knowledgeable. I would definitely recommend checking it out!