Central Kentucky
VisitShelbyKY.com; @Visit_ShelbyKY
Shelby County offers an array of bourbon-centric lodging, shopping, and dining, along with Bulleit Distillery and Jeptha Creed Distillery, says Janette Marson, president and CEO of ShelbyKY Tourism. “Our location is perfectly positioned for easy access to Louisville, Lexington, and Northern Kentucky. We also offer a rare peek into the world of Saddlebred show horses, and we’re known as the ‘Saddlebred Horse Capital of the World.’”
Opened in 2021, Shelbyville Conference Center has more than 12,000 square feet of multipurpose space for meetings and events, with room to seat 400 for banquets or 600 theater style. Event guests can arrive in style via the 24-passenger Shelbyville Trolley.
Candlewood Suites Shelbyville, located approximately 10 minutes from Shelbyville Conference Center, and Fairfield Inn & Suites Shelbyville, adjacent to both Jeptha Creed Distillery and Talon Winery, each have 84 guest rooms. Talon Winery has an indoor-outdoor event space for 250 guests.
According to ShelbyKY Tourism, there are 750 guest rooms in the county, including bed-and-breakfast options and vacation rentals.
Unique teambuilding programs or group excursions include horseback riding at Red Fern Riding Center, one of Kentucky’s only guided horseback-riding facilities, or a barrel tasting experience at Jeptha Creed Distillery. As Marson explains, guests can “thieve,” or siphon their bourbon sample right from the barrel. The distillery is owned and operated by a mother-and-daughter team, and the family grows all the corn used in their product lines just 10 miles from the distillery.
Shelbyville also has great shopping. “Wakefield-Scearce Galleries has one of the largest collections of English antiques in the United States,” Marson says. “Also in nearby Simpsonville, Outlet Shoppes of the Bluegrass is Kentucky’s only designer outlet mall.”
