Visiting family in Lexington for a week, never been! (Frankfort: home, university)

[geo_9]

Hey all, I'm coming to your city for a week. What is there to do for a single 20-something male in Lexington? Bars? Nice restaurants? Random fun stuff?

Cheers!

[EclecticEars]

Originally Posted by geo_9

Hey all, I'm coming to your city for a week. What is there to do for a single 20-something male in Lexington? Bars? Nice restaurants? Random fun stuff?

Cheers!

Bars/nightlife:
McCarthy's, Downtown: cool bar, but caters to the UK early 20s crowd, I don't know how old you are
Two Keys Tavern, Downtown: best times to be there are 7-11pm before it's so crowded that it's nearly miserable. Again, caters to UK crowd.
The Penguin Piano Bar, Downtown: cool atmosphere, but they did rip me off once and I've never returned
Charlie Brown's, Chevy Chase

Dining:
Sal's, Tates Creek
Malone's, throughout the city: great steak
Joe Bologna's, Downtown (pronounced Bo-lone-yuhs)
deSha's, Downtown
Cheapside, Downtown
Regatta, Lexington Green

Parks:
Well, Lexington doesn't do very well for a city its size. Sorry. And the Kentucky Horse Park doesn't count, boring as hell.

Plenty of distillery tours, also: Wild Turkey, Seagram's Four Roses, Ancient Age, and Woodford Reserve are all within 30 minutes of LEX.

I'm a 20-something male and I've gone to Lexington as much for the dining as I have the nightlife. The nightlife mostly caters to the college crowd and I'm slightly out of college, but they have some great restaurants.

[CraigCreek]

Totally disagree about the Kentucky Horse Park - pack up your family in your largest vehicle and come out some evening to see the Southern Lights, a striking five-mile long drive-through Christmas display. While you're there, visit the Museum of the Horse and see its wealth of creative and imaginative displays (including the Calumet Farm racing trophies - they'll knock your eyes out). You can also get a jump on Christmas shopping at the Horse Park, as lots of vendors set up during the Southern Lights with not-too-costly-but-unique items of various kinds.

Yes, do check out Joe B.'s. You might also enjoy Billy's Barbecue on High Street in Chevy Chase.

Lexington is a historic town, located in the middle of the thoroughbred horse country of the Bluegrass, so you might want to visit a historic home while you're here: I recommend Ashland, the Henry Clay estate, which will be decorated for the holidays. Be sure to take a drive through the horse farm area - take Paris Pike to (where else??) Paris, turn off on Ironworks Pike on the way back, or take Old Frankfort Pike out to see the Headley-Whitney Museum or even all the way to Frankfort, where you can visit both the new and the old State Capitols, the Kentucky History Museum, Daniel Boone's Grave, and check out good restaurants and interesting shops of various kinds along the railroad tracks downtown.

Another good daytrip would include Shakertown at Pleasant Hill, followed by a visit to the restored fort at Old Fort Harrod State Park in nearby Harrodsburg and dinner at Beaumont Inn. The road from Lexington has been improved a good deal, and includes the incredible Kentucky River Palisades, limestone cliffs which rise over 300 feet above the river, shortly before you reach Shakertown (a restored historic village with a good many things to see and do).

If you enjoy the outdoors and weather permits, look into a day at the Red River Gorge and Natural Bridge State Park - take I-64 to Winchester and the Mountain Parkway the rest of the way. It's just over an hour from Lexington. The Gorge includes over 100 spectacular natural arches (and one natural bridge with water running beneath it), cliffs, caves, a wide variety of wildlife and flora, and the park has a nice lodge with a good restaurant. There are hundreds of miles of foottrails of varying lengths and a loop drive with overlooks and other stopping places, plus a museum about the Gorge's natural and human history. Many of the Gorge's creekside hollows remain emerald green year-round, thanks to the abundance of rhododendron, mountain laurel, hemlock, pine, mosses, and other evergreen plants, so it's an uplifting place to visit in the bleak midwinter (or any other time).

You can enjoy nightlife just about anywhere - so do that while you're here, but don't overlook what's specific to this part of the world that you can't find elsewhere. That's what you'll remember!

[RoseOh]

We've been in Richmond almost 3 years and I love your suggestions! We will take a couple of the historical home tours this winter and will look forward to visiting the Gorge area this spring.

Thanks, CC.

[CraigCreek]

Thanks for the thanks, RoseOh! There's so much to see and do within an hour or two of Lexington that I still haven't exhausted the possibilities, after all these years...

The Gorge is fantastic in the spring - dogwood and wildflowers peak around the end of April. Actually, it's a pretty fantastic place anytime: I've been there on dry days in February and seen the giant icicles descending from everywhere there's the least little drop of water. The views are longer when the leaves are gone.

But spring is special...

[CraigCreek]

OP: Interesting that you state that you'll be visiting Lexington, where you've "never been",and are asking for what-to-do suggestions, since in another post you stated that you're about to graduate from the University of Kentucky. I don't appreciate your wasting my time, although I am glad another reader found my response productive.

And I'm sure this sort of gameplaying will really impress any future employers and/or supervisors.

Could it be that you had another recently deleted account here? Your style of writing, stated disdain for Kentucky, and claimed background seem very familiar...too much so, in fact.