Venture out with us and explore the hidden stories of Louisville’s haunted past. As you eat and drink your way down Whiskey Row, you’ll meet the resident ghosts of Louisville’s historic downtown, trace the footsteps of bourbon magnates and mobsters, discover hidden speakeasies in the belly of Whiskey Row, and learn the shocking truth about Prohibition.
In the mid-1800’s, the stretch of Main Street now known as Whiskey Row was filled to the brim with bourbon barrels – which would soon be considered contraband. While this area nearly crumbled to disrepair, today the historic facades house bourbon distilleries, bars, restaurants and hotels.
Like the combination of rye, corn, wheat, and malted barley, this tour is the perfect blend of cocktails, food, ghosts, and Prohibition history!
Distilleries. Speakeasies. Saloons. In the mid-1800’s, this stretch of Main Street was filled to the brim with bourbon barrels – which would soon be considered contraband. While this area nearly crumbled to disrepair, today the historic facades house bourbon distilleries, bars, restaurants and hotels.
On your tour, you’ll be transported back to Louisville during the Prohibition era and learn about the city’s haunted past as you discover speakeasies, a ghost-infested hotel, and other important landmarks. Stop for local bites at four venues and enjoy prohibition-era cocktails as well as a bourbon tasting while learning about prohibition history. End with a dessert and a cocktail with a view overlooking downtown Louisville.
Arrive 15 minutes before your tour
Sunscreen
Water bottle
Comfortable walking shoes
ID (for adults 21+ consuming alcohol)
Weather-appropriate clothing
All of our wonderful restaurant and bar partners are subject to change at any time without advance notice.
Our tours run rain or shine, so we recommend checking the forecast and dressing accordingly. However, in cases of severe or unsafe weather, we prioritize your safety. If a tour is canceled due to weather, we will provide a full refund or credit. Because Louisville’s weather can change quickly, decisions regarding cancellations, rescheduling, or delays are made a few hours before the tour. If adjustments are necessary, we will contact all guests as soon as possible with updates.
Please be aware that our tours cover the history of Louisville and Kentucky, which includes unsavory and complex subjects that some guests may find uncomfortable. As company policy, we do not tolerate racist, sexist, or homophobic commentary on our tours. We reserve the right to ask any guest making our guides or guests uncomfortable to leave without receiving a refund.
If at any point during a tour, a guest is found to be excessively intoxicated or engaging in disruptive behavior due to alcohol consumption, our tour guide may discontinue serving them alcoholic beverages OR discontinue their participation in the tour, at their discretion. This decision is made to safeguard the well-being of all guests and to maintain the quality of the tour experience. The intoxicated guest and their party may be asked to arrange safe transportation home and will not receive a refund. We encourage responsible consumption of alcohol during our tours and appreciate your cooperation in creating a positive and safe environment for all.
You’ll be eating 3 small, family-style courses consisting of an appetizer portion, entree portion, and dessert, plus 4 half cocktails. You may still have room for dinner before or after your tour – and we’ll be leaving you at a fantastic place to continue your evening.
Yes! You will enjoy delicious non-alcoholic mocktails paired with yummy food, fascinating history and ghost stories.
This tour is the perfect blend of cocktails, food, ghosts, and Prohibition history. Each tour group is different, and our guides tailor the balance of ghost stories to history depending on what your group seems to be most into. So whether you want the scariest ghost stories or aren’t really into ghosts at all, tell your guide!
However, note that this is not a paranormal experience tour – you won’t be doing any ghost hunting. And you’re also unlikely to see any ghosts (but if you do, PLEASE tell us about it – and send us any orb-tastic photos you capture!)
For more grisly true history and spine-tingling ghost stories, we also offer a Dark History & Ghost tour along Whiskey Row with no food and just 1 cocktail – but lots more spooks.
You’ll end about a 5 minute walk from where the tour begins. We encourage you to take an UBER or Lyft to and from this tour!
This experience includes a light dinner and and several cocktails at some of the best bars and restaurants in Louisville, plus 3 hours of interactive fun. Think of it like dinner, drinks, and a show – all in one ticket!
While all of our tours have both food and drinks, the Phantoms of the Prohibition tour is more of a cocktail tour than a food tour – and alcohol costs a lot more than food. In addition, since this is an evening tour, we’re visiting places that are more expensive during the dinner hours than our lunchtime tours.
Our tour pricing for all tours is based on an operating margin that fairly compensates our hard working tour guides, pays full menu price for our local restaurant partners, and includes a 20% gratuity for the staff at each of the bars and restaurants we visit.
Because we’ll be visiting some of Louisville’s most popular bars and restaurants, our tour starts early to ensure there’s plenty of room for us at each stop.
During the winter, 5pm is dark as midnight. But in summer, 5pm might as well be midday. In fact, if you’re taking our tour in the middle of July, there’s a chance it won’t even be twilight by the time your tour finishes. (Luckily, we’ll be leaving you at an absolutely stunning viewpoint to catch the sunset.)
While we have a few core partners we typically stop at, each tour is a little different and the stops do vary based on availability, restaurant hours, and other circumstances beyond our control. That said, all of our partners are amazing. Each stop on our tour is one of the best places to eat or drink in Louisville and fits the vibe of our tour theme!
This experience is not booked with Maple Hill Manor. For any questions, reach out to this vendor directly.
