9 Most Welcoming Towns In Kentucky's Countryside

Out in the Kentucky countryside lie towns shaped by presidential history, Appalachian mining heritage, and a community surrounded by lakes. These are unusual places, including a town formed around a cave and one that sits inside an ancient meteorite impact, with a glass of good whiskey never far away. All nine of these Kentucky countryside towns are welcoming to those who want to learn about their geography, drinks, and history.

Horse Cave

There's nowhere in Kentucky that's quite like Horse Cave. After all, the entire town is centered around a cave in the middle of downtown. The cave provided fresh water for the community for generations. In the early 20th century, it opened to tourists, and residents settled on a new name to distinguish the cave from the town: Hidden River Cave.

Today, visitors can enter through the downtown cave entrance on a tour, walk across what its operators call the world's longest underground swinging bridge, or zipline across the cave entrance via Hidden River Cave & American Cave Museum. The town has another nature attraction where visitors can walk alongside kangaroos at an Australia-themed zoo called the Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo. Shoppers can find antiques at Caveland Antiques or take painting lessons at the Sims Studios & Art Shop.

Harrodsburg

Harrodsburg stands out in the countryside as the oldest town in Kentucky and for the sorts of folks who visited or lived here over the centuries. Founded in 1774 by James Harrod as a frontier fort, much of its original colonial character is preserved at the recreated Old Fort Harrod State Park. The park includes a replica of the fort, a Mansion Museum with American Revolutionary War and American Civil War artifacts, and the Lincoln Marriage Temple, which shelters the cabin where Abraham Lincoln's parents were married.

One notable group that came to Harrodsburg in the early 1800s was the Shakers, a religious community known for their dancing in church services and their celibate lifestyle. Their entire village is open for tours, hikes, and farm-to-table food at Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill.

Hodgenville

Abraham Lincoln ranks among the most noteworthy American presidents, and part of his story is how humble his beginnings were. He was born at Sinking Spring Farm just south of Hodgenville. The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park marks his birth at the Birthplace Unit, where the Memorial Building houses the Symbolic Cabin and Sinking Spring, while the Boyhood Home Unit preserves the Knob Creek site of his early childhood.

Hodgenville keeps a Lincoln theme throughout its downtown, as well. The Lincoln Museum displays Lincoln-inspired art and wax figures, and the Lincoln Jamboree puts on comedy, musical, and variety acts throughout the year.

Cumberland

Cumberland is a coal mining town with some of the best views in the state. It was originally called Poor Fork, a nod to the poor soil quality that made life hard for early settlers, before being renamed Cumberland in the 1920s. Today, it is called the Black Bear Capital of Kentucky for its large bear population, which often wanders the mountain trails of Kingdom Come State Park.

Visitors can take in the scenery from the park's eight overlooks, including 12 O'Clock Overlook, or ride along the Little Shepherd Trail, which follows Pine Mountain. Other activities around Cumberland include the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course just outside of downtown and the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in the neighboring town of Benham.

Berea

Berea is an Appalachian Mountain town with a firm dedication to offering education to everyone, regardless of race or background. Berea College, founded in 1855, was the South's first interracial and coeducational college. It has not charged students tuition since 1892 and runs a work program in which students work on campus as part of their education.

Many have worked in the Berea College Forest, which hosts one of Kentucky's top hikes up the Pinnacles, reaching an elevation of just over 1,500 feet. Students in Berea also take part in the town's folk art and crafts tradition, which has earned it the title of Folk Arts & Crafts Capital of Kentucky. Artisans display their work at the Kentucky Artisan Center and at the Berea Craft Festival, held each summer.

Middlesboro

Middlesboro's geology is out of this world. Much of the town occupies a roughly three-mile-wide basin formed by a meteorite impact sometime within the past 300 million years. Today, Middlesboro provides access to some of the best views in Kentucky, such as the Tri-State Peak, where one can gaze into Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky at once.

That point is accessible from Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, which served as a major passage for settlers crossing the Appalachian Mountains to the west. The park offers tours of Gap Cave and the Hensley Settlement, a turn-of-the-century Appalachian community occupied from 1903 to 1947. Coal mining was a major industry here, and one of the best ways to learn about it is the Bell County Coal House and Museum, built in 1926 entirely out of bituminous coal.

London

Cyclists in the Kentucky countryside often flock to the welcoming community of London. Despite the British name, London is an Appalachian Kentucky settlement that has been called the Cycling Capital of Kentucky. Every April, the town hosts the Redbud Ride, named after the flowers that bloom on its rural roads. The individual routes are available for cyclists all year, including the Yellow Route, which begins in downtown London. Other mountain biking trails are accessible from the Levi Jackson Wilderness Road Park.

Visitors here can discover two historic sites: the Daniel Boone Trace Trail, used by the explorer in the 18th century, and the Camp Wildcat Battlefield, the site of a Civil War battle in 1861.

Bardstown

Bardstown sits about an hour south of Louisville and is one of the most popular countryside communities in Kentucky. That popularity comes from its title as the Bourbon Capital of the World, with numerous bourbon distilleries and tasting experiences in and around town, many connected to Kentucky Bourbon Trail tourism. The oldest fully operating distillery in Bardstown is Barton 1792 Distillery, established in 1879.

What really makes this town stand out is all the history contained here. There's the 1818 Federal Hill mansion where Stephen Foster found his inspiration for the song "My Old Kentucky Home," today preserved as My Old Kentucky Home State Park. Another spot is the Bardstown Civil War Museum, known for its large collection of artifacts from the lesser-documented western theater of the conflict.

Grand Rivers

The name Grand Rivers suits this community, the northern gateway town to the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. This vast area reaches across the Kentucky-Tennessee line, sitting between Kentucky Lake to the west and Lake Barkley to the east. It includes hundreds of miles of shoreline, hiking trails, and historic cemeteries left behind by the families who lived here over the centuries.

Grand Rivers also accommodates hikers who like to stay downtown, with the Grand Rivers Walking Trail & Jetty passing a harbor on its way through town and extending to the shores of Lake Barkley. Dining options include waterfront spots such as Tiki Turtle, along with downtown stops like Between The Lakes Tap House. The Badgett Playhouse puts on regular musical productions and variety shows.

Welcome to Kentucky

The views here might make one believe they have stepped into another world, whether gazing into the Middlesboro crater from a Cumberland Gap overlook or traversing Pine Mountain above Cumberland. But these places also keep folks grounded with Kentucky hospitality at old distilleries in Bardstown, craft shows in Berea, and biking festivals in London. The nine communities here sit beyond the state's major city centers, offering caves, bourbon heritage, Appalachian scenery, lakes, and historic sites in equal measure.