This post may contain affiliate links and we may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.
Whether you’re visiting Louisville for your first weekend trip or frequent this bourbon hot-spot, you’ll need ways to save money in Louisville without cutting corners. I’m all for saving money, but not at the expense of a good time. Louisville is a great destination for this! Today, I’m sharing our five secrets for how we saved money while visiting Louisville.
I would like to start by pointing out that this will not be one of those posts where the best suggestions I have are to “not eat out” or “use a Groupon.” We used zero Groupons on our trip (although it is never a bad idea to check!) and ate out frequently while visiting. You can too!
How to Save Money in Louisville and Still Have a Good Time:
1. Search for Happy Hour Specials
Often, people associate “Happy Hour” with “immediately after work” which is definitely not the case. While most places offer happy hours on week days (and sometimes only Monday through Thursday) from 4pm until 6pm, that is not a hard and fast rule. There are so many places that offer all-day happy hours or even weekend happy hours! Be sure to check and see if there’s a place you’re interested in visiting that offers this! It’s the easiest way to save a few bucks without putting in much extra effort. It might even encourage you to find a new favorite you weren’t planning to try.
For a quick guide to happy hours in Louisville, check out this post by Style Blueprint!
2. Find a Hotel that Helps you Save
Breakfast food is my favorite type of food, so I don’t say this lightly: Find a hotel that offers free breakfast. It’s shocking, I know. I fully understand the horror of what I’m saying, I know that hotel waffles do not taste nearly as good as fancy-brunch-place waffles. But here’s the thing: if you’ve only got a weekend to see the entire city, a Sunday morning brunch is going to take up so much time.
Instead, fuel up in the morning with some just-okay hotel eggs and some just-okay hotel bacon and then go out and explore! Find a local coffee shop, grab a bite of a freshly-made scone or a slice of quiche. And of course try whichever honey-herbal-almond latte they’re crafting these days. You’ll save money and more importantly you’ll save time but you’re not going to miss out on trying some place new!
I found a coffee shop in Louisville that I absolutely loved. You can read all about that one and more of the delicious places we tried out on this post:
How to Spend Two Perfect Days in Louisville
The other way that hotels can help you save is by including a mini fridge in your room. The hotel we stayed in while we were in Louisville was Spring Hill Suites, and they had a perfect little fridge-microwave combo that was great for easy snacking.
For the sake of full disclosure, we drank quite a bit while we were in Louisville (are you surprised?) There were times when we were looking for a snack, but were craving things like greasy Taco Bell. That’s fine…but why waste money (even if it’s only $10) on a trip to Taco Bell when it won’t taste any different than the crunch wrap supreme that you can get at home? Enter mini-fridge. If you stock up on food that will get you past the drunk-snacking phase of the night, you’ll have more money in the budget to spend on real food the next day.
3. Opt for a Flight
A bourbon flight that is. We went to Louisville because we love bourbon! We wanted to try as much as we could from local and national distilleries that call Louisville home. But tasting all the bourbon can add up quick! Your money (and the more clear-headed version of you that is actually tasting the bourbon you are drinking) will go further with smaller tastes. Plus as an added bonus, you’ll be able to try more expensive bourbons in smaller quantities.
If you could spend $16 to try one bourbon you may or may not like, or try four of them for $16 that all add up to the same number of ounces, which would you pick? I mean, the choice is obvious, right? Take the opportunity to save money in Louisville and also try more bourbon!
4. Do Something FREE
Seems obvious, right? If you want to save money in Louisville…don’t spend money in Louisville.
Cool, Kelly. But how?
There are lots of free activities in Louisville, but one of the best is located at the 21c Museum Hotel. At this hotel/restaurant/museum, you can grab a drink at Proof on Main (not free!) and then check out their art gallery (100% free!) It’s 9000 square feet of art with a few rotating exhibits that is open 24-hours a day! So no matter when you’re looking for something to do, you’ve always got a completely free option. Success!
5. Plan Ahead!
We went to Louisville on a complete whim. We decided on a Thursday afternoon that we wanted to take a weekend vacation…and by Saturday morning at 7am we were on the road. And now, here I am, telling you to plan ahead!? Yes. You don’t need months notice to get your plan in place, apparently you don’t even need days. But you should have at least an idea of what you’re going to do while you’re there.
Why?
Well, for one, you’re going to save yourself the trouble of having to figure that out once you’re there. I know, I know. It might seem cool and spontaneous to just “go where the road takes you.” But what happens when you’re in the middle of downtown Louisville and it’s 3pm and you just don’t know where to go next? Suddenly you’re asking bartenders for suggestions, searching for ideas on Yelp, and checking the map to decide if you could walk or if you should call a Lyft.
Not to mention, you’re not going to know where the best deals are (like in #1 or #2 above) and that’s going to cost you money!
Don’t do it.
Even with less than 48-hours notice, we had a pretty good idea of the places we wanted to check out while we were in Louisville.
How?
Research, of course! Lucky for you, I’ve already done the research for you. And I wrote another blog post all about it. Don’t waste time doing the work I’ve already done for you! Check it out below: