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Oak Barrels

Frequently Asked Questions

How long are the bourbon tours? It ultimately depends on the distillery, but these are typically between 1 hour and 1.25 hours. 

 

How long are the rides between distilleries? When you depart from Louisville, most distilleries are within about 1.25 hours of driving. From there, we aim for stops that are about 30-40 minutes apart or less for the best timing and logistics. 

 

Do I need to be 21 to join your tour? Yes, our tour is for adults 21+. Don’t forget to bring your ID on our outing. 

 

What do you use for your payment system? For security reasons, we do not take payments on our website or over the phone. When we’ve decided on your day, we’ll invoice you for 50% of your total as a deposit. 

 

Where can I be picked up? We will pick you up anywhere in the Louisville city limits, but we please ask that all your guests be in the same place or within a mile of each other. We also offer free pickup in the Frankfort area for Frankfort tours, or the Bardstown area for Bardstown tours. 

 

Can I add time to my tour? Some folks do end up enjoying themselves and wanting to stay out or add a stop to your tour. Ultimately, this will depend on the availability of your driver, as most of us have kids, pets, etc we ant to go home to. Additional hours will be billed at $100 per hour, and again, will depend on the availability of your driver. 

 

What do I need to bring? Dress for the weather, bring your ID, and any funds you want to bring for lunch and souvenirs. Other than that, feel free to bring what makes you comfortable! 

 

What kind of vehicle will we be in? The type of vehicle will depend on the size of your party. For parties of 3 or less, you will be in a luxury sedan or SUV. For 4 - 6, a full size SUV, and for parties of 7 or more, you will be in a standard 12 or 15 passenger van. 

 

Can I drink alcohol in the vehicle during my trip? Our passenger carrier license does permit you to drink alcohol.

 

Are your trips rain or shine? - Yes indeed they are. Unless there is significant emergency weather in our area, we will proceed with each day as planned.

 

Will there be any strangers in our vehicle? Nope! As of now, all of our packages are private. You will only know the guests you bring along and the driver you are soon to be acquainted with. At the distilleries, of course, you will tour with good strangers. 

 

What is the weather like in Kentucky? We have all 4 seasons in Kentucky with hot summers, cold winters, and some rainy seasons. Please check the weather close to your trip and pack/dress accordingly. 

 

What is lunch time like? How much do you care about lunch? If this is important to you and you want to allocate time for lunch, let us know. Most of the time, you will have between 45 mins or an 1.5 hours for lunch depending on your itinerary. For a short lunch, we will grab sandwiches somewhere. For longer lunches, you can sit down to eat at a distillery or whatever sounds good that day. Keep in.


Can we make pit stops on our trip? We will do our best to accommodate you if you need to stop for coffee, use the bathroom, etc. But, with that said, we often get to distilleries only 10-15 mins before the tours start. Please do your best to plan for caffeine, use the bathroom on the tour stops, etc. If we have extra time though, then by all means we can stop! 
 

What happens if someone in my party has a cancellation? If less than half of your party has a cancellation, then those people will lose their part of the deposit The tour can continue as planned, though the vehicle and driver may change. 

 

What happens if my whole party can’t make it? If your whole party can’t make it, we have some options. If you can reschedule within a month, we will do our best to work with the distilleries and get your reservation dates changed. There will be a $100 convenience fee if this happens. If a distillery is full for your backup date, we will look at replacement options for you to have a full schedule on your makeup day. If you can not reschedule within 30 days, you will lose your initial deposit. 

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What if we have a last minute cancelation? If you have to cancel your tour within 2 weeks of your departure date, you will lose your deposit. At that point, it is nearly impossible to find a replacement booking for this day, and distilleries will often be completely full, making it difficult to accommodate another group. Ultimately, this puts us out of work for the day due to holding your spot. If you have to cancel more than 2 weeks out, we will offer a 50% refund on your deposit. 

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Can I book my own tours? We like to make the trip as seamless as possible for you by booking the distilleries and doing all the logistics. However, if you want to book the distilleries for your group, please let us know during our initial conversations. We will provide a discount and can work together on this. 

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Can I upgrade to VIP tours at the distillery? Absolutely. With a lot of distilleries, they will have special tour packages that provide special tastings and experiences. We will automatically book the base level experience for you, but if you would like, please feel free to look at the distillery options and let us know what you’d like to book and if there is a different start time, etc. We will invoice you for these upgrades or you can book them on your own.

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When is the best day to do a bourbon tour? Most folks choose to do tours on Fridays & Saturdays. That is fine and dandy, but these are definitely the hardest days to get into some distilleries. You may want to consider a Wednesday or Thursday, as these are a little less busy and you may get a more intimate experience. There are distilleries that operator 7 days a week, though, and you're more likely to get into Buffalo Trace on a Monday VS a Saturday, so keep that in mind. 

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How far in advance should I book my bourbon tour? For the best chances to get into the distilleries you want, it's best to book at least 2 months out. The later you book, the less options there will be.  

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Can you accommodate last minute tours? Better late than never, right?! So long as we have one of our trusted drivers and vehicles available, we can do our best to put together a last minute tour for you. Keep in mind though, these distilleries may not be your first choice, but each distillery on our list is an awesome time, so you have nothing to worry about! We'll get something together for you. 

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What does a custom tour entail? First, you would want to pick out your region from among the ones we offer. We will send you a list of destinations and distilleries in this region, or simply let us know what you want to do. Our experience coordinator will work with you to curate your perfect day in the amount of time you have allotted for the day.  

 

If I choose to golf, how much time do we have? How does this work? If you book one of these experiences, this will ultimately be slotted for half of your day, so 4 hours FOR 9 HOLES. If you finish in 2 hours, we will do our best to add another stop to your tour, but this will ultimately depend on the size of your group and how long you take. We will plan on when you want to golf, call around for tee times, etc. Feel free to bring your own clubs or we can ask if the clubhouse has some for rent. Rentals will be paid out of pocket by the tour guest. We also offer 18 hole tours! See our golf page for more details. 

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Will I find rare bourbon on the tours? It is entirely possible. Some distilleries offer allocated releases at random times throughout the day, some offer them every day. Many or most offer something you can only get at the distillery or in Kentucky. If you are hell-bent on getting a bottle of something rare, we do know some places we can stop, but expect a premium markup. 

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How is your tour price lower than some of your competitors? Good question. Unfiltered KY Tours certainly is a bit cheaper than some of our competitors, particularly ones that offer custom tours. In fact, when you add fees and gratuity in, we're about $500 cheaper on average than a few of the bigger ones. We are able to do this because our owner wears a ton of hats. There are also no stakeholders here, and we aim to operate without taking on debt. With all of this, we are able to pass our savings along to you. 

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Why are you tour prices higher than some of the big tour companies? This is another good question. You will see fairly low per-person prices from some of the big brands. The main difference here, is these prices are simply for a seat on a bus. Some companies are able to benefit from taking 20 or more customers out in a single day, all to the same distilleries, so there is little-to-no logistics and planning. At this time, we are only doing custom tours and do not have any "single seat tour bus experience." 

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