I grew up in the Paducah area--well, an hour south (Fulton,KY and went to high school in Mayfield,
which is 30 minutes from Paduach) . However, its the only really big town in the region with a mall,
so I logged quite a bit of time there as a teen.
The distillaries--at least all that I know of--are all around Lexington and Lousiville, both of
which are about 5 hours or so from Paducah.
In Paducah, the only real tourists attractions of any sort that I can think of are the
waterfront/downtown, Whitehaven (restored historic mansion), and Bluegrass Downs (horse racing
track). I don't think of these would be an all day thing. Paducah isn't much of a tourist town. It's
more industrial, with some shopping thrown in, and has the only really big hospitals in the area...
There isn't really much of any touristy stuff in Western Kentucky. Most of the really cool stuff in
Kentucky is back around Lexington and Louisville. Far far western Kentucky (west of the lakes), just
doesn't have much.
If you can get any access to a car, there are the Kentucky Lakes and the Land Between the Lakes. It
would be about 20 minutes or so from Paducah to get to the Lakes. Then, at LBL, there is "the trace"
which is a road you can follow and stop off at little attractions along the way. You'd have to have
a car to do this though...
They have been working on building a performing arts center, but I'm not sure if it's finished yet.
(I am currently in California to attend grad school, so I'm not as up on stuff at home anymore).
Also, worth mentioning here, is that Paducah doesn't have mass city transit. There are cab services,
but no train or bus. It's not a huge town--maybe 60,000 people.
I don't think West KY is particularly known for it's cuisine--it's a very much so working class
region, and not that working class can't be gourmet, most of them tend not to be. For food in
Paducah though, the best regarded restaurants are Jeremiah's, Whalers Catch, and CC Cohen. Make
reservations though! In addition to the quilt show being in town, it's also going to be prom season
and between the quilt show attendees and prom goers, it's impossible to get into any of these
without reservations.
The BBQ style in West Ky isn't quite like Texas BBQ. We tend to do pork rather than beef brisket.
You probably already have these urls, but the Paducah/McCracken County Visitors Buerau has a website
at
http://www.paducah-tourism.org/ and the local paper's url is www.paducahsun.com. You might also
want to check out
http://www.thinkwestkentucky.com. When looking up stuff to do though, be careful
about the Think West Kentucky site. West Kentucky is typically considered to span from the far west
part of the state to Elizabethtown/Bardstown--both of which are 4 hours from Paducah. I consider
both of them to be central Kentucky, but I digress. When I was attending the University of Kentucky,
my friends from far far eastern Kentucky considered Bardstown and Elizabethtown to be West
Kentucky...
"Bronwyn Ferrier Ms" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> G'day folks, Lucky girl that I am, I have another trip to the US from here in Queensland Oz. You
> might recall you all gave me great gourmet advice when I visited Austin Tx last June which was
> really helpful. This time, I am meeting up with my new friends from Austin and we are travelling
> to the Paducah Quilt Show in late April. So, what great advice can you give me on the cuisine of
> KY and places to try in Paducah? Also, does anyone know of a day trip I can do from Paducah on a
> Sunday? I'd love to visit one of the distilleries, but fear Paducah is too far west to achieve
> this in one day (without a car at my disposal). Any other tourist attraction from there would be
> nice I am sure. Meanwhile I am looking forward to those great Tx barbeques!! Maybe there is a
> regular poster who lives in Paducah who would like to meet and say hi. Cheers Bronwyn