Fast cars, cool caves: Bowling Green has the perfect recipe for full-throttle family fun

It’s easy to love fall in Kentucky. The temperatures are cool enough for a sweater and the changing leaves paint a vibrant scene that I can’t get enough of. My kids, on the other hand, can only look at pretty leaves for so long before they need a change of pace. That’s why I’m always looking for family vacation spots where we can enjoy the changing seasons. And plan some fun activities that will make everyone happy.

This year, that quest took me to Bowling Green, Kentucky, one of the most affordable family vacation destinations in the country and home to both the National Corvette Museum and the heart of Kentucky’s cave country. While you definitely don’t want to miss them when you visit, my trip showed me that there’s a lot more to Bowling Green than fast cars and cool caves. Here’s how we spent a family fun-filled fall weekend in Bowling Green.

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When you feel the need for speed. . .

It’s hard to get a 12-year-old excited about family activities, but when I told my older son we were going to the National Corvette Museum, he didn’t even try to hide his smile. But he’s a big car enthusiast, so I expected him to enjoy the museum. Still, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was also something for everyone to enjoy.

Of course, he loved seeing the 70+ Corvettes on display, but my whole family had fun (and a few laughs) designing our own Corvettes and seeing them displayed on one of the gallery walls. I also loved seeing Corvettes appear in movies, music, and television over the years in the pop culture exhibit. There’s even a 1960s Autopia car from Disneyland.

We couldn’t get this close to such fast cars without getting behind the wheel of one. After our tour, we took a short five minute drive to NCM Motorsports Park to go karting at the NCM Kartplex. The karts go up to 40 miles per hour and they even have a two-seater kart so my husband can drive our youngest son. All three of my kids said it was the best moment they had ever had when they got out of the cars and immediately jumped onto the winner’s podium to pose for a photo.

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When you want fall vibes. . .

We hosted several fall activities in just a few days in Bowling Green. Even though it’s Kentucky’s third-largest city, it has a real small-town feel, with family-owned farms and orchards and the fact that it’s only a 10-15 minute drive between activities.

Our stop at Chaney’s Dairy Barn to tour the free playground and sample some farm-fresh ice cream (and meet the cows who produce the milk to make said ice cream) was made even sweeter this fall by the huge corn maze. A little further out of town, Jackson’s Orchard is worth a visit for its annual pumpkin festival. Whether we’re at home or on the road, taking a hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick our annual jack-o’-lantern pumpkins is a family tradition.

Another must-visit is Lost River Cave. On our previous visits, we usually stop here for hikes and cave boat tours (yes, an underground boat ride), but we were lucky that our October visit coincided with the annual Scarecrow Trail. Along the wooded trail, you can see themed scarecrow displays created by local businesses and organizations. My kids love a good photo op, so we stopped at lots of screens to take silly photos as we walked.

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Of course, Mammoth Cave National Park, site of the longest known cave system in the world, is the main attraction of any visit to Bowling Green. There are nearly two dozen cave tours to choose from, ranging from beginner to expert, as well as hiking, camping, lodge and more. When visiting with the kids, I prefer the self-guided cave tour and the trails near the visitor center so we can explore at our own pace with easy access to the car when they decide they’ve had enough spelunking for the day.

Aside from our oldest, our kids are still too young for haunted houses, but we ended the evening with the Hilltop History and Haunts Kids Tour, a family-friendly walking tour around the Western Kentucky University campus that delves into the school’s haunted history (there’s an adult version of the tour if you’re traveling without kids). Our tour guide shared stories about WKU’s “friendly ghosts” in a way that was accessible for children, but informative for adults. I had no idea about that Halloween Director John Carpenter once lived in a log cabin on campus, or remnants of a Civil War fort can still be seen on campus.

When you’re sleepy. . .

There are dozens of hotel options in Bowling Green, many with rooms specifically designed for large families like mine. On this trip, we stayed in a two-bedroom suite that sleeps up to eight people at the Staybridge Suites, but we’ve also stayed at the SpringHill Suites and the Embassy Suites. In my opinion, these three hotels get bonus points because they offer free breakfast during your stay.

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When you’re hungry. . .

We love trying local restaurants when we travel. Bowling Green gave us more options than we could tackle in one weekend, but we did our best.

Whether for a late night or early morning sweet treat, Great American Donut Shop (known as GADS) is a Bowling Green institution. GADS serves dozens of donut flavors 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We couldn’t resist stopping to enjoy something during our two hour drive home to Indiana.

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but when you add in free video games and an ’80s movie theme, my whole family was in love: Atomic Kitchen’s retro decor and menu items (with names like the “Kevin Bacon Jam” burger and “Pac-Man Pickles”) made us want to hop in a Delorean and go back to the ’80s.

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