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 on the lookout for family vacation spots where we can enjoy the changing seasons and pack in a few fun activities that’ll keep 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. Though you definitely don’t want to miss out on those when you visit, my trip showed me there’s a lot more to Bowling Green than fast cars and cool caves. Here’s how we spent a fall weekend packed with family fun 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 oldest son that we were going to the National Corvette Museum, he didn’t even attempt to hide his smile. He’s a huge car buff, though, so I expected him to enjoy the museum. Yet I was happily surprised to find that there was something for everyone else to enjoy, too.

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

We couldn’t get this close to such fast cars without getting behind the wheel of one. After our visit, we made the short five-minute drive to NCM Motorsports Park for some 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 could drive our youngest son around. All three of my children said it was the best time they’ve ever had when they climbed out of the cars, and immediately hopped on the winner’s podium to pose for a photo.

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When you want fall vibes . . .

We packed several fall activities into just a few short days in Bowling Green. Even though it’s the third largest city in Kentucky, it has a genuine small-town feel, from family-friendly farms and orchards to the fact that it took only 10 to 15 minutes to drive between activities.

Our stop at Chaney’s Dairy Barn to visit the free playground and get some farm fresh ice cream (and to meet the cows who produce the milk to make said ice cream) was made even more enjoyable this fall by the massive corn maze. A bit further from town, Jackson’s Orchard is worth the drive for its annual pumpkin festival. Whether we are 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. When we’ve visited in the past, we usually stop here for hiking and cave boat tours (yes, an underground boat ride), but we got lucky that our October visit coincided with the annual Scarecrow Trail. Along the wooded trail, you can spot themed scarecrow displays made by local businesses and organizations. My kids love a good photo op, so we stopped at a lot of displays to take silly photos while we walked.

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Of course, Mammoth Cave National Park, site of the world’s longest known cave system, is the main attraction for any Bowling Green visit. There are nearly two dozen cave tours to choose from, ranging from beginner to expert, along with hiking, camping, a lodge, and more. When visiting with the kids, I prefer the self-guided cave tour and the trails near the visitor center so that we can explore on our own time 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 are traveling sans kids). Our tour guide shared stories of WKU’s “friendly ghosts” in a way that was approachable for kids, but informative for adults. I had no idea that Halloween director John Carpenter once lived in a log cabin on campus, or that you can still see the remnants of a Civil War fort on campus.

When you get sleepy . . .

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

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When you get hungry . . .

We love trying out 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-at-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 by for something to enjoy on our two-hour drive back to our home in Indiana.

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but when you throw 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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