Staying at 21c Museum Hotel, Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky

21c Museum Hotel, Main Street, Louisville. Photo / Supplied

Peter Wheeler stays at 21c Museum Hotel, Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky.

Getting there: An easy 90-minute flight from New York and 10 minutes into town in a F150 pickup truck.

Check-in experience: Once you get over the surprise of a fully tiled Cadillac outside and a group of metre-high pink plastic penguins gathered around the front door, check-in is very friendly and efficient. 21c is an art gallery over three floors mixed with bars, a restaurant and rooms upstairs so there are many and varied groups coming in. It was converted from an old warehouse and only 100m from the Ohio River.

The room: Very large , as you would expect in a warehouse but modern, with a large bathroom, king beds, a real desk and — joy of joys — decent lighting. The linen was all good old US of A cotton. Very nice.

Toiletries: Malin+Goetz, a New York brand that was unknown to us but seemed to do the job for which it was intended.

Price: Three nights cost US$478.

What's in the neighbourhood: Close to the river and just along main street is the KFC Convention and Sports centre. A block away is the Evan Williams distillery.

A half-hour car ride takes you to the Jim Beam estate and within 15km six more distilleries. The countryside is all five and 10-acre farms based on the old corn and tobacco trades and on some, slave huts have been preserved so there is plenty to see outside of the themed Daniel Boone and Civil War museums. Louisville and Kentucky is a special spot with very friendly people. As well as bourbon, Louisville is known as Mohammed Ali's hometown and the birthplace of KFC — although strangely the nearest KFC was out in the suburbs.

Exploring the hotel: As a fully-functioning gallery, the public areas were always busy with students, art groups and, twice, with painters at their easels. The penguins drift around the hotel as people take a fancy to them, they appear at the bar, in the lift and one became so attached to my wife she took it back to the room.

Food and drink: Being in the centre of bourbon distilling, the bar had more than 200 brands and styles and the barmen were happy to talk about the industry while offering $15 flights to taste. The restaurant had a great range of local favourites (including grits) and very upmarket dishes beautifully presented, so it wasn't unusual to see a diner enjoying a steak burger as their companion tucked into salmon flambe.

Online: 21cmuseumhotels.com

Notable: In addition to the penguins, the men's urinal beside the foyer was frosted glass to hip height and clear above. A waterfall streamed down it so my view of the lobby appeared to be underwater. In contrast the women's toilet (so my wife tells me) was decorated with photographs of eyes, the wall caption noting that these were all pictures taken of locals who were blind.