As I’ve mentioned before, one of the websites I always check when planning family vacations is Groupon, and doing so really paid off on our last trip.

We were already planning to visit the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, so imagine my excitement to learn I could save 30% by purchasing admissions in advance through Groupon!

The Kentucky Horse Park was both fun and educational. We started our tour with a horse-drawn trolley ride.

This gave us a good feel for the park and familiarized us with where everything was.

After the trolley ride, we walked over to the Hall of Champions, where we got to meet several past winners of the Kentucky Derby, and even one Triple Crown winner.

This informative talk taught us a lot of things we didn’t already know about how race horses are trained, how they are measured, how old they have to be to compete, and how much money they win for their owners.

From there, we strolled a short way down to another stadium where we enjoyed the Parade of Breeds show. Half a dozen horses from different parts of the world participated and the announcer filled us in on the history of each breed as it trotted and cantered around in front of the stands.

It was a hot day, so we were grateful to have seats in the shade. In cooler weather, the riders dress in the traditional costumes of the country from which each horse hails, but in the heat of the summer, they perform in cool, cotton, color coordinated T-shirts, instead.

We took a quick look in the draft barn and learned a few things about heavier breeds such as Clydesdales and Belgium horses before heading over to the Children’s Barn.

The Children’s Barn had lots of fun hands-on exhibits. Most were clearly designed for littles…

… but my bigger kids enjoyed computing their height in “hands” and seeing how they measured up not only to one another, but also to the average horse.

We completed our visit by touring the two museums on the premises. The first, the International Museum of the Horse, featured two full floors of world class exhibits.

We could have spent hours in there and still not seen it all. We ended up staying much longer than planned, as we were learning a lot and enjoying the cool air-conditioned setting.

The American Saddle-Horse Museum was smaller — part of the building was closed off for remodeling when we visited — but had lots of interactive exhibits that especially appealed to children.

Overall, we had a wonderful time at the Kentucky Horse Park, and the fact that Groupon saved us money on our visit was icing on the cake!

Once we left Lexington, we drove south to Tennessee, where we enjoyed even more Groupon Deals. Here’s a short listing of attractions we enjoyed on this trip (and/or on previous visits to the area) with referral links listed to current Groupon offers for each, so that you too can…

Save a Bundle with Groupon

Cooter’s Place – our family was able to save 56% on go karts and golf at this fun stop in Gatlinburg, TN
Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Show – you can save 15% off adult and 43% off child tickets with this Groupon
Outdoor Gravity Park – Groupon helped us save 32% off zorbing on a previous trip to Pigeon Forge, and they’re running the same offer again now.
The Titanic Museum – We saved 25% off our tickets to the Titanic in January. We visited the one in Branson, but you can get the same Groupon Deal in Pigeon Forge