The Basics

Built: 1914
Name: Originally the Idlewild, later the Avalon, Belle of Louisville in 1962
Neighborhood: Downtown dock, and all along the Ohio River
Self-description: “The world’s oldest operating Mississippi River‑style steamboat. We were built two years after the Titanic.”
Website: belleoflouisville.org

Best of Louisville Stats

Total nominations: 5
Total “wins”: 2 (for Best Ill-Advised Calliope Tune, “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus in 1993 and “Mack the Knife” by Bobby Darin in ’94)
First nomination: 1986, the inaugural Best of Louisville, for Best Tourist Attraction

The Voting Academy Says

“Drifting on the Ohio, watching the city go by, it’s easy to feel like the good outweighs the bad.”