United States Road trips
53 curated road trips in United States — Route 66, Pacific Coast Hwy, Blue Ridge Parkway. Mapped stops, distance, duration, best season, and practical route notes.
These 53 routes range from 40 to 4800 km and from 0.08333333333333333 to 21 days, across 1 country. Top picks: Route 66, Pacific Coast Hwy, Blue Ridge Parkway.
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LegendaryRoute 66The Mother Road. From Chicago to Santa Monica, Route 66 is America's original road trip, neon diners, desert motels, and wide-open sky that defined a nation on wheels.EV-friendly
LegendaryPacific Coast HwyCalifornia Highway 1 hugs the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles, cliffs, redwoods, Big Sur, and beaches that look designed for film shoots.EV-friendly
LegendaryBlue Ridge ParkwayThe most beautiful drive in the eastern United States, 755 km of ridge-top parkway through the Appalachians from Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains, with no commercial traffic, no billboards, and no stoplights. Named overlooks appear every few kilometres above a landscape of unbroken hardwood forest turning gold and crimson each October.EV-friendly
IconicOverseas HighwayUS-1 leaves the Florida mainland and drives 230km over 42 bridges across the Florida Keys, the highway that goes to sea. Turquoise flats on both sides, pelicans on every railing, and America's most southerly point at the end.EV-friendly
LegendaryBeartooth HighwayThis iconic alpine drive climbs from Red Lodge, Montana to the Beartooth Plateau and down toward Cooke City, threading past hairpin switchbacks, glacial lakes, and broad tundra views. It is one of the highest paved roads in North America, with nonstop scenery and crisp mountain air.
LegendaryRoad to HānaThe Hāna Highway winds along Maui's dramatic northeastern coastline through 59 bridges and 620 curves, bamboo forests, hidden black-sand beaches, waterfalls tumbling into the sea, and one of the most lush drives on Earth.EV-friendlyPermit required
LegendaryGoing-to-the-Sun RoadThe only road that crosses the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park threads through the most dramatic mountain scenery in the American Rockies, hanging valleys, waterfalls cascading across the road, and grizzly bears roadside.
LegendarySouthern Utah Parks TraverseA seven-day traverse through Utah's five national parks, from St. George and Zion to Monument Valley, with Goblin Valley and the Moab parks given their own realistic days.EV-friendlyPermit required
LegendaryGrand Teton to YellowstoneAmerica's ultimate wildlife corridor, from the jagged Teton skyline above Jackson Hole, north through moose meadows and bison herds into the world's first national park, where the earth erupts with geysers, prismatic hot springs, and mud pots.EV-friendly
IconicLas Vegas to Stovepipe Wells via Death ValleyThe lowest, hottest, driest national park on Earth, and one of its most spectacular. Golden badlands, salt flats at 86m below sea level, rainbow-painted hills, and dunes that hum when the sand shifts in the wind.
IconicNatchez Trace ParkwayThe oldest road in America, a 715 km National Parkway following a 10,000-year-old trail used by Native Americans, French traders, and flatboatmen walking home from New Orleans, now a billboard-free parkway of cathedral forest, Civil War earthworks, and ancient mounds.EV-friendly
IconicMillion Dollar HighwayColorado’s Million Dollar Highway is the dramatic stretch of US 550 between Silverton and Ouray, threading over Red Mountain Pass through steep alpine scenery, old mining country, and sheer canyon walls. Expect tight curves, dramatic overlooks, and one of the Rockies’ most memorable short drives.
IconicSeward HighwayThis classic Alaska drive runs from downtown Anchorage south to Seward, following Turnagain Arm past tidal mudflats, glacier-capped peaks, and roadside viewpoints. It’s a straightforward paved route, but the scenery demands frequent stops for hikes, wildlife viewing, and overlooks along Kenai Peninsula’s dramatic coast.EV-friendly
IconicSeattle–Olympic Peninsula CircuitA true Seattle circuit: cross Puget Sound, tour Hurricane Ridge and Lake Crescent, continue through the Hoh and wild Pacific beaches, then return to Seattle through Lake Quinault and Olympia.Loop / circuit
NotableGreat River Road: Ten-State HighlightsA fourteen-day highlights journey along the roughly 3,000-mile Great River Road system, touching all ten Mississippi River states from Lake Itasca to New Orleans. It prioritizes major river landscapes and cultural cities rather than pretending every signed alternate can fit one linear drive.EV-friendly
IconicArizona Old West, Sedona and Grand CanyonA four-day custom sampler from Wickenburg and Prescott through Jerome, Sedona, Flagstaff, and Williams to a dedicated Grand Canyon South Rim day.
IconicBadlands & Black Hills LoopSouth Dakota's astonishing concentration of American myth, the razor-ridged Badlands spires and buttes rising from the Great Plains, the ancient Lakota sacred Black Hills, Crazy Horse's unfinished mountain monument, and Mount Rushmore's four presidential faces carved into granite. Bison herds, prairie dogs, and the ghosts of the frontier frame the most symbolically loaded landscape in the American West.Loop / circuit
NotableBoston–Newport–Hartford–New Haven–New YorkThe east coast's most storied corridor, from Boston's Freedom Trail and Samuel Adams breweries, zig-zagging through Newport's Gilded Age ocean mansions and Hartford's Mark Twain House to the architectural immensity of New York City. Tesla Superchargers every 100 km make this the original electric road trip route in America.EV-friendly
NotableCajun Country DriveFrom New Orleans' jazz balconies to the cypress bayous and accordion halls of Acadiana, 274 km through the beating heart of French Louisiana, where Creole cooking, zydeco music, and Mardi Gras traditions survive in a culture unlike anywhere else in America.
NotableCannonball-Inspired Cross-Country Road TripA legal sightseeing route inspired by the historic New York-to-Redondo Beach idea, with disclosed detours for cities, Route 66 landmarks, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, and the Mojave. It is not a speed record attempt.
Hidden GemCape Ann, MassachusettsThe North Shore route from Newburyport south along Cape Ann, clam shacks on Route 1A, the Parker River Wildlife Refuge's 800 species of birds and plants, Crane Beach (one of the longest and sandiest in New England), maritime Essex, and the working fishing port of Gloucester. A short drive dense with seafood and Atlantic atmosphere.EV-friendly
IconicCape Cod Route 6A and Outer CapeRoute 6A, the Old King's Highway, traces the Bay side of Cape Cod through 300 years of sea-captain architecture, cranberry bogs, saltmarsh, and shingled villages. The Cape narrows to a sandy hook at Provincetown, where the Pilgrims first landed in 1620.EV-friendly
IconicChain of Craters RoadThe most geological road on Earth, descending 1200m from Kīlauea's active summit caldera to the Pacific coast, past pit craters and still-smoking lava fields, ending where a previous flow swallowed the road whole and entered the sea.EV-friendly
IconicDenali HighwayThe Denali Highway runs between Paxson and Cantwell across a vast sweep of tundra, alpine lakes, and glacier-carved ridges with constant views of the Alaska Range. Long gravel stretches and frequent wildlife sightings make it a classic remote drive, best enjoyed slowly in clear summer weather.Off-road sections
NotableDinosaur Diamond Prehistoric HighwayA loop through the greatest concentration of dinosaur fossils on Earth, the Dinosaur National Monument's quarry wall (1,500 bones embedded in exposed sandstone), the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, Arches National Park's red-rock arches, and the Book Cliffs' 160-million-year-old Morrison Formation strata. Where the Jurassic Period meets the American canyon country.
Hidden GemFredericksburg to Petersburg Civil War RouteA three-day Fredericksburg-to-Petersburg Civil War route. It samples major 1862–64 sites but does not claim to reproduce every battle of the Overland Campaign in exact sequence.
NotableHighway 1, FloridaUS-1 traces Florida's Atlantic spine from the Georgia border to Miami Beach, through the Golden Isles, historic St Augustine, Kennedy Space Center, the Space Coast, and Miami's art deco shore. Not to be confused with the Keys Overseas Highway; this is Florida's forgotten Atlantic coast road through lighthouse towns, rocket launch pads, and Art Deco glamour.EV-friendly
NotableHighway 61 Blues TrailThe "Blues Highway" runs from Memphis to New Orleans along the Mississippi River through the Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the blues, juke joints, catfish shacks, antebellum plantations, and the music that changed the world.
IconicHistoric Columbia River HighwayThis classic Oregon drive follows the restored Historic Columbia River Highway through the Columbia River Gorge, linking waterfalls, stone bridges, and bluff-top viewpoints. Starting near Troutdale and finishing in the Hood River area, it blends early 20th-century engineering with constant river-and-cliff scenery, best enjoyed at a leisurely pace.EV-friendly
IconicJimmy Buffett's Florida KeysThe Florida Keys Scenic Highway, a prestigious All-American Road, is Jimmy Buffett's country. Hemingway lived here, Tennessee Williams wrote here, and Thomas McGuane caroused here. The drive hops one bridge at a time through a magnificent seascape to Key West's Margaritaville.EV-friendly
IconicKancamagus HighwayNew Hampshire's "Kanc", NH-112 through the White Mountain National Forest, is the quintessential New England foliage drive. No traffic lights, no commercial strip, no stops for 56km of blazing maple canopy, covered bridges, and cold mountain streams.EV-friendly
IconicKancamagus Highway and Franconia NotchNew Hampshire's Kancamagus Highway cuts through the White Mountain National Forest without a single traffic light. In fall, the hardwoods burn crimson and gold, one of the great foliage drives in the world.EV-friendly
IconicLas Vegas Grand CircleAn eleven-day Las Vegas loop through Valley of Fire, Zion, Bryce, Page, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Route 66, Hoover Dam, and Red Rock Canyon.Permit required
IconicMaine Coast to Acadia and BangorA four-day US Route 1 coast trip through Portland, Bath, Pemaquid, Rockland, Camden, Acadia, and Bangor. The literary connection is an optional Bangor coda; the route itself is a classic Maine coast drive.EV-friendly
Hidden GemManhattan–Montauk–North Fork–BrooklynA four-day traverse from Manhattan to Montauk, back through the Hamptons and North Fork, then along the South Shore to Brooklyn. Sagamore Hill is included as the principal North Shore history stop.EV-friendly
IconicNapa Valley Wine RoadCalifornia's Silverado Trail and Highway 29 thread through the most celebrated wine valley in the Americas, grand château wineries, Michelin-starred restaurants, mustard flowers in spring, and golden harvest light in fall.EV-friendly
IconicOʻahu Windward and North Shore TripThe Ko'olau pali throws a wall of fluted green peaks above Oahu's windward shore. H3 and the Kamehameha Highway trace the coast through taro fields, ancient heiau, sacred valleys, and turquoise bays where Hawaiians surfed a thousand years before tourists arrived.EV-friendly
NotableOld West, ArizonaFrom desert cattle ranches to mile-high mountain towns, this Sonoran Desert drive climbs from the cowboy capital of Wickenburg through a former copper boomtown hanging on a cliff to the red-rock vortexes of Sedona and Flagstaff's ponderosa pines.
Hidden GemPilgrim and Colonial MassachusettsA thematic four-day connection from Provincetown through Plymouth to separate Boston and Salem days, linking Pilgrim, Revolutionary, maritime, and witch-trial history rather than claiming a single historic trail.EV-friendly
IconicPortland to Bar HarborMaine's rocky Downeaster coast from the peninsula city of Portland north to Bar Harbor, through Bath's shipyards, Rockland's lobster wharves, Camden's perfect harbour, and the spruce-forested headlands of Acadia National Park. The US Northeast's finest short coastal drive.EV-friendly
LegendarySan Juan SkywayColorado's Million Dollar Highway, the San Juan Skyway loops through Ouray's "Switzerland of America" canyon town, the 3,358m Red Mountain Pass above collapsed mine workings, Silverton's Victorian mining town, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, and Mesa Verde's Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings. The most dramatic mountain circuit in the Rocky Mountains.EV-friendlyPermit requiredLoop / circuit
IconicSkyline DriveSkyline Drive is the classic ridge-top route through Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, tracing 105 miles along the Blue Ridge Mountains. The road links mountain overlooks, short hikes, and forested valleys between Front Royal and Rockfish Gap, with especially vivid color in spring bloom and autumn foliage.EV-friendly
Hidden GemSouthwest Virginia Coalfields and Music RouteA contiguous three-day cultural traverse grouping Bristol and the Carter Fold, Big Stone Gap and Wise, then Breaks Interstate Park and Grundy. It is not Virginia's shorter named Lonesome Pine wildlife loop.
NotableThe American SouthA coherent northbound history route from Charleston through major Civil Rights sites and Virginia battlefields to Washington, Antietam, and Gettysburg. Jamestown, Charlottesville, Monticello, and Shenandoah are excluded rather than hidden as impossible detours.
Hidden GemThe Crooked RoadVirginia's Heritage Music Trail threads through the Blue Ridge hollows where American roots music was born, fiddle tunes, bluegrass flatpicking, gospel harmonies, and old-time mountain ballads played in courthouses, country stores, and dance halls along 531 km of winding Appalachian road.
NotableVanishing Point-Inspired Legal Road TripThe Vanishing Point drive, west from Denver across Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California. The 1971 cult film sent Kowalski west on I-70 in a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum. The real route skips the interstate and traces the movie's huge horizons: the Utah desert, ghost towns, the Sierra Nevada, and San Francisco Bay.
IconicWhite Rim RoadThe otherworldly terrain of Canyonlands National Park is intimidating enough from the hard-top, once you leave the tarmac for the White Rim Road, it feels like driving on Mars. A 4WD-only loop around the Island in the Sky mesa, sneaking along sheer cliff walls above two deep river canyons. Built by Cold War uranium miners; no potable water anywhere on the route.4WD onlyOff-road sectionsPermit required
NotableWillamette ValleyPinot Noir is the grape that put Oregon on the wine map when Eyrie Vineyards beat the French at the 1979 Wine Olympics. The 180km Willamette basin runs between the coast and the Cascades, I-5 and 99W threading past vineyards, hop yards, winding rivers, and bubbling hot springs from Portland to Eugene.EV-friendly
IconicYosemite to Sequoia and Kings CanyonA six-day parks traverse from Yosemite Valley through Wawona and Mariposa Grove to Grant Grove and the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway, then south once to Giant Forest, Moro Rock, and General Sherman.EV-friendly
NotableBonneville Salt FlatsThe remnant of ancient Lake Bonneville, 200km² of blinding white salt crust where land speed records are broken and the curvature of the Earth is visible to the naked eye. I-80 is one of the straightest, most surreal roads in America.
LegendaryLake Tahoe to Death Valley via US 395Follow the classic Eastern Sierra road from Lake Tahoe past Mono Lake, Mammoth Lakes, Bishop, Manzanar, and the Alabama Hills before descending into Death Valley. Yosemite is deliberately excluded from the core line so seasonal Tioga closures do not create a major backtrack.
IconicTorrey to Escalante via Highway 12Route 12 south from Torrey climbs to a 2,750 m pass through Dixie National Forest pine trees before reaching the narrow spine of The Hogback, a tarred road balanced on a razor ridge with near-vertical drops into canyon on both sides. One of the most dramatic stretches of road in America, ending in the frontier town of Escalante with Cowboy Blues' legendary local trout.
IconicWaimea Canyon DriveThe "Grand Canyon of the Pacific", HI-550 climbs from Kauaʻi's red-dirt lowlands to a 1200m lookout above a canyon 16km long and 900m deep, its walls stripped in ochre, violet, and jungle green by five million years of erosion.EV-friendly