US road trips remain ever-present on travel bucket lists the world over.
A true pillar of American folklore, their routes are steeped in history and paint a picture of the USA through the ages, from the Gold Rush to the Cold War.
In the modern day, these routes remain on the travel lists of Americans and tourists alike, all longing to head out on the open road to discover vibrant cities, desert plains, attractive coastlines and enormous mountain ranges.
In a nation that stretches over 3,000 miles from east to west, there are hundreds of routes to take you across the country, whether you want to follow the coast north from California or take a more remote route in Alaska.
Lesser known odysseys such as Route 101 or the Lincoln Highway quickly capture the imagination, while famed highways such as Route 66 dominate the dreams of would-be road trippers. To help you decide which route suits you, we’ve rounded up a list of the best trips across the country.
Route 66
Chicago to Santa Monica
Route 66 is America’s most famous road trip
(Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The USA’s most famous route has been immortalised via a combination of pop culture and nostalgia, despite no longer officially being classified as highway. Today, it remains the holy grail of US road trips.
Stretching for around 2,500 miles from Chicago to the beachfront of Santa Monica (just next to Los Angeles), it provides a taste of times gone by in the US, from kitsch gas stations to the Wild West-like emptiness of the Arizona and New Mexico desert.
This retro feeling is lost at either end of the ‘Mother Road’, especially when arriving into LA, but the marked contrast means that those travelling the route get to experience a quintessential slice of the States, including beautiful desert landscapes, the vintage Americana of Texas and two of the country’s foremost modern cities.
Read more on North America travel:
The Great River Road
Minnesota to Louisiana
The Great River Road consists of a series of different state and local roads
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This winding route follows the equally serpentine Mississippi River for a total of over 2,300 miles through 10 states. It starts (or ends) in Louisiana, near the Gulf of Mexico, before coursing through Mississippi, Tennessee and ending up in Minnesota, near the Canadian border.
At its start, the route takes travellers…
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