The Golden Age of motor travel may have ended with the advent of air travel but the Great American Road Trip is still alive and kicking.
Driving across America will reveal cinematic landscapes, bizarre roadside oddities and laugh-out-loud town names, but the wins don’t end there. Here are five unexpected benefits of road-tripping across the U S of A.
1. Seeing Small Town America
Silver Nugget sandwiches. Photo by Jo Stewart.
Sure, you could just tick off New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the other well-known heavyweights but how many of your friends have been to Ely, Nevada? Or Sandusky, Ohio? What about Cody, Wyoming? Or Stowe, Vermont? Road-tripping across the country gives you the opportunity to spend time in places you may have never heard of before. America’s smaller, satellite cities and teeny tiny towns are dream destinations for travellers keen on avoiding tourist crowds, meeting down-to-earth folk and buying truly terrible souvenirs like gaudy fridge magnets and kitsch snow globes.
2. Visiting weird museums
Goldwell Open Air Museum, Death Valley. Photo by Emily Kratzmann.
Los Angeles has the Getty. New York has the Guggenheim. Florida has the Kennedy Space Center. While America’s big cities can hang their hats on world-class cultural institutions that are visited by thousands each day, lesser-visited cities and towns have something different altogether. On a road trip across the country, you’ll get to experience the salty, canned glory of the SPAM Museum in Minnesota. Or an in-depth look at the planet’s most influential soft drink at the World of Coca Cola in Atlanta. Perhaps the Asheville Pinball Museum in North Carolina is more your thing? Regardless of your interests, inland America is choc-full of quirky museums dedicated to all manner of random, strange things… even canned goods.
READ MORE: WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE A WINTER BREAK ON AMERICA’S WEST COAST
3. Spending less time at airports
Petrol pumps on Route 66. Photo by Cassandra Wallace.
Airports are a necessary part of life. Whether you’re the type of person who arrives four hours early for a flight or have to hear your name paged through the whole airport three times before boarding, there’s a case for spending less time in airports. Flying domestically in the USA is mostly convenient but when considering flight delays, long queues, zealous security offers, exorbitant airport snack costs and annoying inflight armrest hogs (worst!), driving across America becomes much more attractive. On a long drive you are king of the road. You can stop to take photos frequently, stretch your legs when you like and make a pit stop for some roadside snacks that catch your eye (hello there, tater tots).
4. Enjoying hype-free dining
Simple diner fare. Photo by Helio Ha on Unsplash
From ‘mom and pop’ style eateries to greasy diners filled with truckers, and quiet, neighbourhood restaurants pumping out honest-to-goodness fare, a road trip across America will reveal many quietly incredible people making delicious food, without any fanfare. While the crowds are lining up to nab a table at the latest must-visit pizza joint in Brooklyn, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of other pizza joints doing great things with gluten and mozzarella. They’re usually way cheaper too.
5. Stitching together the patchwork of America, one mile at a time
Anyone who watches the news will see how incredibly complicated America is. Driving coast to coast offers you the opportunity to truly immerse in all things USA. From talking to local hikers while camping in the Great Smoky Mountains to trading stories with strangers at a Cubs game in Chicago, and watching people weep at Elvis Presley’s grave at Graceland, every gas station, bar, diner, convenience store, camp ground, stadium and motel will reveal the very fabric of the state you’re travelling through. By the end of the journey you will have cobbled together a patchwork quilt of stories that could never come from zipping across the country in a plane. You just might also have a wicked souvenir from the SPAM Museum too.
Want to experience the great American road trip yourself? Check out our range of small group adventures across the US of A now.
Feature image by Stefan Machler via Unsplash.
