Route 66Trip Guide
8 states · 823 stops

Route 66 map: Every stop from Chicago to Santa Monica

Filter by category or state, then tap a dot on the map or a stop in the list to see where it is. Turn on “Where to eat” to add classic diners and restaurants.

823 of 823 stops · showing the first 60 in the list

  1. MuseumChicago, IL · on Route 66World-famous paintings like American Gothic and Nighthawks, a short walk from where Route 66 begins.
  2. MuseumChicago, IL · 0.1 mi from Route 66A military history museum and research library with Churchill material and wartime sheet music.
  3. MuseumChicago, IL · 0.3 mi from Route 66A free photography museum on Michigan Avenue with more than 15,000 works by some 1,500 artists.
  4. MuseumChicago, IL · 0.4 mi from Route 66The surviving home of Jane Addams's famous settlement house, now a National Historic Landmark museum.
  5. Retro roadsideChicago, IL · 0.1 mi from Route 66Chicago's 1923 breakfast diner on Jackson Boulevard, long called the first stop on Route 66.
  6. MuseumChicago, IL · 0.3 mi from Route 66A downtown museum about design that began as a pop-up and found a permanent home on Randolph Street.
  7. MuseumChicago, IL · 0.9 mi from Route 66A major museum of Mexican and Chicano art, set in a park in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.
  8. MuseumChicago, IL · 0.4 mi from Route 66A Michigan Avenue museum celebrating American authors and the craft of writing, opened in 2017.
  9. MuseumChicago, IL · 0.1 mi from Route 66A museum of Greek and Greek-American heritage in Chicago's Greektown, near the start of Route 66.
  10. MuseumChicago, IL · 0.6 mi from Route 66The place to learn about Chicago's skyline, known for its river cruise and a big model of downtown.
  11. MuseumChicago, IL · 0.7 mi from Route 66A former museum of First Amendment freedoms on Michigan Avenue, open from 2006 to 2009.
  12. MuseumChicago, IL · 0.8 mi from Route 66One of the world's great natural history museums, with fossils, world cultures and 24 million objects.
  13. MuseumChicago, IL · 1.9 mi from Route 66A Chinatown museum telling the story of Chinese Americans in Chicago and the Midwest.
  14. MuseumChicago, IL · 1.0 mi from Route 66An 1883 banker's mansion saved by an early preservation effort, now home to the Driehaus Museum.
  15. MuseumChicago, IL · 1.0 mi from Route 66Gilded Age rooms full of marble, carved wood, stained glass and Tiffany works, off the Magnificent Mile.
  16. MuseumChicago, IL · 1.2 mi from Route 66A large contemporary art museum near the Water Tower, with Warhol, Calder and changing shows.
  17. Art & landmarksChicago, IL · 1.2 mi from Route 66The Gothic Revival tower that survived Chicago's Great Fire in 1871, right on the Magnificent Mile.
  18. MuseumChicago, IL · 1.2 mi from Route 66A museum on Michigan Avenue devoted to spirituality in art, with medieval to Baroque treasures.
  19. MuseumChicago, IL · 1.0 mi from Route 66America's first planetarium, set on a point of land jutting into Lake Michigan.
  20. Art & landmarksChicago, IL · 1.2 mi from Route 66A long lakefront pier packed with food, theaters, parks and family attractions, a Chicago favorite.
  21. MuseumChicago, IL · 1.4 mi from Route 66Among the nation's oldest ethnic museums, set in the heart of Chicago's old Polish Downtown.
  22. Art & landmarksChicago, IL · 1.6 mi from Route 66A working lighthouse from 1893 at the mouth of Chicago's harbor, best seen from Navy Pier.
  23. MuseumChicago, IL · 2.2 mi from Route 66The city's own history museum, run by a society founded in 1856, at the edge of Lincoln Park.
  24. MuseumCicero, IL · 0.2 mi from Route 66The Western Electric factory site that gave its name to the Hawthorne effect, now remembered in Cicero.
  25. MuseumChicago, IL · 1.4 mi from Route 66A museum of Ukrainian art, instruments and embroidered folk dress in Chicago's Ukrainian Village.
  26. Nature & parksChicago, IL · 2.9 mi from Route 66A free zoo founded in 1868, with about 1,100 animals in the middle of Lincoln Park.
  27. Nature & parksChicago, IL · 3.1 mi from Route 66A Victorian glass house full of orchids and exotic plants, with a formal garden out front.
  28. MuseumChicago, IL · 3.3 mi from Route 66A family-friendly nature museum in Lincoln Park, famous for a live butterfly house.
  29. ArchaeologyChicago, IL · 6.8 mi from Route 66A late prehistoric village site in the Sag Valley, recorded by archaeologists as 11Ck-19.
  30. Nature & parksChicago, IL · 2.1 mi from Route 66A 184-acre West Side park from the 1870s, home to one of the country's largest conservatories.
  31. MuseumChicago, IL · 2.1 mi from Route 66A free, vast greenhouse on Chicago's West Side, with cycads more than 200 years old.
  32. Route 66 siteBerwyn, IL · on Route 66A small nonprofit museum about the Mother Road in Berwyn, just west of Chicago.
  33. ArchaeologyChicago, IL · 7.1 mi from Route 66A late prehistoric site on Tinley Creek, left by people who lived near Chicago long before the city.
  34. ArchaeologyChicago, IL · 7.1 mi from Route 66An archaeological site on the Cal-Sag Canal from the era when European contact was just beginning.
  35. MuseumChicago, IL · 6.0 mi from Route 66A pioneering museum of Black history, culture and art, founded in 1961 on Chicago's South Side.
  36. MuseumChicago, IL · 5.9 mi from Route 66The University of Chicago's art museum, with a collection of more than 17,000 objects.
  37. MuseumChicago, IL · 5.4 mi from Route 66Chicago's oldest alternative exhibition space, showing visual art in Kenwood since 2006.
  38. MuseumChicago, IL · 6.2 mi from Route 66A compact, independent contemporary art space on the University of Chicago campus, built around new work.
  39. Nature & parksBrookfield, IL · 1.6 mi from Route 66The Chicago area's largest zoo, famous since 1934 for showing animals behind moats instead of cages.
  40. MuseumChicago, IL · 6.2 mi from Route 66The University of Chicago's museum of the ancient Near East and Egypt, with a world-class collection.
  41. ArchaeologyChicago, IL · 8.6 mi from Route 66A late prehistoric archaeological site on the Little Calumet River, on Chicago's southern edge.
  42. ArchaeologyChicago, IL · 8.6 mi from Route 66A Huber-culture archaeological site on Thorn Creek, in a Cook County forest preserve near Chicago.
  43. ArchaeologyChicago, IL · 8.6 mi from Route 66An archaeological site in Oak Forest tied to the Huber people who lived south of Chicago centuries ago.
  44. Nature & parksOak Park, IL · 2.7 mi from Route 66A historic conservatory and botanical garden in Oak Park, a green, restful stop near Route 66.
  45. MuseumChicago, IL · 6.3 mi from Route 66A giant science museum in an 1893 world's fair palace, with a real U-boat, a 727 and an Apollo capsule.
  46. MuseumChicago, IL · 6.6 mi from Route 66The new museum, library and park campus honoring the 44th president, opened in 2026 in Jackson Park.
  47. Retro roadsideChicago, IL · 9.1 mi from Route 66A 1928 Chicago gas station built to look like a small brick house, with a canopy and two garage bays.
  48. Historic theaterJoliet, IL · 0.1 mi from Route 66A lavish 1926 movie palace in downtown Joliet, still hosting shows steps from the old road.
  49. Historic buildingJoliet, IL · on Route 66A two-story Renaissance Revival post office that served Joliet for nearly eight decades.
  50. MuseumJoliet, IL · on Route 66The museum that tells the story of Joliet and Will County, a short walk from the old road.
  51. Historic hotelJoliet, IL · 0.2 mi from Route 66An eight-story Neoclassical hotel building that rises over downtown Joliet near the old road.
  52. Ghost townMillsdale, IL · 3.7 mi from Route 66A vanished railroad village near Joliet that counted only about two dozen residents in the 1900s.
  53. Historic buildingJoliet, IL · 0.2 mi from Route 66A grand Second Empire and Italianate house on Joliet's East Side, built for a railroad-era family.
  54. Historic buildingJoliet, IL · on Route 66A Georgian-style YMCA building in Joliet designed by the Chicago firm D. H. Burnham & Company.
  55. Historic buildingJoliet, IL · 0.2 mi from Route 66A Second Empire mansion in Joliet, also known as Barb Villa, listed on the National Register.
  56. Historic districtJoliet, IL · 0.2 mi from Route 66Joliet's old East Side, a 290-building district of 19th-century homes built on limestone and railroads.
  57. MuseumJoliet, IL · on Route 66The Joliet headquarters of a Slovenian-American heritage society founded by women in 1926.
  58. Historic buildingJoliet, IL · 0.3 mi from Route 66The ruins of a giant 1869 ironworks, now an open-air forest preserve site telling Joliet's industrial story.
  59. Nature & parksJoliet, IL · 4.3 mi from Route 66A 5,000-acre state wildlife area on the floodplain where two rivers meet to form the Illinois River.
  60. Historic districtJoliet, IL · 0.7 mi from Route 66A large Joliet neighborhood of more than 600 buildings, most of them part of its historic fabric.

What this Route 66 map shows

Every dot is one of our 823 stops along Route 66, from the Chicago lakefront to the Pacific at Santa Monica: restored gas stations and neon motels, museums, ghost towns, parks, bridges, old theaters and the roadside giants the road is famous for. The color of a dot tells you the kind of stop, and the line shows the road town by town across all eight states.

Each stop comes with a photo from Wikimedia Commons (with a link to its author and license), how far it sits from the old road, the nearest town and, where we know them, the address, opening hours and whether there are restrooms or food nearby. The line is simplified, so for turn-by-turn driving directions tap Directions on any stop, or send a whole trip to Google Maps from the trip planner.

How to use the map

Tap the kinds of stops you want, such as ghost towns, museums or motels, and pick a state to zoom in. "Restrooms nearby" and "Food nearby" keep only the stops with those close at hand. Tap a dot or a row in the list for a quick look with the photo, then open the full page for the story and practical details. Your filters stay in the address, so a link you share opens the same view.

Found something you like? Tap the heart to save it. Saved stops go into My trip, which puts them in driving order, adds the miles between them and opens the route in Google Maps. For a printable Route 66 map of your own trip, plan it in the trip planner and use Print or Save as PDF.

Route 66 by state

Miles of Route 66 and stops on the map in each state, east to west
StateMilesStops
Route 66 in Illinois300213
Route 66 in Missouri315124
Route 66 in Kansas138
Route 66 in Oklahoma400100
Route 66 in Texas18015
Route 66 in New Mexico38067
Route 66 in Arizona400114
Route 66 in California315182

Miles are rounded (about) and depend on the alignment you drive; stops are the places on our map; the whole road is about 2,448 miles. New Mexico is the post-1937 line; the older loop through Santa Fe added about 100 miles.

Route 66 towns, east to west

All 47 towns on our map, grouped by state in driving order. Tap one to see its stops.

Illinois · 6 towns

Missouri · 7 towns

Kansas · 1 town

Oklahoma · 8 towns

Texas · 3 towns

New Mexico · 5 towns

Arizona · 8 towns

California · 9 towns

Route 66 stops by kind

Route 66 map: questions

How long is Route 66?

About 2,448 miles, from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, across eight states. The exact length depends on which alignment you follow, because the road was moved and straightened many times between 1926 and the 1980s.

Where does Route 66 start and end?

It starts in downtown Chicago, on Adams Street near Michigan Avenue and the Art Institute, and ends in Santa Monica, California, where the traditional finish is the Santa Monica Pier on the Pacific.

What states does Route 66 go through?

Eight, from east to west: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Kansas has the shortest stretch, about 13 miles; Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona have the longest.

Can you still drive Route 66?

Yes, for most of the way. Route 66 was removed from the U.S. highway system in 1985, but long stretches survive as state highways, frontage roads and city streets signed "Historic Route 66", running beside I-55, I-44 and I-40. A few pieces are gravel, closed or gone under the interstate.

How long does it take to drive Route 66?

About two weeks for the whole road at an easy pace of around 175 miles a day, with time for stops. Ten days is possible if you hurry, and three weeks leaves room for museums and side trips like the Grand Canyon. The trip planner splits any stretch into days for you.

What is the most famous stop on Route 66?

There is no single answer, but many drivers would name Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, the Blue Whale of Catoosa, the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook or the Gemini Giant in Wilmington. All four are among the 40 classic icons in our 823 stops.