What is the most famous stop on Route 66?

There is no official answer, but a handful of stops appear on almost every list, among them Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, the Blue Whale of Catoosa in Oklahoma and the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona. On our map, the stops that score highest from the facts (Route 66 icons, the road's name, how many people read about them) are Wigwam Motel, Roy's Motel and Cafe and Midpoint Café.

What are the must-see attractions on Route 66 in Arizona?

Our top 10 for Arizona, east to west: Painted Desert Inn, Wigwam Motel, Jack Rabbit Trading Post, Meteor Crater, Twin Arrows, Lowell Observatory, Delgadillo's Snow Cap Drive-In, Grand Canyon Caverns, Hackberry and Oatman. Arizona also has some of the best-preserved town streets on the road, in Williams, Seligman and Kingman.

What is the most famous town on Route 66?

Many travelers name the small towns where the old main street still looks the part: Williams and Seligman in Arizona, Tucumcari in New Mexico, and Cuba and Carthage in Missouri. The big cities on the road, from St. Louis and Tulsa to Albuquerque and Flagstaff, have the most stops. Our town guides cover every town with at least eight stops.

Where is the best place to start a Route 66 trip?

Most travelers start in Chicago and drive west, finishing at the Pacific in Santa Monica, and our lists and planner run in that direction. For a shorter trip, start from any big city on the road, such as St. Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque or Flagstaff, and drive just one or two states.

How many attractions are there on Route 66?

Nobody has a complete count. Our map lists 823 stops within a few miles of the road, from museums and neon motels to ghost towns and state parks; this page picks the 66 that stand out most in each state.

66 must-see stops · 8 states

The best Route 66 attractions, state by state

Updated October 2026

Route 66 runs about 2,448 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica, and we have mapped 823 stops along it. That is far too many for one trip, so this page does the choosing: the 66 attractions that stand out in each of the eight states, picked from our own data rather than from a list of sponsors.

Tap a dot to see that stop here.

Tap a dot for the photo and a link to the stop. See all 823 stops on the map or plan a trip with the ones you like.

How we picked them: every stop on our map gets a score from facts. It counts whether the place is a true Route 66 icon, whether it carries the road's name, how many people read about it, what kind of place it is and how far it sits from the old road. We took the highest-scoring stops in each state, left out anything known to be closed for good, and preferred places with a photo, so you know what you are looking for. Kansas has only a few miles of Route 66 and three stops on our map, so it gets all three.

The list leans on the classics that define the road: Cadillac Ranch and its buried Cadillacs in Texas, the Blue Whale of Catoosa in Oklahoma, the tipi rooms of the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook and the Gemini Giant in Illinois. It also makes room for old gas stations, neon motels, desert ghost towns and a few natural wonders, like Meteor Crater in Arizona and Amboy Crater in the Mojave.

The states run east to west, the way most people drive, and each state's list is in driving order, so you can read it as a route. Every stop has a photo credit, a one-line description and its distance from the road. Tap one for the details, or save it with the heart to build your own trip. When you want more than the highlights, each state page lists every stop we know of, and the full map shows all 823.

Route 66 attractions in Illinois (10)

All 213 in Illinois →

Illinois starts the road in Chicago and fills it with small-town classics: restored gas stations in Dwight and Mount Olive, the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield and the Route 66 side of Lincoln's Springfield.