Route 66 in Ten Days: Our Honest Itinerary

We drove the old highway from Illinois to the Pacific in ten days. Some of it was magic. Some of it was a very long, very straight road. If you have only seen Route 66 in glossy photos of neon signs and vintage cars, the honest version might surprise you. It is part museum, part ghost town and part interstate frontage road, and the good stretches feel all the better because of the boring ones in between.

Here’s the real itinerary, including the parts we’d skip next time. We are Maya and Sam, and we made plenty of mistakes so you don’t have to.

Before you go

The original Route 66 was officially decommissioned decades ago, so there is no single continuous road with the same name from start to finish. Large parts survive as local roads and business loops, while other sections have disappeared under interstates or simply crumbled. Following the route means hopping on and off the highway constantly.