The Most Scenic Drives in America

The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips

Reader’s Digest, Newly Revised and Updated
4 stars
Review by: Nichole

For the lovers of road trips, lovers of beauty, and lovers of the magical sights to be seen on our very own continent, this book is a great start to some fantastic ideas for trips of a lifetime.  How you get to these destinations is up to you, but each is a route designed for a vehicle (car, truck, RV, or motorcycle) with stops along the way, to show you some of the most spectacular areas you never knew existed, all accessible from the road.

There are classics like Yellowstone, the Pacific Coast Highway, the Redwoods, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Great River Road.  For roadtrip connoisseurs like myself, I nodded at the obligatory inclusion of these.  There were some lesser known inclusions closer to home, like Minnesota’s North Shore, the Black Hills area in South Dakota, the Bayfield Peninsula and Door County in Wisconsin, and an Upper Peninsula, Michigan drive, all of which I have done and highly recommend myself.  However, this book also brought to my attention places I hadn’t considered, like the Missouri Ozarks (full of caves and rivers and lakes), Icefields Parkway in Alberta (including Banff, glaciers, waterfalls and hot springs), the Delaware River Loop in New Jersey (stunning views), and the North Georgia Highroads (gorges, orchards, farms, mountains and waterfalls).

You’re not going to get any recommendations on where to stay or what restaurants to try.  You’re also not going to get an price listings for park entrances or hours of operation.  That’s not the point of this book.  This book is giving you suggested routes and routes alone.  Some side trips are suggested, but if you want to go on these road trips, you have to plan your own accommodations and get there on your own.  It does its job -- it lights a fire of inspiration in your heart.  There is something for everyone, and it’s not likely you will put this book down without wishing you had a million dollars so you could see each and every one of them.  And, oh, the glorious pictures!