My optimal road trip maps are back

My optimal road trip maps are back, and now you can build your own at optimalroadtrips.com.

People kept asking about the project long after the original maps stopped working. I restored them and built new trips through U.S. landmarks and national parks, with a free builder for choosing your own stops.

A weekend project that kept getting shared

In March 2015, I spent a weekend computing an optimal road trip across the U.S.. The route connected 50 landmarks across the lower 48 states and D.C.

The Washington Post covered it, the New York Times mentioned it in The Upshot, and Scott Simon interviewed me on NPR's Weekend Edition. I followed it with trips through Europe, the state capitols, and the national parks.

Then the interactive maps broke. They depended on Google's mapping services, and changes to those services left pages that loaded without showing their routes.

People kept sharing the maps and asking for new trips. Some wanted a national parks route. Others wanted route files or a way to choose their own places.

The original maps work again

All 77 interactive maps are back at their original links. The old blog posts have their maps embedded again, and the restored maps can export routes as GPX, KML, and GeoJSON.

The maps now use OpenStreetMap road data. Browse them in the archive.

New trips for 2026

The original routes came close to the best driving order. The new 2026 editions are proven to be the fastest order through their stops, using modeled driving times that assume no traffic.

The U.S. Landmarks trip visits 49 places across the lower 48 states and D.C. It covers 13,949 miles with about 224 hours of driving.

For this edition, I collected 14 published travel lists. Each state's stop is the place those lists name most often. That changed some of the 2015 picks: Washington now has the Space Needle, Iowa has the Field of Dreams, and Minnesota has the Mall of America. The sources and selection rules are on the methodology page.

The National Parks trip includes all 51 national parks in the lower 48. Its loop covers 16,103 miles with about 270 hours of driving, and each park has guide notes on seasonal road closures and reservations.

For island stops, the driving route takes you to the departure point for the boat. Driving hours exclude boat rides and time spent at the stops.

Build a smaller trip

You can use the free trip builder to choose stops from the landmark and national park catalogs.

Pick the places you want to visit and choose a loop or a one-way trip. You can set your start and end points, then let your browser work out the driving order. When the result is proven fastest, the builder says so.

Open the route in Google or Apple Maps, or download it as GPX, KML, or GeoJSON. The share link holds your stops and trip shape, so someone else can open the same trip.

It's free to use with no account and no tracking.

Posters and custom trips

The Landmarks and National Parks routes are available as posters and printable downloads. Printed posters come in Paper, Midnight, and Atlas styles, in 18 x 24 and 24 x 36 inches, with matte and black-framed options. Matte posters start at $39 and shipping is calculated at checkout.

Each $9 printable download includes both sizes as PDFs and PNGs for printing locally.

Have your own list of places? I've made custom trips for Outside Magazine, Thrillist, TRAVELBOOK.de, Chevrolet, and Science Friday. I can work out the best route through your stops and provide route files, with a map page or poster available too.

Personal routes start at $750 for up to 50 stops. Published routes and business campaigns have separate pricing. Quotes are free.

I have more ideas I want to bring to life with this project. I'm looking forward to building them.