Route 66 was one of the first highways in the U.S.

Picture the glory days of the 1950s and ’60s: convertibles with the top down, families piled into station wagons and wide‑eyed adventurers charting a westward course. Stretching over 2,400 miles from Chicago, Illinois, to the sun‑kissed shores of Santa Monica, California, Route 66 wound through eight states—Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California—each offering its own unique blend of culture, cuisine and scenery.