The places worth the drive.
We already did the looking, and most of it did not make the cut. What is left is places worth the drive and festivals worth putting in the calendar. Chosen, not crowdsourced.
434 places. 26 collections. 224 festivals already dated.
Festivals and annual events
A researched year of named annual events in the metros we have done properly. Dated months ahead, so you can actually plan around them.
The shortlists
Finished arguments about where to go. Springs, dark sky parks, waterfalls, all 63 national parks. Every one is a list of yeses.
9 placesWild Florida Gulf Coast Beaches
Florida's wildest Gulf beaches make you work for them: some you reach only by boat, others by a long walk past the last paved road. These are the undeveloped barrier islands and protected state-park shores with no resort strip and no high-rise wall, just sugar sand, dunes, shelling, and the kind of quiet you earn. Pack your own water and shade.
14 placesBest Florida Wildlife
Where to see Florida's wildlife up close: manatees, alligators, roseate spoonbills, the Florida panther and the tiny Key deer, across springs, swamps and refuges from the Panhandle to the Keys.
63 placesThe United States National Parks
All 63 of America's national parks in one place: the geysers and canyons, glaciers and giant sequoias, coral reefs and live volcanoes the country set aside for everyone. From the Grand Canyon to the Everglades to the wilds of Alaska, this is the complete collection, each one worth building a whole trip around.
26 placesBest Beaches in the US
From Pacific cliffs and Hawaiian bays to Outer Banks dunes, Great Lakes sand, and Gulf sugar, these are the beaches across the country worth the drive, the flight, or the ferry. Some you walk a mile to reach, some you take a boat or a ferry, and a few you just pull off the highway and gasp. The best beaches in America, coast to coast to coast.
26 placesThe Blue Ridge Mountains
The ancient, blue-hazed peaks of the southern Appalachians, threaded by the Blue Ridge Parkway from Shenandoah to the Smokies. Mile-high summits and the highest peak east of the Mississippi, waterfalls you can walk behind, long-range overlooks, and mountain towns like Asheville with the Biltmore at their heart. Go in October for the color, but the haze is blue year-round.
21 placesThe Rocky Mountains
Alpine lakes, fourteeners, and golden aspen along the spine of the West. The Rockies at their most iconic: the Maroon Bells mirrored in their lake, the Tetons rising straight off the valley floor, Glacier's Going-to-the-Sun Road, the red spires of the Garden of the Gods, and Idaho's serrated Sawtooths over Redfish Lake. From Colorado's San Juans to the Wyoming Tetons, Montana's Glacier, and the Idaho high country, with high passes and old mining towns in between.
17 placesNorth Georgia Mountains
From Tallulah Gorge to Brasstown Bald, the waterfalls, summits and wilderness of Georgia's Blue Ridge: Cloudland Canyon and the Cohutta in the northwest, Amicalola and Springer in the center, the Rabun highlands in the northeast.
6 placesOffbeat North Georgia
North Georgia's gloriously weird side: a Bigfoot museum, the Cabbage Patch Kids' birthplace, a heritage railway, a forest slowly eating 4,000 vintage cars, a gold mine you climb inside, and the South's biggest apple orchard.
9 placesBest Tampa Bay Breweries
Tampa Bay's beer runs deep, from Ybor City lager houses to a Seminole Heights stout cult with overnight release lines. These are the breweries worth building a crawl around, the ones that earned their name glass by glass.
9 placesPopular Florida Gulf Coast Beaches
These are the Gulf Coast beaches you plan a vacation around: the famous beach-town shores with the pier, the umbrellas, and dinner a barefoot walk away. Easy to reach, lively, and worth the crowds they draw. The classics, done right.
18 placesGeorgia State Parks
Georgia's state parks pack a remarkable range into one state. Up north there are deep gorges and the tallest cascading waterfall in the Southeast; in the southwest, a pink-and-orange canyon erosion carved out of old farmland; through the middle, mineral springs and CCC-built lodges; and down south, the wild blackwater edge of the Okefenokee. These are the ones worth building a weekend around, from the Blue Ridge to the coast.
24 placesFlorida Springs
Florida sits on top of one of the largest gatherings of freshwater springs on Earth, and they run a constant 68 to 74 degrees no matter the season. Some are first-magnitude giants pushing hundreds of millions of gallons a day, others are quiet blue sinkholes you can have to yourself at dawn. These are the ones worth the drive: the glass-bottom boat tours, the lazy-river tube runs, the cavern dives, and the winter springs where the manatees come in from the cold.
Florida State ParksFlorida AttractionsWild Florida Atlantic Coast BeachesPopular Florida Atlantic Coast BeachesThe Best Florida BeachesWashington D.C. AttractionsAmerica's Best CavesGeorgia AttractionsBest Waterfalls in the USBest Dark Sky Stargazing in the USBest Slot Canyons and Red Rock in the USUtah Canyon CountryBest of New HampshireBest of Vermont
