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The current length of Route 66 is 2,278 miles (3.665 km). Its original certified length in 1926 was longer: 2,448 miles (3.939 km).
Roughly 85% of the original alignment of U.S. highway 66 can still be driven. We detail the original route in each of the towns along the highway and also, on a state by state basis
The longest stretch of driveable Route 66, over 150 miles starts around Ash Fork, Arizona and ends around Topoc. Arizona, Kansas has the least driveable miles with only 13.2 miles.
Spring and summer are the best times to drive the route, as there is no risk of snow. Midsummer may find the road with a higher flow of travelers, and more expensive daily lodging rates (It is High Season) but careful planning and booking in advance will ensure your hotel accommodations.
Spring is less crowded and early fall (autumn) also. Summers are hot in the Southwest and thunderstorms are not infrequent in that region.
A Route 66 road trip is no ordinary holiday. Driving it is an exhilarating prospect, but putting plans together may also be slightly daunting. There's a lot of ground to cover, and not everybody has time to explore every town or city that crops up along the route. Our advice would be to avoid Google Maps! It won't keep you on the Route ATT ALL! Download the Route66 Ultimate guide app, we have used this many times and keeps you on the route.
As the uk's network providers can charge up to £6.00 per day to have internet access, a 3 week trip can work out very expensive, our advice would be to buy a T-Mobile data sim which comes in the form of an E-Sim which can be set to your day of arrival so it is ready for you as soon as you land. This gives you 30 days useage of Data, calls and Texts. It costs £60.00 for the best package but its better than £6.00 per day, no actual sim required just make sure your mobile accepts E-Sim, most phones do.
A tough question and that depends on what you are looking to achieve from the journey but for us the Towns of Seligman, Oatman and Tucumcari really gained our attention.
Do you want the long flight first or last? on our last trip we travelled west to east because we wanted to explore more of California and the Pacific Coast Highway therefor we started our journey at Santa Monica travelling to Chicago, exploring Cali wasnt our ontly reason for this, we found with some research that the 'one way' car rental fees were alot cheaper than going the other way. Also knowing that we only had a 7 hour flight back to the UK was more appealing than a 12 hour flight from LA.
This question "how long does it take" is asked often ... but is difficult to answer. Total time to drive the route, assuming no stops, is in the 32-38 hour range. But we would never recommend doing that.
On some of our road trips across the USA, we drive 500 miles a day, or more. At that rate, we could drive the entire Route 66 in about 5 days. But we would never do that!
We like to take it slow, remain flexible, stop to visit attractions, and catch all those great photo ops on The Mother Road! As an example, on our recent road trip in 2023 on Route 66 in Oklahoma, Google Maps estimated travel time on our trip from Tulsa to Joplin, Missouri, to be 1:45 ... but in actuality, it took us 8 hours!
For leisurely trips on Route 66, many experienced travelers recommend planning for 200 miles a day, at least on those stretches with lots of attractions. At that rate, the trip across the entire length of Route 66 would take 10-12 days.
Ideally, plan on an absolute minimum of 10 days to make the trip from Chicago to Los Angeles. However, for a more leisurely and complete trip you might want to plan for 14-21 days, or even longer. It all depends on how many stops you take along the Route, any side trips to places like the Grand Canyon, and of course the weather.
Looking at the map below .... it IS a long way across Route 66, just the driving time to cover nearly 2,500 miles. Factor in several nights of lodging, and stopping at dozens, or hundreds, of attractions, and the time needed to drive the entire distance adds up quickly!
Portions of Route 66 are in three time zones: Central, Mountain and Pacific, as shown in the map below. Daylight Savings Time (DST) is observed from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday in November. Arizona does not observe DST, with the exception of the Navajo Nation, so check for local time depending on where you are in Arizona.
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