On a Friday afternoon in late June on I-90 west of Chicago, a family with two children and a cooler full of snacks is about four hours into a road trip that will ultimately end somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico, depending on how the drive goes and whether the younger child decides the Cadillac Ranch detour is worth the heat. This excursion was organized around Route 66. It’s a nice drive, in part. In part because driving a piece of American history seems like the right thing to do in 2026.
One of the more straightforward explanations for what’s happening in American travel this summer is the desire to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary by actually traveling through it. Bookings for heritage destinations in the Boston and New England areas have increased by 14% over recent similar times. Travel on Route 66 that begins in Chicago has increased by 8%. These spikes are not unintentional. They are the outcome of a very particular time on the calendar clashing with a travel market that was already pushing toward domestic travel, driving, and searching for reasons to plan something more deliberate than a resort package deal.
Sixty-four percent of summertime vacationers in the United States intend to drive instead of fly. Since the epidemic interrupted air travel patterns, that number has increased and hasn’t entirely reverted to its pre-2020 form. The reasons are multifaceted: airfares have not returned to their previous levels, airports continue to seem more stressful than they once did, and younger passengers are genuinely reorienting themselves toward experiences that occur during the journey rather than just at the destination. This is made possible by the road trip format in ways that flying just cannot.
The most notable aspect of this summer’s data is the shift in itineraries driven by events. In a way never seen previously on this scale, major sporting events and concert tours are increasingly serving as anchor points for road trip planning. The number of searches for Kansas City as a destination for road trips has increased by 700%. Philadelphia has increased by 210%. These individuals aren’t moving or going on long trips; rather, they are organizing a drive around a game, concert, or other events taking place in a city and then creating the surrounding schedule from that fixed point. the location where the activities are decided. Determining the destination is now an activity, and the road journey is what ties everything together.
The data for beaches and national parks provide a similar but different narrative. In comparison to baseline periods, searches for US beaches and outdoor parks have increased by up to 65%. This is somewhat due to the cost factor—a week spent camping close to a national park is quantifiably less expensive than a trip abroad or a resort reservation at present rates—and partially due to something less transactional. The popularity of outdoor domestic travel during the pandemic did not return to its pre-pandemic level. With more Americans viewing the nation’s shoreline and national park system as core vacation infrastructure rather than backup options, it appears to have reset at a higher baseline.
For a few years now, the RV sector has been accurately interpreting this. The infrastructure supporting road travel, such as campgrounds, roadside hospitality, state tourism, and event venues in secondary cities, has been adapting to accommodate a larger and more diverse pool of travelers, while rental demand and ownership numbers have stayed well above pre-pandemic levels. The search data indicates that cities that were once thought of as drive-through stops on the route to somewhere else are making a strong case for themselves as places worth spending a night or two.
