Resources

Where to Get Information on Route 66

Rainbow Bridge near Baxter Springs, Kansas

One of the challenges of planning a Route 66 road trip is that there’s no one best source of information on it. Yes, there are helpful books, websites, and social media platforms, but they’re largely written by Route 66 enthusiasts, not travel professionals. There’s no AAA or Rick Steves or Frommer’s guide to Route 66, for example. While I found several resources very helpful, each book and website either missed some things I wanted to see or was so comprehensive that it could be overwhelming. So I found it very helpful to use multiple sources.

Another challenge of planning a Route 66 road trip is that every resource will have outdated information. Many of the stops along Route 66 are small mom-and-pop endeavors—that’s one of the big reasons that Route 66 is so endearing—but, sadly, a lot don’t make it for long. So a recommended stop may now be permanently closed or have greatly reduced hours. Some structures may now be demolished. Vintage bridges may now be closed because they’ve been deemed unsafe, or they may have been replaced with a new bridge of no historical interest.

Here are some places where you can find information to help plan your trip.

Books 

I suggest starting your research with a couple of good books. They’ll introduce you to the most popular sights along Route 66. Most books have some color photos, which are very helpful in deciding what to see and will get you excited about your trip.  But realize that, because there are so many things to see along Route 66, most books will give you just a sentence or two on each sight. If they gave you full information on each sight, they’d be encyclopedias!

Check the publication date before you buy. Things change on Route 66 so quickly that a book several years old may not be worthwhile. 

I found three books most helpful.

Route 66 Road Trip by Jessica Dunham is my favorite. It’s part of the travel guide series published by Moon, so it’s one of the more professional guides available. It’s comprehensive without being overwhelming and has a nice number of color photos. You can buy it on Amazon or through the National Historic Route 66 Federation’s online store.

The EZ66 Guide for Travelers by Jerry McClanahan may be the most comprehensive book out there. It has maps, turn-by-turn directions, and an extensive list of things to see along the way.  The downside is it has no photos and very little information—generally a few words at most—on each site. So it was extremely useful for planning our trip, but I needed more information elsewhere to help decide which sights to see. You can buy it on Amazon or through the National Historic Route 66 Federation’s online store.

Travel Route 66: A Guide to the History, Sights, and Destinations Along the Main Street of America by Jim Hinkley is somewhat similar to Dunham’s book. It’s fairly comprehensive without being overwhelming and has a nice selection of color photos. Hinkley’s book probably covers fewer sights than Dunham’s, but it has more and longer “sidebars”: half- or full-page boxes with more information on a particular sight or regional history. This was where we first learned, for example, about the tragic story of Times Beach, Missouri. This book was published in 2014, so it’s not current, but since it seems to focus on enduring historic sites, I still found it very helpful. You can buy it on Amazon.

If you'd like to read more, HistoricRoute66.com has a large list of books on Route 66.

Websites and Blogs 

There are a lot of them—so many that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. I recommend the following in particular.

I've found TheRoute-66.com especially useful because it’s incredibly comprehensive--the closest thing I've found to a Route 66 encyclopedia. It describes virtually every historic site or point of interest that anyone would want to see along Route 66, usually with photos—which helped us decide what we wanted to see—and turn-by-turn directions. There’s also information on the history of each town. The downside to this website is it’s so huge and filled with ads that it can be overwhelming and hard to navigate. Visit here only if you like spending a LOT of time planning your road trips! But browsing here can be time well spent: I found here a few obscure sights that weren’t mentioned anywhere else and that we enjoyed seeing.

Another great online resource is Route66News.com. It's largely a blog of Route 66 news, which is very helpful in learning about sites along Route 66 that have recently opened, closed, or changed. There are also pages with links to some Route 66 attractions, restaurants, motels, campgrounds, and bars. Scroll down the right column to find links to other helpful online resources. You can get emails announcing new blog posts by going to the "Subscribe to blog via email" box in the bottom right corner.

I also like the Route 66 section of LegendsofAmerica.com. It covers most of the best stops without being overwhelming, and it’s got plenty of photos.

The National Park Service has, confusingly, two completely different websites on Route 66. Travel Route 66 has links to good essays on the history of Route 66 but little else. Far more comprehensive and useful is Route 66: Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary. Its List of Sites lists historic sites on or near Route 66. I suspect many or most of them are in the National Register of Historic Places and/or participated in the National Park Service's Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. Each site on the list has a link to an article on that site. On our trip, we were particularly interested in learning about American history and seeing historic sites, so this list was very helpful. Plus we really enjoyed the deep dives into some of the places we'd be seeing--remember most resources only devote a sentence or two to each sight. 

The National Park Service has yet another web page called Find Route 66 National Register Listings.  It's supposed to list those sites along Route 66 that are in the National Register of Historic Places, but so far it only lists sites in Illinois. For each site that's listed, there's a link to the site's nomination for the register. If you really want to do a deep dive, those forms provide a wealth of information on the site's history and significance.

Another website you may find useful is HistoricRoute66.com. It has turn-by-turn directions, information on some of the points of interest (called POI) along the way, and a store selling books and other resources. Check the FAQ page for advice on planning your trip (which mirrors my own advice!).

Finally, JimRoss66.com has a set of maps of Route 66 that can be printed out, with each "alignment" color-coded. The maps do not show attractions along the way, and Jim cautions that they are not intended as a guide. But they're very clear and a great resource if you want to drive the oldest Route 66 alignments.

Google Maps 

Most—but not all—things to see along Route 66 are on Google Maps. You can mark them on Google Maps to make them easy to find from your phone while you’re on the road. Search for something you (might) want to see on Google Maps, then click on it, then click Save. Google Maps offers a choice of 5 "pins"—blue, green, yellow, red, and turquoise—to mark your saved items on your map. I used yellow to mark our lodging, blue for restaurants, red for things we definitely wanted to see, and green for everything else.

A bonus of using Google Maps: it probably has the most up-to-date information on which sites are open and when they’re open, although like any other resource it isn’t 100% accurate. A week before we left, I used Google Maps to check the hours for each place we wanted to see and made last-minute tweaks to our plans.

Social Media

You can search the #route66 hashtag to find social media accounts you might want to follow. They're great places to ask questions. The best one is the Historic Route 66 Facebook group. It's large, active, and includes many people with extensive Route 66 experience and knowledge. Ask any question, and you'll get plenty of useful information and suggestions!

Apps

There are a few Route 66 apps, but when I planned our first leg in 2021, they all got mediocre reviews, so I didn’t try any of them. Since then, I've heard that one app has a new version that's much improved. Check the reviews in your favorite app store and decide for yourself.

Paper Maps 

Paper state maps like those from AAA aren't helpful, because many interesting stretches of Route 66 are now back roads that don't show up on paper state maps. The National Historic Route 66 Federation's online store and HistoricRoute66.com sell paper maps of Route 66, but I didn't look into them because Google Maps and the maps in EZ66 Guide for Travelers worked so well for us. 

JimRoss66.com has a set of maps of Route 66 that can be printed out, with each "alignment" color-coded. (Click the 'Deep Tracks Map Series" tab at the top to access the maps for each state.) The maps do not show attractions along the way, and Jim cautions that they are not intended as a guide. But they're very clear and a great resource if you want to find and drive the oldest Route 66 alignments.

Route 66 Passports

About three dozen attractions and visitor centers along Route 66 participate in a Route 66 passport program. There are also a few state-specific Route 66 passports. When you visit those stops, they'll stamp your passport and perhaps offer something free or a discount. Some Route 66 travelers enjoy participating in this. It's a good way to meet friendly people along the way and truly get to know the spirit of Route 66.