Visit the Best Cities or Attractions in Every US State With These Maps
The perfect U.S. trip takes you to all the must-see attractions and historic sites and minimizes unnecessary driving, but finding the ideal path is tricky. Randal Olson, a graduate research student and data scientist, created an algorithm to solve this problem and came up with an epic journey.
You can read about computing at the link below, but here are the trip details for those eager to take the journey: you will drive and stop in all 48 contiguous US states; visiting only national natural attractions, historical sites, parks and monuments; and never leave the US (Cleveland has an extra stop to avoid passing through Canada, but you will save time traveling in Canada).
All in all, that’s just 13,699 miles of driving – or about 9.33 driving days excluding traffic. Attractions you will visit include the Grand Canyon, Alamo, Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, Mammoth Cave National Park, Taliesin, Lost World Caves, and Mount Rushmore.
If you’re more of a cosmopolitan than a nature lover, Olson also has a travel bonus card that uses TripAdvisor’s list of the best cities to visit, so you can drive through the US visiting the best cities in each state. Except for North Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia. Out of 400 recommended cities to visit, TripAdvisor members say there are no worthy cities in these states.
Have summer plans?
Calculating the Optimal Travel in the USA | Randal S. Olson