Ready for a road trip? Take one of these 10 Instagram-worthy drives
Celebrate National Road Trip Day with a look at the 10 most-tagged road trips on Instagram, according to Betway.
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Happy National Road Trip Day! Yes, it has its own day – the Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend. To celebrate, let’s plan your next road adventure.
Betway crunched the numbers to find the top 10 most Instagrammable road trips across the U.S. and Canada. It counted the number of hashtags for popular routes.
1. Route 66
Route 66 was the crowd favorite, racking up 2.2 million posts. The iconic American gem crosses seven states with more than 2,400 miles of asphalt. Betway recommends 3-weeks to travel from Santa Monica, California and the Pacific Ocean to Chicago's shores of Lake Michigan.
John Steinbeck called U.S. Highway 66, "the Mother Road" in his book "The Grapes of Wrath." It is also known as the "Main Street of America." For almost half a century, it was one of the country's major thoroughfares, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
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File: "3000 Miles of Hospitality" vintage post card across Route 66. From the shores of the Great Lakes to the orange groves of California, the transcontinental highways traverse regions rich in scenic interest. New Mexico with its mesas and pueblos, its ancient cliff-dwellings and old Spanish missions. Arizona with its Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest and colorful Indian Country.
(Rykoff Collection/CORBIS / Getty Images)
Nat King Cole can take you on an audio trip in "Get Your Kicks on Route 66." A 1960s TV show actually followed three fictional men as they spent time on 66.
The route originally connected "barren lands" in the Plains to the Midwest and the West. It linked hundreds of rural communities that hosted the farmers transporting grain and produce, according to the FHWA. By the '30s, it became a trucking route.
Today, souvenir shops, restaurants, antique stores, old-time filling stations and various landmarks serve as the backdrop for Instagram pictures.
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File: Orange Alien on Main Street in pickup truck, Seligman on historic Route 66, Arizona.
(Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group / FOX Weather)
2. Florida Keys
If the surf, sun and sand are more your style, you are not alone. The trip from Miami to Key West garnered 2.1 million posts. The BBC has called the 120 miles of Route 1 connecting mainland Florida to the string of main islands of the Keys the "floating highway" because so much of it is over water.
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File: The Keys gets a reputation for eccentric residents and visitors. Divers participating in the Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival pretend to play musical instruments underwater July 8, 2000, off the Florida Keys.
(BILL KEOUGH/AFP / Getty Images)
Britannica.com calls the Overseas Highway one of the longest over-water roads in the world. It takes you over 42 bridges, including the famed Seven Mile Bridge. The area attracts wildlife lovers, snorklers, beach bums and writers like Ernest Hemingway. A handful of lookalikes flock to Key West in July to celebrate the annual Hemingway Days.
3. Canadian Rockies
FILE: The Milky Way over glacier-fed Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier in Banff National Park, Alberta. The Scutum Starcloud is just above and setting over Victoria Glacier, accompanied by star clusters in Serpens and Ophiuchus. Some airglow tints the sky above the mountains green and magenta.
(Alan Dyer/VW Pics/Universal Images Group / Getty Images)
The Canadian Rockies cover several routes to choose from that twist through icy granite peaks and crystal clear lakes. A favorite on many travel sites is Icefields Parkway, which RoadsLessTraveled.us calls the "quintessential Canadian Rockies Scenic Drive." The drive is so popular that it ranked No. 7 on this list as well.
Drive along the 150 miles of "Canada's most dramatic Rocky Mountain scenery," the site continued. It even calls the road that twists past Lake Louise in Banff, one of the world's top scenic drives.
4. Blue Ridge Parkway
File: At certain times of day the mountains do look blue. This is Brevard, North Carolina near Asheville.
(Education Images/Universal Images Group / Getty Images)
The National Park Service calls the Blue Ridge Parkway, "America's Favorite Drive."
"A Blue Ridge Parkway experience is unlike any other: a slow-paced and relaxing drive revealing stunning long-range vistas and close-up views of the rugged mountains and pastoral landscapes of the Appalachian Highlands," wrote the NPS. "The Parkway meanders for 469 miles, protecting a diversity of plants and animals, and providing opportunities for enjoying all that makes this region of the country so special."
It connects Shenandoah National Park near Waynesboro, Virginia, with Great Smokey Mountains National Park near Cherokee, North Carolina.
5. Acadia National Park Loop
File: Rolling cloud cover sweeps over the top of Bar Island as seen from the summit of Cadillac Mountain Tuesday, June 28, 2016.
( Gabe Souza/Portland Portland Press Herald / Getty Images)
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The 27-mile loop winds through forests, mountains, lakes and shorelines in Acadia National Park. In the summer, there is even a shuttle which you can hop off and on to explore picnic areas, scenic overlooks and trails. Fall is also a popular time to visit as the park glows with fall foliage colors.
Top 10 most Instagrammable road trips in the US and Canada
Here are the top 10 routes: