Yes, you can drive Route 66 in 7 days, but only one way: about 325 miles and six to seven hours behind the wheel every day, mostly on I-55, I-44 and I-40, with short detours onto the old road. That gets you from Chicago to Santa Monica and lets you touch the famous stops, but you will see more interstate than Route 66. If you have one week, the better trip is half the road done properly: Chicago to Amarillo, or Albuquerque to Santa Monica, at two to four hours of driving a day.
I'm Helena. I drove the whole road in April 2026 for the Centennial Edition of my Field Manual, and it took me 23 days. A week is a third of that, so I'll be straight with you about what fits and what doesn't. Below are both plans, day by day, with the miles and the hours.
Can you drive Route 66 in a week?
You can, and plenty of people do, usually because a week is all the vacation they have. The numbers decide what kind of week it will be.
The free trip planner at route66operator.com measures the drive between 56 towns along the route. Add up all the legs from Chicago to Santa Monica and you get about 2,267 miles and about 45 and a half hours of moving time. Those distances follow the quickest roads between the towns, which in the West means mostly I-40. On the old road alone the trip is closer to 2,400 miles and 50 to 60 hours, as I explain in how long Route 66 takes.
Divide by seven and the picture is clear:
| Plan | Total miles | Moving time | Per day | What you see |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole road in 7 days | about 2,267 | about 45.5 hours | about 325 miles, 6.5 hours | The big stops, mostly from the interstate |
| Chicago to Amarillo in 7 days | about 1,125 | about 23.5 hours | about 160 miles, 3.5 hours | The most intact old road, with time to stop |
| Albuquerque to Santa Monica in 7 days | about 845 (plus 120 for the Grand Canyon) | about 16.5 hours | about 120 miles, 2.5 hours | The desert half, slowly, with a day at the Grand Canyon |
Moving time is the clock running with the wheels turning. Add fuel, meals, restrooms and photo stops, and a 6.5-hour driving day becomes an 8 to 9-hour day. That's the real cost of the full-road week.
Option 1: the whole road in 7 days
This plan gets you from the Begin sign in Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier in seven days. It works if you like driving, you share the wheel, and you go in with the right expectation: you are crossing the country along the Route 66 corridor, stepping off the interstate for the stops that matter most.
| Day | Route | Miles | Moving time | Where to sleep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chicago to St. Louis | 323 | 6.8 hours | St. Louis |
| 2 | St. Louis to Joplin, MO | 299 | 6.9 hours | Joplin or Carthage |
| 3 | Joplin to Clinton, OK | 331 | 6.8 hours | Clinton |
| 4 | Clinton to Santa Rosa, NM | 347 | 6.3 hours | Santa Rosa |
| 5 | Santa Rosa to Holbrook, AZ | 360 | 6.5 hours | Holbrook |
| 6 | Holbrook to Needles, CA | 291 | 5.9 hours | Needles |
| 7 | Needles to Santa Monica | 316 | 6.5 hours | Trip ends |
Miles and moving times come from the town-to-town legs on route66operator.com, rounded. Your phone will give slightly different numbers depending on where you start in each town.
Day 1: Chicago to St. Louis (323 miles)
Take the photo at the Begin sign on Adams Street, then leave the city before rush hour. Use I-55 for speed and step off it in Wilmington, where the Gemini Giant stands in South Island Park, and in Pontiac, where the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum is free. Finish at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, the 1929 crossing over the Mississippi with the bend in the middle, if you get there in daylight.
Day 2: St. Louis to Joplin (299 miles)
I-44 runs right beside the old road across Missouri, so this is an easy day to mix the two. Get off at Cuba for the murals, and again between Rolla and Lebanon for Devil's Elbow, where a 1923 steel truss bridge crosses the Big Piney River. If you can, sleep at Boots Court in Carthage, a 1939 motor court 16 miles before Joplin.
Day 3: Joplin to Clinton (331 miles)
Drive the 13 miles of Kansas slowly in the morning: Galena, Baxter Springs and the 1923 Rainbow Bridge near Riverton. In Oklahoma, stop for the Blue Whale of Catoosa, then take the old road from Tulsa through Stroud, where the Rock Cafe was built in 1939, and Arcadia, where the Round Barn dates from 1898. West of Oklahoma City, I-40 takes over to Clinton.
Day 4: Clinton to Santa Rosa (347 miles)
The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton opens at 9 a.m., Monday to Saturday, so be at the door when it opens. Then it's the Texas Panhandle: the 1936 Tower Conoco Station and U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Cadillac Ranch west of Amarillo, and the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, at mile 1,139, halfway to the ocean. Fuel up in Tucumcari and push on to Santa Rosa, where the spring-fed Blue Hole stays around 62°F all year.
Day 5: Santa Rosa to Holbrook (360 miles)
This is the longest day of the plan, almost all on I-40 through Albuquerque, Grants and Gallup. Petrified Forest National Park sits just east of Holbrook, and it's the only national park with a stretch of Route 66 in it. The National Park Service says the 28-mile park road takes about an hour end to end. You'll only fit it in if you leave Santa Rosa early. Sleep in a concrete teepee at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook.
Day 6: Holbrook to Needles (291 miles)
Stand on the corner in Winslow, pass Flagstaff and Williams, and leave I-40 at Ash Fork for the best old-road driving of the week. Crookton Road leads to Seligman, and from there the old road runs through Peach Springs and Hackberry to Kingman. Then climb over Sitgreaves Pass to Oatman, where burros walk down Main Street. Vehicles over 40 feet aren't allowed between Golden Valley and Oatman, so take I-40 if you're towing.
Day 7: Needles to Santa Monica (316 miles)
Cross the Mojave early, before the heat. The old National Trails Highway in California has been closed in pieces for years while San Bernardino County rebuilds its timber bridges, so plan on I-40 and check the county's road status page that morning before you try the old road. From Barstow, drop down Cajon Pass and follow Foothill Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard to the pier. Los Angeles traffic is the wild card, so don't book anything for that evening.
What you give up in a 7-day Route 66 trip
- Most of the old road in the West. Texas, New Mexico and most of Arizona go by on I-40, and the frontage road beside it is the closest you'll get.
- Daylight arrivals. With six to seven hours of driving plus stops, you'll often reach the motel after dark, which means missing the neon in Tucumcari or eating dinner late.
- Museums. You get one or two a day at most. Pick them before you leave.
- A buffer. One flat tire or one closed road and the whole week shifts. There is no spare day.
If that sounds tiring, it is. I'd only do it with two drivers, and I'd go in spring or fall, when the days are long enough and the desert is not too hot.
Option 2: a better week, half the road done well
This is the plan I'd pick for myself. Instead of driving 2,267 miles in seven days, you drive half of them and actually stop. You get three or four hours of driving a day at most, lunch sitting down, and motels before dark. And the other half will still be there for another year.
Both halves below work east to west or west to east. One practical point: you'll need to fly into one city and out of another, so price the one-way rental drop fee before you commit, because it can change the cost of the trip a lot.
Chicago to Amarillo in 7 days
The eastern half has the most intact old road: Illinois small towns, the Missouri Ozarks, the Kansas miles and the long Oklahoma stretch. It's about 1,125 miles, so roughly 160 miles a day.
| Day | Route | Miles | Moving time | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chicago to Springfield, IL | 218 | 4.7 hours | Begin sign, Gemini Giant, Pontiac, Atlanta, Lincoln |
| 2 | Springfield, IL to Cuba, MO | 186 | 4.0 hours | Chain of Rocks Bridge, Ted Drewes in St. Louis, Wagon Wheel Motel |
| 3 | Cuba to Carthage, MO | 202 | 4.7 hours | Devil's Elbow, Lebanon, Springfield, Boots Court |
| 4 | Carthage to Tulsa | 136 | 3.1 hours | Galena, Rainbow Bridge, Miami, Blue Whale of Catoosa |
| 5 | Tulsa to Oklahoma City | 120 | 2.4 hours | Rock Cafe in Stroud, Chandler, Round Barn in Arcadia |
| 6 | Oklahoma City to Shamrock, TX | 173 | 3.2 hours | El Reno, Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Texola |
| 7 | Shamrock to Amarillo | 90 | 1.7 hours | U-Drop Inn, McLean, Groom, Cadillac Ranch |
A few notes on this one. Plan day 6 so you're in Clinton on a weekday or Saturday, since the museum is closed Sundays. Day 7 is short on purpose: drive out to Cadillac Ranch in the afternoon light, then fly home from Amarillo or keep going. If you have an extra day, the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian is about 50 miles west of Amarillo, and the Texas Historical Commission lists it as open seasonally, March through October.
For the stops in each state on this half, see my guides to Route 66 in Illinois and Route 66 in Oklahoma.
Albuquerque to Santa Monica in 7 days
The western half is shorter, about 845 miles, and it's the part most people picture: high desert, the Petrified Forest, Seligman, Oatman and the Mojave. It's short enough that I built in a day at the Grand Canyon.
| Day | Route | Miles | Moving time | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Albuquerque to Gallup | 139 | 2.5 hours | Central Avenue, Laguna, Grants, El Rancho Hotel |
| 2 | Gallup to Holbrook, AZ | 99 | 1.7 hours | Petrified Forest National Park, Wigwam Motel |
| 3 | Holbrook to Williams | 124 | 2.3 hours | Winslow, Flagstaff |
| 4 | Williams to the Grand Canyon and back | about 120 | about 2.5 hours | South Rim, 60 miles north of Williams |
| 5 | Williams to Kingman | 117 | 2.1 hours | Crookton Road, Seligman, Peach Springs, Hackberry |
| 6 | Kingman to Barstow, CA | 214 | 4.9 hours | Sitgreaves Pass, Oatman, Needles, Amboy if the road is open |
| 7 | Barstow to Santa Monica | 153 | 3.2 hours | Bottle Tree Ranch, Cajon Pass, the pier |
Day 2 is short so you can give the Petrified Forest a full afternoon. Day 6 is the long one, so leave Kingman early. Williams was the last town on Route 66 to be bypassed by I-40, in October 1984, and it's a pleasant base for two nights. My guide to Route 66 stops in Arizona has the details for days 2 to 6.
Route 66 in 5 days: is it possible?
The whole road in five days means about 450 miles and nine hours of moving time a day, before a single stop. I wouldn't do it, and I wouldn't call it a Route 66 trip. It's a cross-country drive.
Five days is a good length for a smaller piece, though:
- Chicago to Oklahoma City: about 862 miles, roughly 170 a day. Use the first five days of the Chicago to Amarillo plan below and fly home from Oklahoma City.
- Albuquerque to Santa Monica: drop the Grand Canyon day and drive straight from Albuquerque to Holbrook on day 1 (about 238 miles), then sleep in Williams, Kingman and Barstow. That's about 845 miles, roughly 170 a day.
Which week should you choose?
Pick the full-road week if the point is to say you drove Chicago to the Pacific, you have two drivers, and long days don't bother you. Pick the half-road week if you want to remember the towns, not the interstate.
If you can stretch to ten days, the whole road becomes much more comfortable, at about five and a half hours a day. My 10-day Route 66 itinerary shows that pace, and my 2-week Route 66 itinerary is the pace I recommend for the whole road. And if you're deciding where the old road is worth leaving the interstate for, read Route 66 vs I-40.
On a tight week, the minutes you lose are the ones spent figuring out where the old road leaves the interstate. That's why Route 66, The Definitive Field Manual has 169 maps and 105 GPS waypoints I recorded on the road in April 2026, plus 9 restaurants and 9 hotels per state on three budgets. Tap a waypoint, and your phone stops sending you back to I-40.
Before you go
- Book the small motels first. The Wagon Wheel, Boots Court, the Wigwam and the Blue Swallow have few rooms. My list of the best Route 66 motels has the details.
- Check road status the morning you drive. Especially the Mojave stretch in California.
- Use the planner for your own dates. Pick any two towns on route66operator.com and change the hours per day to see how your week changes.
