🧭 Road Trip directory
The free places that make a family road trip better: where to find parks and stops, the programs that give children free entry or a badge, and where to look up safety rules.
Grown-ups: these places are on other websites. Hold the button for two seconds to turn the names into links.
Parks and places to stop
- National Park Service: Find a Parknps.govFree
Every national park, monument and historic site, searchable by state. Many are a short detour from an Interstate.
- Recreation.govrecreation.govFree
Campgrounds, day passes and tours on federal lands, in one place.
- America's Byways (Federal Highway Administration)fhwaapps.fhwa.dot.govFree
The scenic roads the US government has named National Scenic Byways and All-American Roads.
Programs for kids on the road
- NPS Junior Ranger programnps.govFree
Activity booklets at hundreds of park sites; finish one and get sworn in as a Junior Ranger with a badge.
- Every Kid Outdoorseverykidoutdoors.govFree
A US program that gives fourth graders and their families a free annual pass to federal lands and waters.
Before you drive
- NHTSA: Car seats and booster seatsnhtsa.govFree
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's guidance on the right seat for a child's age and size, and how to find a seat check.
- FHWA: Travel and traffic information (511)ops.fhwa.dot.govFree
How to reach each state's 511 road and traffic information service before you set out.
Learn along the way
- Library of Congress: Mapsloc.govFree
Old and new maps of the places you are driving through, free to look at and print.
- Peabody's US states quizpeabody.kidsFree
Fifty states, capitals and where they are, for the child who has caught the license plate bug.