Get Your Kicks: Great Arizona Towns Along Historic Route 66
Updated: Aug 18
There are road trips—and then there’s Route 66.
For nearly 400 miles across Arizona, the Mother Road winds through high desert, ponderosa pine forests, Native Nations, old railroad towns and some of the most wonderfully eccentric small towns in America.
And in 2026, Route 66 turns 100.
Arizona has 385.2 miles of preserved Route 66, including the longest remaining continuous stretch of the original Mother Road in the country. So roll down the windows, turn up the music and take the slower road.
Here are some of the Arizona towns worth stopping for along the way.
Holbrook
Wigwams, vintage cars and the Painted Desert
At the eastern end of Arizona’s Route 66 story, Holbrook is pure Mother Road nostalgia.
Its most famous landmark is the wonderfully retro Wigwam Motel, where travelers can still spend the night in concrete teepees surrounded by vintage automobiles. Downtown retains plenty of Route 66 character, but Holbrook has another spectacular attraction just down the road: Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert.
It’s an only-in-Arizona combination of roadside Americana and extraordinary landscape.
Winslow
Yes, that corner.
Thanks to the Eagles’ Take It Easy, Winslow, Arizona became part of American pop culture forever.
Today, Standin’ on the Corner Park celebrates that famous lyric with its mural, statues and, naturally, a flatbed Ford. But stay awhile. Winslow’s beautifully restored historic downtown, railroad history and landmark La Posada Hotel, designed by legendary architect Mary Colter, make it much more than a photo stop.
It’s one of those Route 66 towns that knows exactly who it is.
Flagstaff
Route 66 at 7,000 feet
Route 66 takes a decidedly different turn in Flagstaff, climbing into the world’s largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest.
The Mother Road runs right through town, where vintage motels and neon signs mix with historic neighborhoods, restaurants, breweries, galleries and a lively downtown.
Flagstaff gives Route 66 travelers something unexpected: an authentic mountain town with four seasons, dark skies and plenty of reasons to stay longer than you planned.
Williams
The last town bypassed by Interstate 40
Don’t hurry through Williams.
Surrounded by the Kaibab National Forest, this charming mountain town was the last Route 66 community to be bypassed by Interstate 40, on October 13, 1984.
Instead of disappearing when the traffic moved away, Williams embraced its history.
Today its historic downtown is filled with neon, vintage storefronts, restaurants, shops and unmistakable Route 66 personality. It’s also known as the Gateway to the Grand Canyon, and the historic Grand Canyon Railway departs from here for the South Rim.
Williams manages to be both wonderfully nostalgic and very much alive.
Ash Fork
Small town. Big Route 66 story.
Tiny Ash Fork is exactly the sort of place Route 66 was made for.
Once an important railroad and highway community, Ash Fork preserves its story at the volunteer-run Ash Fork Route 66 Historic Museum. Inside are photographs, memorabilia, a model of the old Fred Harvey Escalante Hotel and even a 1926 Ford Model T.
This isn’t polished nostalgia manufactured for tourists. It’s a community preserving its own history—and that’s precisely why it’s worth stopping.
Seligman
The little town that helped save Route 66—and inspire Cars
If there’s one Arizona town every Route 66 traveler should know, it’sSeligman.
When Interstate 40 bypassed the town in 1978, local barber Angel Delgadillowatched businesses and traffic disappear. Rather than let the Mother Road fade away, he helped lead the movement to preserve it, founding the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona.
His efforts worked. In 1987, Arizona officially designated the road from Seligman to Kingman as Historic Route 66, and Seligman became known as the Birthplace of Historic Route 66.
Then Hollywood came calling.
While researching Pixar’s Cars, filmmakers traveled Route 66 and listened to the stories of the people who had lived through the interstate bypasses. Angel Delgadillo’s memories of Seligman helped inspire the story of Radiator Springs—the little town forgotten when a new highway diverted travelers away.
Today Seligman wholeheartedly embraces its Route 66 personality: brightly painted buildings, vintage cars, old signs, quirky roadside attractions and the legendary Delgadillo’s Snow Cap Drive-In.
For anyone who loves Cars—especially a child seeing Route 66 through Lightning McQueen and Mater—Seligman is a must.
Peach Springs
Hualapai country—and another piece of the Cars story
Continue west and the landscape opens dramatically as Route 66 crosses theHualapai Nation and reaches Peach Springs, its tribal capital.
Peach Springs has its own fascinating connection to Pixar’s Cars. The film’s fictional Radiator Springs was inspired by multiple communities encountered along Route 66, and the name itself was influenced by Peach Springs.
But the real story here is the Hualapai people and their extraordinary landscape.
Peach Springs is a cultural gateway to the Grand Canyon and provides access to Diamond Creek Road, the only road providing public vehicular access to the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
It’s a completely different Route 66 experience—and an important one.
Hackberry
A Route 66 time capsule
There isn’t much of a town left at Hackberry. That’s part of the fun.
The reason to pull over is the legendary Hackberry General Store, a glorious jumble of vintage gas pumps, weathered signs, classic automobiles and Route 66 memorabilia.
It feels less like a conventional attraction and more like someone opened a time capsule from America’s great road-trip era.
Hackberry is also among the Arizona Route 66 communities cited as contributing inspiration to the world of Pixar’s Cars.
Kingman
The Heart of Historic Route 66
By the time you reach Kingman, you’re deep in Mother Road country.
Known as the Heart of Historic Route 66, Kingman is one of the best places to understand the highway’s larger story. Start at the historic Powerhouse, now home to the Arizona Route 66 Museum, then explore the historic downtown and its collection of old buildings, neon signs, diners and motor-court architecture.
But don’t put Route 66 behind you yet.
West of Kingman comes one of the great drives of the entire journey—the old highway climbing into the Black Mountains toward Oatman.
Oatman
Wild burros on the Mother Road
And then things get wonderfully weird.
Tucked into the Black Mountains, Oatman is an old mining town with wooden sidewalks, weathered storefronts, Wild West history—and burros wandering through the middle of town.
The animals are descendants of burros once used by local miners, and they’ve become Oatman’s unofficial welcoming committee.
Getting there is half the adventure. The old Route 66 from Kingman winds through rugged desert mountains and tight curves before descending into this wonderfully eccentric little town.
It’s hard to imagine a better ending to an Arizona Route 66 road trip.
Take the Slow Road
Route 66 isn’t really about getting from one place to another.
It’s about everything you would miss if you took the faster road.
A wigwam in Holbrook. A corner in Winslow. Neon glowing beneath the pines in Flagstaff and Williams. A barber in Seligman who helped save an American highway. Hualapai country around Peach Springs. A general store in Hackberry. And wild burros wandering down the street in Oatman.
One road. A hundred years. And an Arizona that is still wonderfully, unmistakably itself.
There’s so much to love.
XO from AZ
