Where to begin Route 66? Chicago or Los Angeles?

Where to begin Route 66?

In this post I am going to comment the pros and cons from my point of view, of beginning Route 66 in Chicago or Los Angeles for the people who come from abroad. If you live in USA, some of this tips won’t be useful to you. So, Where to begin route 66?

Let’s start with Chicago where Route 66 begins originally in 1926.

If we start in Chicago, traveling to Chicago from Europe has some advantages like the trip is shorter and it’s a direct flight, no scales, so you arrive to USA in 8 hours aprox.

Chicago is a fantastic city, and there’s too much to do and visit. At least you must keep for yourself 3 days to visit the minimum required. The good thing of beginning the route from Chicago, is that you arrive with all your strength and you can take advantage of the time you have to know the city, to pick up the rental car/motorcycle, to have breakfast or lunch at Lou Mitchell ‘ s Restaurant, mandatory stop for those we make Route 66. Also, as long as you are making the route, you are gaining time because of time zomes between coasts. So, some days you will have and additional hour for visiting.

The greater advantage than I see by beginning Route 66 in Los Angeles if you live in Europe, is that after all the miles that you have done, the flight will be shorter, around 8 hours instead of 15.

Now imagine after doing more than 3000 miles, (I know that the route is around 2500 miles, but I also know than you will do more of 3000 :)), you arrive at Los Angeles, do some tourism, bathe in the Pacific, and how many hours of trip do you have left? The best case is around 15 hours.

As you can see, I prefer to make route 66 from west to east. The greater advantage, is the return to house, less flight hours.

One of the disadvantages is that you lose hours and without noticing it is one hour less and perhaps you arrive behind schedule at some site just because you forgot to discount an hour.

In addition Chicago is a city very good to make shopping. So, as you are at the end of your trip, you will know better how much money you count with.

I hope this post has been useful, I did the Route 66 from west to east with some extra visits in the way, like Las Vegas, Death Valley, Colorado Canyon, and Niagara Falls among others.

If you are thinking about doing it, don’t doubt to contact us if you need any info!!

This post is part of Serie of Post about Route 66 Itinerary

Where to begin Route 66. Chicago or Los Angeles.

Day 0. Planning and Budget. Route 66

Day 1. Travel preparation. Malibu, Santa Monica, Los Angeles.

Day 2. Los Angeles. California – Amboy. California. 209 Miles.

Day 3. Amboy California – Kingman. Arizona. 143 Miles.

Day 4. Kingman. Arizona – Holbrook. Arizona. 239 Miles.

Day 5. Holbrook. Arizona – Grants. Nuevo México. 157 Miles.

Day 6. Grants. Nuevo México – Santa Rosa. Nuevo México. 247 Miles.

Day 7. Santa Rosa. Nuevo México – Amarillo. Texas. 172 Miles.

Day 8. Amarillo. Texas – Clinton. Oklahoma. 176 Miles.

Day 9. Clinton. Oklahoma – Bristow. Oklahoma. 160 Miles.

Day 10. Bristow. Oklahoma – Springfield. Missouri. 213 Miles.

Day 11. Springfield. Missouri. – St. Louis. Missouri. 216 Miles.

Day 12. St Louis. Missouri – Bloomington. Illinois. 162 Miles.

Day 13. Bloomington. Illinois – Chicago. Illinois. 134 Miles.

Day 14. Chicago Illinois. Visit Chicago