These four stunningly scenic Blue Ridge road trips offer awesome outdoor adventures and sweet spots to stop along the way
Nothing kicks off the summer season like hitting the highway on a road trip to a sweet, new-to-you destination—and luckily the Blue Ridge region happens to be home to some of the nation’s most scenically stunning drives.
But we know you’re looking for more than pretty views. The perfect automotive tour offers a heady combo of roadside eye candy, place-centered adventure, cultural touchstones and nifty towns chock full of great amenities. Here, we bring you four itineraries that deliver on all the above. Each brings superlative scenery, vacation-worthy outdoor adventures, and vibe-rich stopovers in cool mountain hubs.
Front Royal, Virginia > Waynesboro on Skyline Drive
Seasoned travelers herald Skyline Drive as a top fixture among roadway adventures. The historic 105-mile route traces the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains through Shenandoah National Park and boasts 75 pull-in overlooks with gorgeous views. Most of them connect to hiking paths—including 101 miles of Appalachian Trail—that lead to waterfalls, swimming holes, and spectacular panoramas. And park access points let road-trippers dip into neat historic towns and villages like Luray or Sperryville for some creature comforts.
Get Out & Play:
More than 500 miles of hiking trails crisscross SNP, offering routes for trekkers of all ability levels. The mile-ish-long walk to Stony Man, for instance, begins near milepost 42’s Skyland Resort taproom and carries hikers to a 4,011-foot summit with views of the Page Valley, Shenandoah River, and town of Luray.
The six-mile, Whiteoak Canyon Falls out-and-back, meanwhile, is a challenging trek through a beautifully wooded ravine to a series of six cascading waterfalls that range from 35 to 86 feet in height.
Not far away, mountain bikers should treat themselves to an epic shred-sesh in Massanutten Resort’s Western Slope area. Drop into a flowy, 40-mile network filled with everything from fast and furious black diamonds to breezy, crush-and-run greens. Its 1.1-mile flagship, “The Puzzler,” is loaded with features like 50-yard-long stone rock bridges, dirt berms and tabletop jumps. Tougher routes spill into lower elevation blues for five-mile rides with 1,650 feet of vert.
Stay / Eat / Drink:
Pitstop in the town of Luray around milepost 31 for a stay at the Mimslyn Inn, a Georgian Revival style Historic Hotel of America that dates to 1931. Expect large, well-furnished rooms and original touches like a Roaring Twenties style lobby with soaring ceilings and hanging staircases that wrap around a central fireplace.
Enjoy upscale steakhouse cuisine in onsite restaurant, Circa ’31, and drinks in basement sister tavern, The Speakeasy. The latter doubles as an outpost taproom for the exquisite Mt. Defiance Cidery and Distillery.
The Iris Inn sits just beyond the SNP’s southern terminus and offers a half-dozen well-equipped treehouse-style cabins and lux rooms in a California-style, modern-rustic central lodge. All bring stunning panoramic views of the city and Shenandoah Valley below. While in the area, delight in superb small plates, smash burgers, gourmet pizzas or a five-course, wine-paired pasta tasting at The Shack in nearby Staunton.
Lexington, Virginia > Fayetteville, West Virginia
This westward ride climbs for about 130 miles from a scenic college town in the Shenandoah Valley through the wildly beautiful Alleghany Mountains of southeast West Virginia. Follow Interstate 64 through once bustling 19th century mining and wilderness railroad hubs like Covington and Clifton Forge as the route winds through a narrow river corridor towered over by 4,000-plus-foot peaks in the Thomas Jefferson National Forest.
Things briefly level out near the historic resort towns of White Sulphur Springs and Lewisburg, where you’ll exit onto slower-paced U.S. 60. Bask in a landscape dominated by pastoral Appalachian farms, rural woodland hill-and-holler country and knobby peaks as you pass through mountain villages like Clintonville, Crawley, and Rupert. Then trace 70,000-acre New River Gorge National Park and Preserve’s northeast border and cross its namesake arch bridge on U.S. 19 for stupendous 900-foot views of the waterway and surrounding stone cliffs.
Get Out & Play:
While the route brims with hiking opportunities, it’s wise to mostly save your legs for the scenic paths in the national park. The easy, 3.2-mile out-and-back to Long Point Overlook, for example, leads to a rocky outcropping and a fabled 2,000-foot panorama of the gorge and bridge.
Local bike clubs have retrofitted or installed more than 50 miles of MTB trails in the park. Laidback riders and families will love the Brookly-Southside Junction Trail, which winds along the New via repurposed timber railroads with unique and extraordinary views of the 1,000-foot-deep gorge. It concludes at an eerie, abandoned mining town owned by the National Park Service.
ACE Adventure Resort, based in Oak Hill, W.Va., offers guided whitewater rafting trips on the New and Gauley rivers. Excursions range in intensity from fun but kid-friendly to white-knuckle badass. The latter category includes the New’s Lower Gorge section, which drops 250 feet over 16 miles and brings a gauntlet of screaming Class IIIs, IVs, and Vs.
Stay / Eat / Drink:
Kick things off with a stay at downtown Lexington’s revitalized historic Gin Hotel. The 39-room boutique retains much of its 1926 Art Deco décor with a stylish cocktail lounge and restaurant. The nearby Bistro on Main dishes out solid Southern staples like shrimp and grits paired with regional craft brews and wines.
For later in the trip, the Morris Harvey House occupies a beautifully renovated 14-room, Queen Anne-style home that sits in the heart of the Fayetteville historic district and dates to 1902. Here you get four large and uniquely decorated guest suites and regal stone fireplaces, as well as an off-lobby bar area helmed by a resident mixologist.
After exploring the New, pair picks from an impressive menu of more than 50 regional craft beers and ciders with finger-lickin’-good barbecue and wood-oven pizza at Fayetteville staple Pies & Pints.
Louisville, Kentucky > Red River Gorge
Start this journey with an overnight in one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachians, then journey southeast through the Cumberland Plateau to the “Grand Canyon of Kentucky.” The nationally designated, 29,000-acre Red River Gorge National Geologic Preserve is filled with spectacular, climber-coveted rock formations, dozens of waterfalls, swimming holes, and more than 50 miles of hiking trails.
Begin with a southward diversion on Interstate 65 that cuts through mature woodlands in Knobs State Forest and Wildlife Management Area for a stop in Bardstown, aka the “Bourbon Capital of the World.” Tour one of 11 area facilities—including the historic Willett Distillery—or drop in for brews and tasty handhelds at the Old Talbott Tavern, which dates to 1779.
Follow the scenic Bluegrass Parkway to Lexington, catching near-constant views of lush rolling farmland, pastures, and forests in the Kentucky River watershed. Then pursue the aptly named Mountain Parkway into increasingly picturesque and rural peaks deep in the 708,000-acre Daniel Boone National Forest.
Get Out & Play:
Pause at the 16,000-acre Bernheim Forest & Arboretum to explore an awe-inspiring collection of nearly 2,800 flowers, plants, and trees. Forty miles of hiking trails crisscross the property and offer neat surprises like huge wooden sculptures of goofy forest giants and a 75-foot-high treetop boardwalk.
The Red’s Chimney Top Trail is about a mile long and delivers jaw-dropping views of the chasm, surrounding national forest and boulder-strewn waterway some 600 feet below. More advanced trekkers should steer toward the four-mile Eagle Point Buttress loop, where a 1,000-foot clifftop overlook opens onto one of the park’s most stupendous vistas.
Paddlers should book a kayaking trip with Red River Adventure (RRA) outfitters. The gorge’s seasonally navigable upper area is renowned among whitewater enthusiasts, but the more relaxed middle section yields some of the most scenic paddling in the Southeast. The action-packed eight-miler from Coppers Creek Canoe Launch to the RRA boat ramp features a riot of steady riffles and light rapids, numerous swimming holes, and views of the canyon’s towering limestone cliffs and arches.
Stay / Eat / Drink:
In Louisville, splurge on a suite in an immaculately overhauled 1879 Italianate Renaissance Revival turned upscale boutique hotel. The Dupont Mansion Bed & Breakfast is in the Old Louisville historic district, which overflows with restaurants and bars, and contains the nation’s largest concentration of Victorian-era mansions. Catch dinner and drinks downtown at Proof on Main. Chef Cody Stone masterminds a seasonal menu of upscale Southern surf-and-turf in a chic contemporary dining room that doubles as an art gallery.
Bookend your journey with a repose in a luxury treehouse with killer deck-side views courtesy of Red River Gorge Cabin Rentals. The nearby Red River Rockhouse restaurant serves delicious gourmet burgers, salads, tacos, wraps and burritos paired with wine or craft beer on tap in a smartly renovated, CCC-style stone rancher.
Asheville, North Carolina > Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Embark on an 86-mile cruise from one of the nation’s most celebrated outdoor cities to pursue the lone main road through 800-square-mile Great Smoky Mountains National Park and end at a tourist-friendly trail town.
Interstate 40 takes you west along the outskirts of the sprawling Pisgah National Forest toward a horizon of Appalachian peaks. Pass through pastoral towns and communities in Maggie Valley, where you’ll duck onto the U.S. 19 scenic byway. Soak up roadside views of beautiful Lake Junaluska and the towering Smokies as you approach the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ 57,000-acre Qualla Boundary.
As you ride through the tribe’s colorful namesake capital and cultural center, banks of the picturesque Oconaluftee River unfold, then follow U.S. 441—i.e. Newfound Gap Road—north into the Smokies. The route winds through lush forests and offers numerous 5,000-plus-foot vistas that open onto sights like Clingmans Dome, the third-highest peak east of the Mississippi.
Get Out & Play:
Stop in Cherokee to shred the tribe’s free-to-the-public trails at Fire Mountain MTB park. The resort-quality system sits just outside of downtown and brings 14 miles of pro-built flow trails peppered with features like wall rides, boardwalks, and tabletops. The routes boast mountain panoramas and range from family-friendly greens and blues to one-way-only black diamond bombers.
Closer to Gatlinburg, the 3.5-mile, out-and-back Chimney Tops Trail passes through thick rhododendron groves along Road Prong Creek, then gears up for a steep, thousand-foot ascent through near-magical spruce-fir forests. The summit delivers 4,500-plus-foot views of the vast, half-million-acre park and 6,600-foot Mount Le Conte.
Find fun kayaking and rafting opportunities on the swift-flowing Little Pigeon River and miles of beginner to intermediate level whitewater on the lower Pigeon. The famed Nantahala Outdoor Center’s Pigeon Outpost books full-service guided or DIY trips throughout the area.
Stay / Eat / Drink:
For craft beverage enthusiasts, Asheville has a staggering array of breweries, cideries, distilleries, and area wineries. And foodies are encouraged to taste tour the Philippines-style small plates menu at Neng Jr.’s, which nabbed owner-chef, Silver Iocovozzi, a spot on the 2025 Best Chef Southeast semifinalists list.
Down the road, find Gatlinburg’s Greenbrier Restaurant in a restored and expanded historic cabin on the eastern outskirts of town. The high-end steakhouse offers craft cocktails and creative but familiar Appalachian cuisine like a seared, cherry bourbon glazed duck breast over smoked cheddar grits. Follow with brews in a cavernous taproom with floor-to-ceiling windows and exposed wood beams at Smoky Mountain Brewery.
Cover photo: Photo by J Smilanic
