Nashville

Tennessee is the long, narrow state stretching from the Appalachians to the Mississippi River, about 440 miles end to end. People come for the music, from country in Nashville to blues and soul in Memphis, and for Great Smoky Mountains, the most visited national park in the country.The state splits into three Grand Divisions, the same three represented by the stars on the state flag: East Tennessee, with Knoxville, Chattanooga and the Smokies; Middle Tennessee, with Nashville and rolling whiskey country; and flat West Tennessee, with Memphis on the Mississippi. I-40 ties all three together.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the Tennessee–North Carolina line in the Appalachians, split roughly half and half between the two states, about an hour southeast of Knoxville. Come for forested ridges topping 6,600 feet, black bears and the log cabins of Cades Cove, all with no entrance fee.With more than 12 million visits in 2024, it's the most visited national park in the country and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. About 1,900 black bears live here.Before you goNo entrance fee, but you need a parking tag: Since 2023, any vehicle parked for more than 15 minutes needs a tag: $5 a day, $15 a week or $40 a year (as of October 2026). Tags must be printed and displayed on your dashboard; digital copies don't count. Buy daily and weekly tags on recreation.gov and print them, or get one at a visitor center or kiosk, but most trailheads don't have machines. America the Beautiful passes aren't accepted.Where to stay: On the Tennessee side, most people base themselves in Gatlinburg, about 2 miles from Sugarlands Visitor Center, or in quieter Townsend near Cades Cove. Cherokee is the gateway on the North Carolina side.Hurricane Helene (September 2024): The eastern, North Carolina side took the worst of it, especially Cataloochee and Big Creek. As of October 23, 2026, the NPS still lists several trails there as closed, including Caldwell Fork, Gunter Fork and Swallow Fork, and Big Creek Trail is open only for its first two miles. The main sights on the Tennessee side weren't affected. Check the park's Current Road, Facility, Trail Closures page before any hike.Other closures: Popular Laurel Falls Trail near Gatlinburg is closed for rehabilitation and expected to reopen in 2027.

Illinois runs from Lake Michigan in the northeast to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the south and west. Once you leave Chicago, the highlights are Abraham Lincoln's Springfield, the Mississippian earthworks across the river from St. Louis, and the sandstone canyons along the Illinois River.Springfield, the state capital, is the place for Lincoln: his home, his tomb and the Presidential Museum are all close together, and one full day covers the essentials. It sits on old Route 66, about a 3.5-hour drive from Chicago.Cahokia Mounds, near Collinsville and about 15 minutes from downtown St. Louis, was the largest city north of Mexico around 1100. You can climb the roughly 100-foot Monks Mound by a staircase. The grounds and parking are free and open daily from dawn to dusk.Starved Rock State Park, about 100 miles southwest of Chicago, has 18 sandstone canyons, eight with waterfalls that run best from March through June. In the northwest, the old lead-mining town of Galena has Ulysses S. Grant's home; down south, the hills of Shawnee National Forest are a different Illinois altogether.

Georgia runs from the southern tip of the Appalachians down to a quiet Atlantic coast of salt marsh and barrier islands. People come for Savannah, for Atlanta's civil rights history, and for wild places like the Okefenokee Swamp and undeveloped Cumberland Island.In Atlanta, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park preserves the neighborhood where King was born and preached. Down on the coast are the Golden Isles: Jekyll Island was the winter retreat of an exclusive millionaires' club from 1888 to 1942 and has belonged to the state since 1947, while Cumberland Island is home to 100 to 200 feral horses. In the southeast corner lies the Okefenokee, a vast wetland that feeds the Suwannee and St. Marys rivers.Georgia was one of the original 13 colonies and later joined the Confederacy. Slavery, the Civil War and the civil rights movement have left visible marks on many of the places you'll visit.

South Carolina sits on the Atlantic between North Carolina and Georgia, and for most travelers it's all about the Lowcountry: flat salt marsh, sea islands with oak-lined lanes, and towns where Southern history is on every corner. People come for Charleston, for the beaches and for one of the most unusual national parks in the country.Near Columbia, the inland capital, Congaree National Park protects the largest remaining tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the U.S. The coast offers very different trips: the Grand Strand around Myrtle Beach up north, with its boardwalk and high-rise hotels; Hilton Head Island down south, with bike paths and golf; and in between, Beaufort, where a national park tells the story of Reconstruction.The state's history is tied to rice and slavery. Many plantations and museums now address that directly; in the Lowcountry, pick tours that put the lives of enslaved people at the center.