Discover Trips

The American East at its most layered — mountains, vineyards, colonial capitals and Atlantic barrier islands, all inside two weeks. Pick up the keys at Dulles and you're in the Shenandoah Valley by afternoon, where Skyline Drive delivers one blue-hazed overlook after another and Luray's small-town charm sets the tone: this trip breathes.

Charlottesville is a genuine highlight — Jefferson's Monticello on its hilltop, the UNESCO-listed grounds of the University of Virginia, and a wine scene that surprises everyone who tries it. From the James River plantations, Eagles Watch becomes your base for the Historic Triangle: Williamsburg brings the 18th century to life at street level, Jamestown is where it all started, Yorktown is where the story turned.

The road runs east to Hampton Roads, then north across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel — an engineering marvel in its own right — to Chincoteague and its famous wild ponies, with NASA's Wallops Island next door and the boardwalk buzz of Ocean City just up the coast.

A final crossing of the bay to Kent Narrows leads into Washington D.C., where the National Mall closes a journey that began in the mountains. Twelve stops. Roughly 2,170 km. Vineyards, colonial streets and open Atlantic shore, all on one loop.

There's a reason the mythical phoenix chose the desert to rise from — nowhere else does the land shift so dramatically between ruin and radiance. This trip traces that arc: from the sunbaked Mojave, through the valley that carries the bird's own name, up into skies stacked with red rock and pine, and out to the Pacific before landing in the glow of Hollywood.

Touching down at Harry Reid International, the Strip stays in the rearview — the road heads straight for Kingman, a true Route 66 relic sitting quiet in the high desert. From there it climbs into Flagstaff, where alpine air and dark pine forest replace the desert, gateway to the Grand Canyon's northern reach. Then comes the valley of the phoenix itself: Scottsdale, sun-drenched and full of energy, for three unhurried nights of resort pools and Sonoran nightlife. Sedona delivers the "skies" half of the title in full — glowing red sandstone spires and vortex trails. Prescott follows as a quieter, pine-shaded counterpoint with a genuine Old West town square.

From there, the trip turns west: Indian Wells brings low desert glamour, Temecula trades sand for wine country, and Dana Point opens onto the Pacific with cliffside views and harbor life. It closes in Los Angeles and Hollywood — four nights of studios, skyline, and ocean horizon before flying out of LAX.

Desert ash to mountain air, valley heat to red-rock light, and finally the coast — a trip built entirely on contrast.