Choice Hotels International has launched a new summer travel initiative called the Great American Detour campaign. The program includes the introduction of an inaugural digital guide titled Detours Worth Taking, which highlights specific regional stops, scenic small towns, and natural landmarks across the United States.
The initiative launches as data from the U.S. Travel Association indicates that more than 80 percent of travelers are open to visiting alternative destinations outside of major gateway cities. The curated travel guide pairs these alternative local destinations with nearby hotel properties to accommodate driving routes.
The travel guide highlights ten specific regional destinations across the country, starting with locations in the Northeast. Buffalo, New York, is featured for its architecture, waterfront, and local culinary history, located roughly an hour from Rochester with accommodations like the Curtiss Hotel. Plymouth, Massachusetts, situated an hour from Boston, is included for its maritime heritage, coastal dining scene, and historic landmarks like the Plimoth Patuxet Museums.
Further south, the guide highlights Biscayne National Park near Homestead, Florida, which sits an hour from Miami and features coral reefs and mangrove forests. Along the mid-Atlantic coast, Chincoteague and Assateague Island are selected for their free-roaming wild ponies and coastal shorelines, accessible within a three-hour drive from Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
In the Midwest, the guide spotlights Route 66 heritage in Baxter Springs, Kansas, which features preserved roadside landmarks an hour outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Travelers can also find Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota, noted for its rugged shorelines and the Split Rock Lighthouse, as well as Galena, Illinois, a historic town featuring preserved 19th-century architecture located two hours from Chicago.
Western destinations in the guide include Olympic National Park in Washington, which offers a mix of rainforests, alpine peaks, and coastal drives about three hours from Seattle. Taos, New Mexico, is highlighted for its adobe architecture and Indigenous heritage near Santa Fe, while Palisade, Colorado, is featured for its orchards and wine country along the Western Slope.
As part of the summer campaign, the hospitality company plans to introduce limited-edition merchandise packages called Summer Detour Kits through its social media channels. The promotional kits will feature various travel items, including portable power banks, cameras, coolers, road trip games, and gas station gift cards.
The company will also launch a mobile promotional experience titled the Check into More Tour to mark the upcoming centennial of Route 66. The mobile tour will travel to select regional attractions and highway locations across the country, offering interactive games and giveaways to drivers.
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