You’ve just finished your traffic school or defensive driving courses and you can’t wait to take your new skills out on a nice long road trip. So… where to? Here are a few ideas for awesome places you can reach by car:

Sarasota, FL

Sarasota is not quite a resort town, and that’s one of the reasons it’s such a wonderful place to visit: You can probably afford the trip. And honestly, being trapped at a resort on an island isn’t as great as it sounds. You would have to stay until the next boat is ready to ship out, then have to pay whatever they’re charging for all your expenses (from room and board to transportation). Also, you don’t get to go to a resort town and shop around for some good Vietnamese food: If they don’t have it, you’re not getting it. You don’t get to go to a resort town and turn around and go back home when you get tired of it, and the only people you get to mingle with are fellow vacationers.

Sarasota is as close as you can get to the leisure of a resort town without any of the downsides. One of the best cities in the state for great food, beautiful beaches and culture.

Santa Fe, NM

Santa Fe is a great city, but the real appeal of going to Santa Fe is the drive through the Southwest along old Route 66. You can check out all those crazy Southwestern roadside attractions like the Meteor Crater and the Cadillac Ranch. It’s an American tradition, driving through the desert, stopping for Mexican food in little middle-of-nowhere restaurants, posing for photos in front of “The World’s Largest (fill in the blank).”

When you get to Santa Fe you’ll be surprised that such a big city can have such a laid-back feel. A relaxing, affordable destination and a trip that will treat you to some of the best scenery in the world.

The West Coast

Forget San Francisco and Los Angeles. Head down to Santa Barbara, and then drive North to Nevada City. This drive is maybe the best road trip in the world, and leave you wondering can you test drive for fun? It will take you through little coastal towns, grabbing In-N-Out burgers and fries along the way (best fast food ever created). The mountains on your right, the ocean on your left. California’s cities tend to be expensive, crowded and a bit pretentious. California’s highways are beautiful, relaxing (if you avoid L.A.) and enchanting.

You can make the trip in a day, but if you want to stretch it out over a weekend, skip the hotels and camp out at the beach. There aren’t a lot of places left where you can wake up to the sound of the ocean without spending two million on beach front property. California’s coastal towns offer that luxury even if you’re just passing through.

There are a lot of places in the world you can fly to and enjoy a relaxing vacation on a tropical island or skiing the slopes or checking out exotic foreign cities. But maybe the best vacations in the world are right here on your home turf. A road trip offers you the freedom, the experience, the journey that you simply cannot get when you take a plane to Hawaii or Europe. Anyways, we’re running out of fossil fuels and electric cars are expensive, so you might not have too many opportunities left to soak America in through a windshield.