15 Summer Vacation Spots That Go Far Beyond the Usual Beach Trip

Every May, the same argument breaks out in my group chat. Somebody wants a beach, somebody wants mountains, and somebody just wants air conditioning and a good dinner. Summer in America is too short to waste circling the same crowded boardwalk.

The truth is that the country hides a lot of cool, quiet water and high country that most people drive right past. Beaches are wonderful. They are also not the only way to spend a long, golden day off.

Below, I have pulled together fifteen summer trips that stretch from a Hawaiian rainforest to a car-free island in the Great Lakes. Islands, alpine lakes, mountain towns, national parks, and yes, one very good Texas beach. Pick your pace and go.

1. Kauai, Hawaii

Hawaii’s oldest main island wears its age well. Kauai is the green one: dripping rainforest, plunging waterfalls, and a coastline that can make you forget your phone exists. I could look at those fluted sea cliffs for a week and call it a vacation.

Summer brings Kauai its driest, sunniest stretch. Snorkel a calm south-shore reef in the morning and chase a waterfall after lunch. Bring a rain jacket anyway, since the peak at the island’s heart is one of the wettest places on Earth.

Where: Fly into Lihue Airport on Kauai, Hawaii, then pick a direction and drive. A few island must-sees:

• Na Pali Coast, the fluted cliffs on the roadless northwest shore, best seen by boat, helicopter, or the Kalalau Trail from Ke’e Beach
• Waimea Canyon State Park, off Waimea Canyon Drive on the west side, the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”
• Poipu Beach, on the sunny south shore, a calm spot to snorkel a morning reef

2. Acadia National Park, Maine

There is a specific joy in eating a warm popover with your legs aching from a morning hike, and Acadia was built for that kind of day. Maine’s only national park stacks pink-granite peaks right up against the cold Atlantic.

Ride the carriage roads and you will see more of the park in a morning than most drivers manage all day. When your legs give out, Bar Harbor keeps the lobster rolls coming and the whale-watching boats leaving.

Where: Acadia sits on Mount Desert Island, Maine; start at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center off Route 3 near Bar Harbor. Worth your time:

• Cadillac Mountain, a paved summit road and a famous sunrise perch above the Atlantic
• The carriage roads, 45 miles of car-free gravel built by John D. Rockefeller Jr., made for bikes
• Jordan Pond House, on Park Loop Road, for popovers and tea on the lawn

3. San Juan Islands, Washington

If your idea of summer includes orcas from a rocky shore, point yourself at the San Juans. This scatter of green islands sits in Washington’s inland sea, in the rain shadow of the Olympics, so summer here runs bright and dry.

You get there by ferry, which is half the fun, then trade the car for a bike or a kayak. Whale pods cruise past the west-side cliffs, and the little harbor towns run on ice cream and slow afternoons.

Where: Ride the Washington State Ferry from Anacortes, about 90 minutes north of Seattle, out to the San Juan Islands, Washington. Don’t miss:

• Lime Kiln Point State Park, on San Juan Island, one of the best shore spots on Earth to watch orcas
• Friday Harbor, the ferry-town hub, with the marina, cafes, and the Whale Museum
• Roche Harbor, a historic resort village on the island’s quiet north end

4. Telluride, Colorado

Some towns make you gasp before you have even parked, and Telluride is one of them. This old Victorian mining town sits at the dead end of a box canyon, hemmed in on three sides by the San Juan Mountains.

A free gondola floats you over the ridge for the view, and waterfalls pour off the cliffs at the canyon’s head. Summer fills the calendar with bluegrass and film festivals, and the wildflower hikes start right off Main Street.

Where: Telluride, Colorado tucks into a box canyon in the San Juan Mountains, about six hours southwest of Denver. Start here:

• Colorado Avenue, the colorful Victorian main street lined with shops and cafes
• The free gondola, which climbs over the ridge to Mountain Village and back
• Bridal Veil Falls, Colorado’s tallest free-falling waterfall, at the head of the canyon

5. Jekyll Island, Georgia

Georgia’s Golden Isles feel like the whole South exhaling. Jekyll is the quiet one, a barrier island where the pace slows to a stroll and the beaches never feel packed. Its signature stretch is Driftwood Beach.

That beach is a slow-motion marvel, full of silvered oaks left right where the tide dropped them. Once the winter retreat of Rockefellers, the old island club still stands, and you can circle nearly the whole island by bike.

Where: Jekyll Island, Georgia sits off the coast near Brunswick; take the Jekyll Island Causeway from I-95. Circle it in a day:

• Driftwood Beach, on the north end, a shore full of silvered, sun-bleached oaks
• The Jekyll Island Club, the 1886 resort of Rockefellers and Pulitzers, still taking guests
• Georgia Sea Turtle Center, on Stable Road, where you can meet a recovering loggerhead

6. Lake Tahoe, California

If you have never floated in water this clear, move it up your list. Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America, a cobalt bowl sitting more than a mile up in the Sierra Nevada.

Emerald Bay is the shot everyone knows, so clear the boats can look like they hover. Kayak the coves at dawn, hop a paddlewheel cruise, or just claim a granite boulder and jump into water cold enough to wake you all the way up.

Where: Lake Tahoe straddles the California and Nevada line high in the Sierra Nevada, about two hours from Sacramento. Around the shore:

• Emerald Bay State Park, home to the lake’s only island and the Vikingsholm mansion
• Tahoe City, on the northwest shore where Highway 89 meets Highway 28
• Sand Harbor, a granite-and-turquoise beach on the Nevada east shore

7. Port Aransas, Texas

I will defend a Texas beach to anyone who thinks the Gulf cannot compete. Port Aransas, out on the tip of Mustang Island, is where Texans go to slow all the way down and drive the truck straight onto the sand.

The rhythm is easy on purpose. Cast a line off the jetty, watch for dolphins from the free ferry, and let the fresh seafood come to you. Did you know the island sits on a major bird migration route? Even in summer the flats draw birdwatchers.

Where: Port Aransas, Texas sits out on Mustang Island; ride the free ferry from Aransas Pass or drive from Corpus Christi over the JFK Causeway. Fill a day:

• Port Aransas Beach, where you can drive the truck right onto the sand
• The Horace Caldwell Pier and jetty, a local favorite for casting a line
• Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, a boardwalk over the flats for dolphins and roseate spoonbills

8. Mackinac Island, Michigan

Picture a whole town that told automobiles to get lost in 1898 and never once reconsidered. That is Mackinac Island, a Victorian pocket of the Great Lakes where horse-drawn carriages and bicycles handle every errand.

The breeze smells like warm fudge, and that is no accident, since island shops turn out thousands of pounds of it a day. Work it off on the flat, eight-mile road that loops the shoreline, past the fort and the grand old porch.

Where: Mackinac Island, Michigan sits in the strait between the peninsulas; catch a ferry from Mackinaw City or St. Ignace and leave the car behind. On the island:

• Fort Mackinac, the whitewashed 1780 fort on the bluff above the harbor
• The Grand Hotel, whose front porch claims to be the world’s longest
• M-185, the flat eight-mile shore road that loops the island, no cars allowed

9. Glacier National Park, Montana

Some places make you feel small in the best possible way, and Glacier is one of them. This is a wilderness of jagged peaks, hanging valleys, and lakes so clear you can count the stones on the bottom.

Summer is the only season the whole park truly opens, so plan ahead. The headline drive is Going-to-the-Sun Road, fifty miles of switchbacks over the Continental Divide. Carry bear spray on the trails and give the wildlife plenty of room.

Where: Glacier National Park, Montana anchors the state’s far northwest; the west entrance is off U.S. Highway 2 at West Glacier. Book ahead for:

• Going-to-the-Sun Road, fifty miles of cliff-hugging switchbacks over Logan Pass (a vehicle reservation is required in summer)
• Lake McDonald, the long, clear lake just inside the west entrance
• Many Glacier, the turquoise-water valley on the park’s east side

10. Door County, Wisconsin

Wisconsinites will tell you their summer lives on a peninsula, and they are right. Door County juts between Green Bay and Lake Michigan, a slim finger of cherry orchards, fish boils, and more lighthouses than any county in the country.

The villages string along the shore like beads, each with a harbor, a scoop shop, and a sunset. Rent a kayak, tour a lighthouse, and stay for a proper fish boil, where the pot boils over in a burst of flame.

Where: Door County, Wisconsin fills the peninsula north of Green Bay, about three hours from Milwaukee. Wander between:

• Cana Island Lighthouse, near Baileys Harbor, reached across a short stone causeway
• Peninsula State Park, in Fish Creek, with bluff-top trails above the bay
• Ephraim, a white-clapboard village on Eagle Harbor

11. Santa Fe, New Mexico

Not every summer escape needs a coastline. Santa Fe, the oldest capital city in the country, trades surf for adobe, and the payoff is a high-desert light so clear that painters have chased it for more than a century.

Wander the galleries along Canyon Road, then browse handmade silver on the Plaza. You will be asked one question everywhere you eat: red chile or green? The insider answer is Christmas, which gets you both.

Where: Santa Fe, New Mexico sits at 7,000 feet in the high desert, about an hour north of Albuquerque. Start downtown:

• The Plaza, off the Old Santa Fe Trail, where artists sell silver and turquoise under the portal
• Canyon Road, a half-mile of adobe galleries just east of downtown
• The Santa Fe Opera, an open-air house set against the hills north of town

12. Outer Banks, North Carolina

The Outer Banks are where America learned to fly, and they still feel like the edge of the map. This thin ribbon of North Carolina sand runs 200 miles into the Atlantic, all dunes, wild horses, and striped lighthouses.

Climb the spiral steps of the tallest brick lighthouse in the land, then stand where the Wright brothers first left the ground in 1903. In between, the beaches run wide and empty enough to lose the crowd entirely.

Where: The Outer Banks, North Carolina run down the state’s barrier islands; cross from the mainland on U.S. Highway 158 or NC Highway 12. Work your way south:

• Wright Brothers National Memorial, in Kill Devil Hills, where the first flight lifted off in 1903
• Jockey’s Ridge State Park, in Nags Head, the tallest natural sand dune on the East Coast
• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, in Buxton, the tallest brick lighthouse in America

13. Bend, Oregon

Bend is what happens when a mountain town and a river town share one zip code. Set in the high desert with the snowy Cascades on the horizon, it might be the most purely fun small city in the Pacific Northwest.

On a warm afternoon, half of Bend floats the Deschutes River on inner tubes, drifting right through downtown. Climb out and the mountains are still there, waiting with trails, alpine lakes, and long evenings that stay gold past nine.

Where: Bend, Oregon sits in the high desert along U.S. Highway 97, about three hours southeast of Portland. Base downtown for:

• The Deschutes River, which half the town floats on inner tubes each summer
• The Old Mill District, riverside shops and lawns with the Cascades on the horizon
• Cascade Lakes Highway, a scenic drive to a string of alpine lakes west of town

14. Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Cape Cod curls into the Atlantic like a flexed arm, and generations of families have spent whole summers in its crook. The light here is soft, the beaches run for miles, and the seafood shacks know exactly what they are doing.

Forty miles of shore sit protected as national seashore, so the dunes stay wild. Bike the old rail trail, watch whales leave from Provincetown, and end the day with a lobster roll and a lighthouse turning overhead.

Where: Cape Cod, Massachusetts hooks into the Atlantic about 90 minutes southeast of Boston over the Sagamore Bridge. Along the shore:

• Cape Cod National Seashore, forty miles of protected beach and the red-capped Nauset Light in Eastham
• Provincetown, the arts town at the tip, with whale-watch boats leaving the harbor
• Chatham, a classic Cape village at the elbow, with its 1808 lighthouse

15. Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

I have wanted to point the car toward the Tetons ever since I first saw a photo of them, and by every account the real thing outdoes the picture. These peaks erupt straight off the valley floor with no foothills to soften them.

Base yourself in Jackson, where arches of elk antlers frame the town square and Yellowstone waits up the road. Paddle around Jenny Lake, then catch sunrise on the range, when the peaks turn pink before anything else wakes up.

Where: Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming rises just north of the town of Jackson, an easy drive from the Jackson Hole airport. Don’t miss:

• Jenny Lake, with a boat shuttle to the Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point trails
• Mormon Row, the historic barns framed by the peaks at sunrise
• Jackson Town Square, framed by four arches of shed elk antlers

Pick One and Go

Here is the best part: no two of these fifteen feel remotely alike. You could chase clear alpine water one summer and salt air the next and never once repeat yourself.

So pull up a map, round up the people you actually like, and pick the spot that makes you grin the widest. Summer is short and the country is huge. Go use both.

Featured image: @ Na Pali Coast