Amarillo, two hours north of Lubbock on I-27, is the Texas Panhandle’s Route 66 capital. The Mother Road crosses about 178 miles of Texas, and Amarillo keeps its spirit alive with neon, diners, antique shops and one of America’s great pieces of roadside art.
Cadillac Ranch was created in 1974 by the San Francisco art collective Ant Farm, funded by the eccentric Amarillo millionaire Stanley Marsh 3. Ten Cadillacs, from 1949 to 1963 models, were buried nose-first in a field, their tailfins in the air. Visitors have been covering them in spray paint ever since — and yes, you are allowed to add your own.
Top things to do: Cadillac Ranch & Route 66, Amarillo
Paint a Cadillac
Cadillac Ranch sits in a field beside the I-40 frontage road on Amarillo’s western edge. Entry is free and it is open at all hours. Bring a can of spray paint (shops nearby sell them), wear old shoes — the ground is often muddy — and take your empty cans away with you.
Cruise Sixth Street
The US Route 66–Sixth Street Historic District in the San Jacinto neighbourhood preserves a stretch of the old highway with 1920s–40s buildings, antique shops, bars and live-music venues.
Take on the Big Texan
The Big Texan Steak Ranch on I-40 has offered its famous challenge since 1960: eat a 72-ounce steak with sides in an hour and it’s free. Most people just enjoy a normal-sized steak and the Old West spectacle.
Stand at the midpoint of Route 66
About 45 minutes west in tiny Adrian, a sign marks the halfway point between Chicago and Los Angeles, opposite the Midpoint Café — a classic photo stop.
Keep going west
Route 66 continues into New Mexico towards Tucumcari and Albuquerque (about 4.5 hours from Amarillo), where you can book a sunrise hot-air balloon flight.
How to get there
- From Lubbock: about 120 miles north on I-27, roughly 2 hours to Amarillo; Cadillac Ranch is another 15 minutes west of downtown on I-40.
- Cadillac Ranch location: south side of I-40 between exits 60 and 62; park on the frontage road and walk through the gate.
- Palo Duro Canyon: 30–40 minutes southeast of Amarillo — easily combined in one weekend.
Insider tips
- Go at sunrise or sunset for the best photos and fewer people.
- Amarillo is famously windy — hold on to your hat and your spray can.
- The Amarillo area has an excellent choice of hotels, from The Barfield downtown to the Big Texan Motel — see where to stay.
- Driving onward on Route 66 into New Mexico? Remember that New Mexico is on Mountain Time — you gain an hour.
Pair it with a tour
GetYourGuide has no bookable tours in Lubbock itself yet, so these are the best-rated experiences that fit naturally into a trip that includes Cadillac Ranch & Route 66, Amarillo:
Balloon flight from $215 Albuquerque: Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Flight with Toast
Albuquerque sits on Route 66 roughly four and a half hours west of Amarillo, and it is the hot-air-balloon capital of the United States. After driving the Mother Road across the Texas Panhandle, this sunrise flight is a spectacular reward: calm dawn air, the Rio Grande valley below and the Sandia Mountains glowing in the first light.
- Sunrise flight with views of the Sandia Mountains
- Celebratory toast and light snacks after landing
- Perfect 5/5 guest rating
Walking tour from $40 Santa Fe: Guided Historic Downtown Walking Tour
US-84 runs almost straight from Lubbock to Santa Fe, which makes the New Mexico capital (around five and a half hours away) the classic extension of a South Plains trip. This two-hour walk with a museum-trained docent unpacks four centuries of Pueblo, Spanish, Mexican and American history in the adobe streets around the Plaza.
- 400 years of history around the Santa Fe Plaza
- Pueblo-style adobe architecture explained
- Led by a museum-trained docent
Guided tour from $48 Roswell: Guided UFO Incident Tour
Roswell is roughly three hours west of Lubbock across the Llano Estacado — an easy, classic road trip. This two-hour guided tour walks you through what happened in the summer of 1947, the places tied to the story and the theories that followed, so you get far more out of the town than a quick photo with an alien statue.
- The timeline of the famous 1947 “flying saucer” story
- Sites connected to the incident around Roswell
- What ufologists and sceptics have argued since
