Washington to Philadelphia drive: 24 ranked stops worth the detour

Longtime riverfront favorite with seafood staples, a raw bar, upscale fare and cocktails right on the Christina River. Order: Raw bar platter.

The bombardment Francis Scott Key watched from a ship in the harbor on the night of September 13-14, 1814, produced the poem that became 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' Check in at the star-shaped fort where the flag flew 'by dawn's early light.'

Routinely ranked Maryland's best public course, Bulle Rock hosted the LPGA Championship from 2005 to 2009. Dye stretched it across rolling farmland with dramatic elevation and his trademark hazards.

Fells Point institution celebrating New England and Chesapeake seafood with a raw bar and old-school preparations. Order: Maine-style lobster roll.

rolling Piedmont woods near Newark

A national museum devoted entirely to self-taught 'outsider' artists -- whirligigs, a giant whirligig sculpture garden, and a mirrored mosaic facade that makes it the single quirkiest museum stop in the state.

Beloved Little Italy institution serving hearty red-sauce classics and its famous house salad since 1940. Order: House salad and lasagna.

DC's largest wooded park east of the river hides a Civil War fort that never fired a shot in anger — and today its 10 miles of unpaved trail (the Fort Circle Hiker-Biker Trail) is the wildest, least-crowded hiking in the city, linking six Civil War forts along a forgotten green ring around the capital.

the retro-park that started the whole movement — the B&O Warehouse beyond right field

Part steakhouse and part butchery driven by a serious wine obsession, sourcing veal, seafood and local produce. Order: Long bone tomahawk.

The last all-sail warship built by the U.S. Navy (1854), and the flagship of the Union's Africa Squadron intercepting slave ships before the Civil War. Now permanently moored at Pier 1 in Baltimore's Inner Harbor as the centerpiece of Historic Ships in Baltimore.

a wooded gorge and old blue-rock quarry near Wilmington

Housed in the 1884 Mount Clare roundhouse -- birthplace of American railroading, where the B&O's first stone was laid in 1828 -- with the country's oldest and most comprehensive collection of historic locomotives under one roof.

A classic city municipal course.

Standing-room seafood counter inside historic Lexington Market, making Maryland's most legendary crab cake since 1886. Order: Jumbo lump crab cake.

Alfred I. du Pont's 1910 gift to his second wife: a 77-room French neoclassical chateau modeled on Versailles and the Petit Trianon, fronted by the longest formal allee of fountains in North America -- the 'American Versailles' story is an easy, vivid hook for road-trippers.

Mount Vernon mainstay winning the city's best-African-cuisine honors with spicy stews and homemade cheese on spongy injera. Order: Beef tibs with injera.

an easy forest loop to a pretty fall near Baltimore

Family-run Sinaloan mezcaleria and taqueria with handmade tortillas and 30-plus mezcals in the heart of Remington. Order: Tacos de carne asada.

A busy public course in the suburbs.

a shaded paved trail from Georgetown into Maryland

Henry Francis du Pont's 979-acre former estate along the Brandywine -- naturalistic gardens, an American decorative-arts collection, and one of the named cultural-institution stops that gives the Brandywine Valley National Scenic Byway its 'concentration of historic sites, magnificent estates, glorious gardens' character.

wildflower-rich piedmont trails

This is the newest piece of the national park system in Delaware -- 1,100+ acres donated by conservationists, capped by a 2021 254-acre expansion funded partly by Mt. Cuba Center, preserving Brandywine River scenery that a Quaker industrialist started protecting from development over a century ago.