Burlington · $$$
Road trips · Iowa
Iowa road trips & hidden gems.
Iowa is more than corn — the rolling Loess Hills, the covered bridges of Madison County, and Mississippi river bluffs above the Effigy Mounds. Summer green and fall gold are best. Gentle, rolling, and underrated.
Best time to visitSummer & fall
Don’t missThe Bridges of Madison County
Gem Hunt nominees10 candidates
Hikes10 curated
Scenic drives2
Worth-the-detour corridors
Drives through Iowa
Ranked city-to-city drives that cross Iowa — each with honest +N min detours on the shelf.
Gem Hunt nominees
What locals say you shouldn’t miss.
Community-nominated candidates. Add yours and vote to help choose the first published finalists.
Maquoketa Caves State Park
Eastern Iowa's wildest park packs thirteen caves into a six-mile trail system, from the 1,100-foot walk-through Dancehall Cave to a 17-ton balanced rock — bring a headlamp and old shoes.
Fenelon Place ElevatorBilled as the world's shortest and steepest scenic railway, this 1882 funicular hauls you 189 feet up a Dubuque bluff for a three-state view across the Mississippi.
Effigy Mounds National MonumentAlong the Mississippi in far-northeast Iowa, forested trails climb past ancient burial mounds shaped like bears and birds, some over 2,000 years old, with bluff-top river views.
High Trestle Trail BridgeHalf a mile of rail-trail soars 13 stories over the Des Moines River near Madrid, wrapped in 43 twisting steel ribs that glow at night and feel like riding through a glowing mine shaft.
Loess Hills Scenic BywayA 200-mile drive through western Iowa threading rare windblown-soil bluffs found at this scale almost nowhere else on earth — pull off at the Murray Hill or Preparation Canyon overlooks.
Squirrel Cage JailCouncil Bluffs guards the only three-story "rotary jail" ever built, a 45-ton cell block that spun on a hand crank so one cell faced the door at a time — a delightfully creepy self-guided stop.
Explore by interest
Everything else worth a stop in Iowa.
Start with a few highlights, choose one interest, or explicitly open the full state guide.
Showing General guide and Scenic routes highlights. Choose a category or Show all for the full state guide.
Scenic drives
Scenic routes through Iowa.
More worth the detour
The general guide to Iowa.
Museums, monuments, historic sites, and local-only stops from Roamward's shared place map.
Albert the Bull
Standing since 1964 on the edge of town, Albert is the World's Largest Bull statue — 30 feet tall, 33 feet long, with a 15-foot horn span — a Cattlemen's Association mascot-turned-landmark that put Audubon on the map for every I-80 detour-seeker heading north on US-71.
Bellevue State Park (Nelson Unit overlook)A 250-foot limestone bluff frames the Upper Mississippi River Wildlife Refuge, Lock and Dam No. 12, and the river town of Bellevue below in one shot -- and in winter, the same open water below the dam draws bald eagles the overlook trail was built to watch.
Eagle Point Park (Dubuque)A 164-acre bluff-top park built during the WPA era specifically to frame the view of Lock and Dam No. 11 below -- the stonework overlooks and pavilions were designed as public infrastructure for watching the river work, not just scenery, and the eagle namesake still holds up in winter.
Field of Dreams Movie Site"If you build it, he will come" — the actual cornfield-ringed diamond from the 1989 film, where you can still walk out of the corn onto the infield at dusk.
Herbert Hoover National Historic SiteThe birthplace cottage, Quaker meetinghouse, and gravesite of Iowa's only U.S. president, set inside a National Historic Site free to enter — a rare NPS check-in on the eastern Iowa corridor.
Iowa State CapitolThe only five-domed statehouse in America, its central dome sheathed in tissue-thin 23-karat gold leaf — this is Roamward's capital check-in for Iowa, the literal centerpiece of the state progress map.
Boots on
Best hikes in Iowa.
From family-easy to bucket-list — trails worth the detour, great for the RV & camping crew.
Backbone State Park
a narrow rock ridge in Iowa’s oldest state park
Effigy Mounds (Fire Point)ancient animal-shaped mounds over the Mississippi
Ledges State Parka sandstone canyon along Peas Creek
Loess Hills (Murray Hill)rare wind-deposited prairie hills
Maquoketa Cavesa trail through caves and bluffs
Palisades-Keplerlimestone cliffs over the Cedar River
The gloriously weird detour
Roadside Americana in Iowa.
Giant statues, folk-art wonders, vintage neon, and roadside oddities — the stops worth the exit.
Raise a glass
Breweries, distilleries & wineries in Iowa.
The trip-worthy taprooms, distilleries, and wine country.
Big Grove Brewery
a popular brewery-and-kitchen in the Iowa City corridor.
Cedar Ridge DistilleryIowa’s pioneering bourbon distillery and winery.
Confluence Brewinga Des Moines taproom near the Gray’s Lake trails.
Exile Brewinga downtown Des Moines brewery-and-restaurant (Ruthie lager).
Millstream BrewingIowa’s oldest craft brewery, in the historic Amana Colonies.
Toppling Goliatha world-renowned brewery (Kentucky Brunch) in tiny northeast Iowa.
Where to eat
Road-trip dining in Iowa.
Restaurants, diners, and food halls that fit the drive — curated by town, not scraped from a phone book.
Breitbach's Country Dining
Iowa’s oldest restaurant, perched above the Mississippi bluffs, makes a natural meal-and-view stop on the middle Great River Road.
A DongFamily-run Vietnamese staple since 1989 with an enormous menu and standout spring rolls.
AlbaSeasonal, ever-changing modern American plates that earned multiple James Beard nods.
Fong's PizzaTiki-bar pizza joint on the site of the country's oldest Chinese restaurant, home of the original crab rangoon pizza.
Gursha Ethiopian GrillCounter-service Ethiopian near Drake serving spicy wats scooped up with house injera.
HarbingerJames Beard-nominated chef Joe Tripp's vegetable-forward small plates from the wood fire.
On two wheels (road)
Best cycling in Iowa.
Scenic road rides, iconic climbs, and car-free rail-trails.
Tee it up
Public golf you can book in Iowa.
Rhodes · $$$ — Top public
Polk City · $$$
Des Moines · $$
Amana · $$
Coralville · $$
Plan the Iowa trip
Get the scenic route, the stops, and the timing.
Explore and save the trip on the web now. Join the iOS beta list for verified check-ins, shared trips, badges, and your growing map.
Where to stay
Find a place to stay near Iowa.
Hotels, cabins, and rentals close to the action — compare and book for your trip.
We may earn a commission from bookings made through this link — at no extra cost to you.