Weekend drives: fall festival road trips

A weekend drive is a ready-made fall or holiday road trip built from events on our list. Each one follows the same easy order: a fair, concert or festival on Friday night, a bigger festival, fair or parade on Saturday, a haunted house, parade or light show after dark, and one more stop on Sunday on the way home, such as a farm, a car show or an air show. Every stop is open on the day it is planned for, and the legs between stops are short enough to fit around the events.

Each drive page lists the four stops in order, the day to visit each one, approximate drive times and a link to each event’s website. New drives are added for coming weekends, and a drive comes off this page once its weekend has passed.

• Charleston Halloween weekend road trip 2026

  Oct 30–Nov 1, 2026 · South Carolina

  Coastal Carolina Fair → Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch → Southern Screams Haunted House → Hilton Head Island Concours d'Elegance & Motoring Festival

• Seattle and Portland Halloween weekend road trip 2026

  Oct 30–Nov 1, 2026 · Washington, Oregon

  Wild Waves Fright Fest → Bi-Zi Farms Pumpkin Patch → Scaregrounds PDX → Spirit of Halloweentown

• Southwest Florida parades and air show road trip 2026

  Nov 6–8, 2026 · Florida

  Hillsborough County Fair → Cape Coral Veterans Day Parade → Illuminations Parade → Florida International Air Show

• Kansas City Día de los Muertos weekend road trip 2026

  Nov 6–8, 2026 · Missouri, Kansas

  Mattie Rhodes Calaca Night Parade → Gift Gallery → Día de Muertos on Central Avenue → Veterans Day Weekend at the National WWI Museum and Memorial

• Wurstfest and San Antonio weekend road trip 2026

  Nov 13–15, 2026 · Texas

  Wurstfest → Art in the Parks: Artisan Fair → Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival → Texas Book Festival

• Maryland and Delaware fall festival road trip 2026

  Nov 13–15, 2026 · Maryland, Delaware

  Mistletoe Mart → Waterfowl Festival → Maryland Irish Festival → Delaware Renaissance Faire

• Milwaukee and Chicago holiday kickoff road trip 2026

  Nov 20–22, 2026 · Wisconsin, Illinois

  Holiday Folk Fair International → Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) → Magnificent Mile Lights Festival → Milwaukee Domes Holiday Show

• Plymouth Thanksgiving parade weekend road trip 2026

  Nov 20–22, 2026 · Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire

  Bristol Holiday Preview → America's Hometown Thanksgiving Parade → SoWa Christmas Market → Holiday Show on the Seacoast

• San Francisco holiday lights and craft fair road trip 2026

  Dec 4–6, 2026 · California

  Let's Glow SF → SWEA Swedish Christmas Fair → Lightscape at San Francisco Botanical Garden → Holiday Show of Hands Craft Fair

• Phoenix and Tucson holiday weekend road trip 2026

  Dec 11–13, 2026 · Arizona

  Phoenix ZooLights → Phoenix Festival of the Arts → Fantasy of Lights Boat Parade → Fourth Avenue Winter Street Fair

Dates can change, so check the event’s website before you go.