What kinds of *Trails* are there?
December 21, 2020 9:11 AM   Subscribe

Maine has an Island Trail. Kentucky has a Bourbon Trail. Beer Trails abound. Tell me about and link Trails you know of.

These are a packaging/ marketing idea that I like. Get buy in from a trade association and specific sites, package it with a logo, map, passport, etc. People who like that sort of thing can enjoy their hobby, meet others who do the same, etc. It's a little challenging to search because it's a broad and conceptual category and there are physical trails. thanks.
posted by theora55 to Travel & Transportation (40 answers total) 40 users marked this as a favorite
 
Bend (Oregon) has a the Bend Ale Trail. "Largest Beer Trail in the West" with 22 breweries participating.
posted by hydra77 at 9:18 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


California has a cheese trail.
posted by kdar at 9:19 AM on December 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


Cooperstown, NY has the Cooperstown Beverage Trail for locally produced beer, wine, cider and spirits.
posted by plastic_animals at 9:23 AM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


There's a Donut Trail in Ohio that I'll get around to one of these days!
posted by miratime at 9:23 AM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


Three of the Finger Lakes in upstate NY each have their own wine trails.
posted by tchemgrrl at 9:24 AM on December 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


We've got quite a few of these in Hong Kong - most connected to the city's heritage.
posted by mdonley at 9:25 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


The perennially popular-adjacent sliver of the Hudson Valley where I'm from inexplicably has the Shawangunk Wine Trail; I worked at one of these wineries as a teen and I gotta say the Mid-Hudson Valley is not exactly wine country.
posted by niicholas at 9:26 AM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]




New Mexico has the Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail.

We also have just the Green Chile Trail and the Turquoise Trail.
posted by NotLost at 9:31 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


The Crooked Road is about bluegrass in southern Virginia.
posted by brilliantine at 9:37 AM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


Although it's not year-round, do 100-mile-garage-sales count?
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:38 AM on December 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


THE FREEDOM TRAIL. Beloved of central New England history teachers since 1951.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:39 AM on December 21, 2020 [5 favorites]


Alabama has the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, which is apparently owned by the state employee pension system?

(Note: Golf course designer Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was a different person than Bobby Jones.)
posted by Huffy Puffy at 9:49 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


In the Hudson Valley (plus one or two other places) is the Hudson River Art Trail, a trail that leads you to the exact spots where you can see the views which were captured in various paintings from the Hudson River School art movement, which is considered the first genuinely "American" art movement. It was all landscape paintings, focusing on the grandeur of what was then a new nation; most of the artists chose landscapes from within the Hudson Valley as their subjects, but later years saw artists depict scenes from Western Massachusetts and New England as well. The trail was founded by the Thomas Cole National Historic Site; Cole was the artist who launched the movement. But while his house is one spot on the trail, the majority of the stops on the trail actually are more about the places themselves; you are guided to the exact spot where such-and-such-artists was standing when he captured the view depicted in a certain painting. And the paintings were often so detailed that you can pinpoint the exact details on the landscape (full disclosure - I did a piece about this for Atlas Obscura some years back, and dragged a photographer friend along to one spot so we could do a compare-and-contrast of the painting to the view).

The Thomas Cole shop sells guides to several of the spots, so you can make it a self-guided tour; the Hudson River School Trail site also offers guided hikes to certain spots.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:57 AM on December 21, 2020 [6 favorites]


New England Antique Trail
posted by SpaceWarp13 at 10:01 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Ontario has a ton of these. Butter tarts, bacon, ale, cheese, etc. The link includes some non-trail food destinations, but it's got a bunch of the trails on it, too.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:01 AM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


First thing I thought of was both California's and Vermont's Cheese Trails, but in the US alone it turns out a number of additional states have cheese trails:

* Idaho's Cheese and Ice Cream Trail (PDF)
* Massachusetts' Berkshire Cheese Trail
* New York's Finger Lakes Cheese Trail
* Oregon's Cheese and Food Trail, which seems to be an expanded version of the Willamette Valley Cheese Trail the same way the California Cheese Trail grew out of the Sonoma Marin Cheese Trail
* Wisconsin's Cheese Trail
posted by Pandora Kouti at 10:02 AM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


Maryland has an ice cream trail!
posted by sizeable beetle at 10:10 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Columbus, OH has a Coffee Trail.
posted by damayanti at 10:32 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Louisiana has the andouille trail, though I'm not sure I could eat 35 pork products in tube form in a single weekend.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:53 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Mississippi has a Blues Trail, which makes sense, while Arkansas has a Golf Trail, which I think we borrowed from Alabama. Fayetteville, Arkansas has an Ale Trail, a self-directed deal with stops at 17 breweries. People often do it on bikes.
posted by box at 10:56 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


We have a boudin trail too, if you finish the andouille trail and want to keep going west.
posted by CheeseLouise at 11:22 AM on December 21, 2020 [3 favorites]


Dallas has the Margarita Mile.
Buffalo has the Wing Trail.
Florida has the Big Bend Shellfish Trail.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:29 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


New Hampshire Ice Cream Trail
posted by kevinbelt at 11:49 AM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]






There are art trails in Italy. One figured in John Mortimer's book Summer Lease.
posted by SemiSalt at 12:24 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Scotland has a Whisky Trail.

Ireland has a Whiskey Trail.
posted by TORunner at 12:27 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Pennsylvania has trails. I can vouch for the Erie, Lehigh Valley, and Brandywine trails as being top notch.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 12:31 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Are Paths acceptable? Both Kyoto and Heidelberg have a Philospher's Path (or Walk, depending on the translation), and that Wikipedia link suggests that Toronto has one, as well.
posted by Rash at 1:47 PM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


San Francisco has the Barbary Coast Trail and the Crosstown Trail.
posted by niicholas at 1:52 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


There's a Franklin County Cider Trail in Western MA (not all the locations are in Franklin County, nor are they all cideries).
posted by mskyle at 2:01 PM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


Washington, D.C., has "Civil War to Civil Rights" -- the Downtown Heritage Trail
posted by jgirl at 2:24 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


The Camino de Santiago, (a major Christian pilgrimage route).
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:51 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


Vermont has a Quilt Trail (quilt patterns placed on barns) and an African American Heritage Trail and the Vermont Library Association did a Passport to Vermont Libraries for a few years. New Bedford MA has a Lighting the Way: Historic Women of the SouthCoast trail
posted by jessamyn at 2:55 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


We took an afternoon's detour through the Pyrenees on our way from Northern to Southern Spain 6 years ago and found ourself on a French road with many cyclists, labeled with signs saying Rue du Fromage. To the best of my reckoning this was part of the Ossau-Iraty Cheese Route, featuring a single protected sheeps milk cheese. Gorgeous mountainy countryside around there. Plus some good rock climbing, I believe, and also quite close to where Roland blew his brains out sounding his horn, if you're into some chanson de geste tourism.
posted by deludingmyself at 3:42 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


I don’t know if this meets your criteria, but Massachusetts usually has a general aviation restaurant tour every year (not this year, obviously). Fly to all the airports in the state that have restaurants on the field, grab a bite to eat, and get your passport stamp. If you hit them all, I think you get a T-shirt or something.
posted by backseatpilot at 3:47 PM on December 21, 2020 [3 favorites]




Oklahoma has 66 stamps to collect in your Route 66 Passport. You get a magnet piece when you complete each section and a coin when you get all 66 stamps. Oklahoma has over 400 miles of Route 66 running across it!
posted by roadrunner9 at 7:20 AM on December 22, 2020 [5 favorites]


Richmond VA has a Slave Trail http://rvariverfront.com/monuments/slavetrail.html
posted by john m at 3:53 PM on December 22, 2020 [1 favorite]


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