My dad recently pulled out an old shoebox of Polaroids and started rattling off a list of places he’d visited back when gas was under fifty cents a gallon and station wagons ruled the interstate. He counted them off on his fingers like it was yesterday, even though half a century has passed since most of these trips happened.
Listening to him talk, I realized how many of these spots have either changed beyond recognition or quietly faded from the map altogether. Some are still packed with tourists every summer. Others exist now mostly in memory and old postcards. Here’s the full list, along with what’s actually true about each place then and now.
Walt Disney World, Florida
My dad’s family made the drive down for the opening year, and he still talks about how empty the parking lot felt compared to today. That memory checks out. A modest 10,000 people showed up on the park’s opening day, October 1st, 1971[1], a far cry from the crowds ambitious pundits had predicted.
The park has obviously grown into something almost unrecognizable from that quiet debut. In 2024, Walt Disney World was the most visited vacation resort in the world, with an average annual attendance of more than 49 million[2]. Back then it was just Magic Kingdom and two hotels. Now it’s four theme parks, two water parks, and a small city’s worth of infrastructure.
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
This one made my dad’s list because he says the silence at the rim was unlike anything he’d experienced before or since. Family road trips through the Southwest were a rite of passage in the 1970s, and the Grand Canyon sat near the top of nearly every itinerary. It had already been a national park for decades by then, but the crowds were nowhere near what they are today.
These days the park draws millions of visitors annually, with traffic and parking becoming genuine logistical challenges during peak season. The South Rim, where most 1970s tourists would have stood, remains the most accessible and most visited section. What hasn’t changed is the sheer scale of the thing. Photos still don’t quite prepare people for standing at the edge of it.
Niagara Falls, New York and Ontario
Niagara Falls was practically a required stop for East Coast families with a car and a week of vacation time. My dad remembers the mist soaking through his jacket and the sheer noise of the water, something he says photographs never capture properly. Honeymooners had been flocking there since the 1800s, and by the 1970s it was as much a family destination as a romantic one.
The falls themselves haven’t moved, obviously, but the surrounding area has shifted considerably. The Canadian side in particular has built up into a much more commercialized tourist strip than it was in the ’70s, with casinos and observation towers that weren’t there when my dad visited. The natural spectacle remains the draw, even as the buildings around it change with each decade.
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
My dad’s list included a week spent camping near Old Faithful, back when reservations weren’t the fight they are today. Yellowstone in the 1970s still had a slightly wilder, less regulated feel, with fewer boardwalks and more room to wander close to thermal features. Wildlife sightings were common, and campgrounds filled up on a much more casual basis than the online booking systems required now.
The park’s core attractions, including its famous geysers and hot springs, remain essentially unchanged in character. What’s different is the management around them. Visitor numbers have climbed steadily over the decades, pushing the park service toward timed entry discussions and stricter camping regulations that would have seemed unnecessary in my dad’s era.
The Catskills, New York
This is the one my dad brought up with the most nostalgia, describing sprawling resorts with nightly entertainment, big dining rooms, and a whole community built around summer leisure. He was describing the tail end of the Borscht Belt, the string of Jewish resort hotels that had dominated the region for decades. At its peak, the Borscht Belt encapsulated 538 hotels and 50,000 bungalow colonies, offering a slice of paradise for tens of thousands of predominately East Coast American Jews throughout the 1920s through the ’70s.[3]
By the time my dad visited, the decline was already underway. The Borscht Belt began to decline in the mid-1960s, experiencing its steepest decrease between the 1970s and 1990s.[4] Cheaper air travel and changing generational tastes pulled visitors toward more distant destinations, and most of those grand hotels have since closed or fallen into disrepair, though a modest revival driven by newer developments in the region has brought some renewed interest lately.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Beach vacations along the Carolina coast were a summer staple for families up and down the East Coast in the 1970s, and my dad’s crew made the trip more than once. Myrtle Beach had already built a reputation for affordable motels, mini golf, and a boardwalk atmosphere that felt built for families rather than luxury travelers. It was the kind of place where you could stretch a vacation budget across a full week without much trouble.
That basic identity has held remarkably steady. Myrtle Beach today still leans heavily on family friendly attractions, golf courses, and a long stretch of accessible beach, even as high rise condos have replaced many of the smaller motels my dad would have stayed in. The area remains one of the most visited coastal destinations in the Southeast, drawing a similar demographic of vacationing families it always has.
Route 66
Rather than a single stop, this one was a whole stretch of highway that my dad drove as part of a longer cross-country trip. Route 66 in the 1970s was already starting to lose relevance as the interstate highway system expanded, but plenty of the old diners, motels, and roadside attractions were still operating. He remembers specific gas station stops and diner meals more vividly than most of the scenery itself.
The route was officially decommissioned in 1985 once interstate replacements were complete, though sections of it survive as historic byways in several states. Towns along the old road have leaned into that nostalgia hard, restoring vintage signage and diners to attract travelers chasing the same experience my dad had decades earlier. It’s less a functional highway now and more a deliberate trip back in time.
Waikiki Beach, Hawaii
Hawaii had only been a state since 1959, and by the 1970s it had firmly established itself as a dream vacation destination for mainland Americans, my dad included. He describes Waikiki as busier than he expected but still manageable, with hotel towers already lining the beachfront but nothing like the density that exists today. Surfing lessons and luau dinners were already tourist staples by then.
Waikiki has only intensified as a destination since. High rise hotels now dominate the skyline in a way that would likely surprise a 1970s visitor, and the beach itself, though still popular, requires ongoing sand replenishment efforts to maintain its width against erosion. It remains one of the most recognizable beach destinations in the world, just considerably more built up than it was in my dad’s photos.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
My dad remembers this trip mostly for the drive itself, winding through mountain roads with overlooks that seemed to appear around every curve. The Smokies had already become one of the most visited national parks in the country by the 1970s, largely because of its accessibility from major East Coast population centers without requiring a long flight. Gatlinburg, the gateway town, was smaller and less commercialized than it is now.
The park has retained its position as one of the most heavily visited in the national park system for decades running. Gatlinburg itself has transformed dramatically, adding attractions, outlet malls, and a much larger tourism infrastructure than existed when my dad passed through. The forested trails and mountain views he remembers are still there, just with considerably more company on busy weekends.
Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills, South Dakota
Rounding out the list, my dad recalled a detour through South Dakota specifically to see the monument, describing it as smaller in person than photographs suggested but still worth the drive. The Black Hills region had been drawing road trip families for decades by the 1970s, with Mount Rushmore serving as the primary anchor attraction alongside nearby Badlands scenery. Facilities around the monument were fairly basic at the time, mostly parking lots and a modest visitor area.
The site has since been developed considerably, with a more elaborate visitor center, amphitheater, and walking trail added in the years since my dad’s visit. The carving itself remains the same, obviously, since it’s literally carved into granite. What’s changed is everything built up around it to accommodate the millions of annual visitors the region now attracts.
