This popular resort area in upstate New York is bursting with vintage roadside charm and classic neon. You can’t go wrong staying at one of the many remaining mid-century motels or cozy cottages in Lake George(the A-frame accommodations at the Amber Lantern are pretty perfect) or eating soft-serve cones and cheesesteaks as big as your head from Martha’s Dandee Creme.

New York City’s love affair with neon signage is well-documented; the city doesn’t sleep for many reasons, but a big one might be the constant glow and buzz of its neon signs. Over the years, much of the city—including the notoriously-bright Times Square—has gone digital, but a few classic signs have remained. Take the D, N, F, or Q train to the end of the line for Nathan’s Famous’ original location on Surf Avenue in Brooklyn’s Coney Island.

In 1999, Tod Swormstedt, a former editor of the trade magazine Signs of the Times, created the American Sign Museum to “not only save signs, but to show appreciation for the craftsmanship that goes into making every sign.” Other neon-centric museums have opened since, but the American Sign Museum, located in a former fashion warehouse in Cincinnati, Ohio, claims to be the only one dedicated to the art and craft of sign-making.

Serving enormous sundaes in clamshell dishes since the 1920s, Margie’s Candies‘ original Bucktown location is one of the oldest ice cream parlors in Chicago. Over the last 100 years, everyone from Al Capone to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles have stopped in for a sweet treat (I wonder what they played on the tabletop jukeboxes?).

Located in a historic Elks building in The Dalles, Oregon, the National Neon Sign Museum opened for tours in August, 2018. The 20,000-square-foot museum features signs and artifacts from the late 1800s through the 1960s. The collection includes pieces from jewelers, car dealerships, and root beer stands. Exhibits showcase the evolution of sign-making technology from hand painted gold leaf to enamel and electric signs and eventually plastic.

Hollywood may be lit by flashbulbs, but Southern California is also a neon-lover’s paradise. Los Angeles is home to dozens of mid-century diners, including Pann’s Restaurant which has been serving hungry travelers and locals alike since 1958.

Vegas’ Neon Museum was founded in 1996 as a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and displaying iconic signs from the city’s motels, casinos, and other now-defunct businesses. At the center of the museum’s Neon Boneyard is an 80-foot-tall Hard Rock Café guitar, one of only a handful of signs in the collection that have been restored and relit.

Holbrook, Arizona, is home to one of the three remaining Wigwam Motels (its neon sign asks Route 66 travelers, “Have you slept in a Wigwam lately?”), and several other motels, trading posts, and souvenir shops.

Albuquerque’s Central Avenue is home to several notable neon signs, but I could write an entire article waxing poetic just about The Dog House, a staple located on old Route 66 for more than 70 years. The restaurant, serving footlongs topped with famously spicy chili, appears a few times in Breaking Bad, and its sign, which spans the entire width of the small brick building, is photogenic anytime from sunrise to sunset. But like most working neon, it really shines after dark.

Tucumcari, home of the Blue Swallow Motel—and some of the most iconic neon on the entire Mother Road—was founded in 1901 as a railroad construction camp called Ragtown. It was later renamed for a nearby mountain, and in its heyday, the town attracted Route 66 travelers to one of its 2,000 motel rooms with billboards for miles in each direction proclaiming “Tucumcari Tonite!” The town later adopted the tagline “Gateway to the West,” but voted to return to its previous slogan in 2008.