The top car-free cities in the USA for a getaway

Located on St. Simons Island in Georgia's Golden Isles, a quartet of barrier islands midway between Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida, Little St. Simons Island is a privately owned island that is home to The Lodge on Little St. Simons Island. Visitors fly from Jacksonville, Atlanta, Savannah, and Brunswick, Georgia, year-round to enjoy Southern hospitality and the luxury of nature. Located on 11,000 acres, the luxury, all-inclusive eco-lodge comprises six historic cottages, a saltwater pool, and naturalist-guided experiences like birding, fishing, and hiking. The island is a treasure trove for historians, who visit the St. Simons Lighthouse Museum and Fort Frederica National Monument, and outdoorsy types, who enjoy picking up sand dollars on seven miles of beaches, exploring 8,000 acres of salt marshes, and walking through ancient maritime forests.

Located on Lake Huron between Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas, the mystique of Mackinac Island, its magical sunrises and sunsets, and delicious fudge draw visitors by plane and ferry to northern Michigan for slow-paced travel. More than 80 percent of the vehicle-free island is a state park, replacing roads with nature trails. The island famously lacks chain hotels and is populated instead with dozens of charming inns, small boutiques, and local restaurants. Guests get around on foot and via whimsical horse-drawn carriage rides.

In the heart of New York Harbor, just 800 yards from lower Manhattan, is the 172-acre, car-free Governors Island. Founded in 1524 by the Lenape, who seasonally used the leafy island as a fishing camp, the island was more recently used by the US Coast Guard in the mid-20th century. In 1996, the Coast Guard moved out and the island is now run by the nonprofit the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island created by the City of New York to manage the island. Today, visitors can take passenger ferries from lower Manhattan and Brooklyn for day trips for spa days at QC NY spa, picnicking, catch-and-release fishing, and seasonal arts, cultural, and community events.

It’s quite a trek to get to Supai, one of the most remote communities in the lower 48 states. Supai has been home to the Havasu Baaja for 1,000 years and everyone and everything must make the eight-mile trek on foot or by mule from Hualapai Hilltop at the rim of the Grand Canyon to Supai (the US Postal Service even delivers mail by mule). It’s also possible to take a helicopter down. The village is known for its beautiful blue-green Havasupai waterfalls, which flow year-round. Visitors can take a refreshing swim in Havasu Creek, a tributary of the Colorado River and camp under a canopy of stars.

Since the 1800s, fishermen, artists, and art lovers have sought out the shores of Monhegan Island, Maine, a rocky island with unpaved roads and no street lights just 10 miles from mainland Maine. The year-round population is roughly 65, and they mostly get around on foot, although the island does have a few trucks. Located along Maine's midcoast, Monhegan Island is accessible via ferry from Boothbay Harbor and New Harbor, Maine, and year-round from Port Clyde, Maine. The island boasts a sizable artist community that swells to about 250 in the summer. There are nine miles of hiking trails, a collection of charming restaurants, and the Monhegan Museum of Art & History (open June–September), which includes pieces created by visiting artists that are housed in a lighthouse keeper's home.

Walk back in time at the car-less Colonial Williamsburg, the largest outdoor living history museum in the world. Part of Virginia’s historic triangle of Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg, the 301-acre Colonial Williamsburg includes 89 original buildings. Visitors leave their cars at the Visitor Center and take the free shuttle to the town, where the transport options include carriages, wagons, and walking around the immersive 18th-century sites, taverns, and homes where actors recreate life in colonial times. Visitors should look for the Grand Union Flags, which indicate which buildings are open to the public, as some structures in the one-mile-long and half-mile-wide historic area are still private residences.

Located 22 miles off the coast of southern California, Santa Catalina Island is a picturesque island where Marilyn Monroe once briefly lived and the Chicago Cubs held spring training for 30 years. Most visitors take short ferry rides from San Pedro, Long Beach, Dana Point, and Newport Beach. Visitors can also take private planes to reach the island, which has two communities, Avalon on the east and Two Harbors on the west. While there is a bus route and a taxi stand in the center of Avalon, locals and visitors use golf carts to get around the narrow streets to hillside homes, Descanso Beach, and waterfront businesses, including the Tuna Club, the oldest big-game saltwater fishing club in the world, and Two Harbors’ campsites, biking trails, and marine reserve.

Located 30 miles south of Wilmington, NC and 60 miles north of Myrtle Beach, SC, Bald Head Island is a loggerhead turtle nesting ground located two nautical miles from where the Cape Fear River and Atlantic Ocean meet. It’s a quick 20-minute ferry ride from Southport, NC, to the southernmost of North Carolina's cape islands. On the island, visitors use trams or golf carts to navigate the island’s beaches, golf courses, maritime forest, and Old Baldy Lighthouse, North Carolina’s oldest standing lighthouse that was first commissioned by Thomas Jefferson and is home to the Smith Island Museum of History. Don’t miss ascending the lighthouse’s 108 steps to get panoramic views of the island.

While it is possible to drive to Fire Island via two bridges, you can’t actually drive once on the island as there are no paved roads and vehicles are limited to emergency and state services. A popular summertime respite for New Yorkers, Fire Island is a year-round wonder thanks to its Sunken Forest—a 40-acre maritime forest of centuries-old holly, bayberry, blueberry, sassafras, and shadblow trees – but it’s the beaches and boating along the island’s miles of coastline that are the main draw. Most visitors stay in the family-friendly Ocean Beach and the gay-friendly The Pines and Grove. Cycling is the mode of transport here. In addition to sunbathing, islanders indulge in tennis, with courts in nearly every community, clamming, surfing, and birdwatching, where more than 300 species have been spotted.

Tucked inside Kachemak Bay State Park, Alaska’s first state park, Halibut Cove is nearly hidden within the mountainous park’s 400,000 acres. The remote, peaceful community of 211 people features a floating post office, serene views, and wildlife, including sea otters, seals, and whales. The community is accessible by air or water taxi from Homer, Alaska and, once there, locals and visitors navigate the 8.12 square miles by skiff, all-terrain vehicles (ATV), or foot.

Located 12 miles into the Chesapeake Bay, Tangier Island is only accessible by air or sea. The 740-acre island is at risk of disappearing due to rising sea levels. Located off Virginia’s eastern shore, there are only about 1.2 miles to explore. While there are a few cars, the roads are only wide enough for two golf carts, so the main modes of transportation are golf carts, boats, mopeds, and bikes. The watermen community is known as the 'soft-shell crab capital of the world' as crabbing is the main industry and visitors can get a glimpse into this and island life by visiting the isolated island.

Located between Hilton Head Island and Savannah, Georgia, Daufuskie Island is one mile across Calibogue Sound from Hilton Head Island. The western part of the peaceful island, known for its oysters, is populated with Gullah homes, historic homes owned since after the Civil War by descendants of the Gullah people, Africans who were enslaved on plantations along the Atlantic coast. Visitors reach the island via passenger ferry or boat from Hilton Head Island. Once on the island, enjoy the three miles of beach and points of interest like The Bloody Point Lighthouse & Museum at the southern tip of Daufuskie Island.

Several keys in the sprawling 120-mile Florida Keys are car-free. Located off southern Florida, the island chain is connected by the 110-mile Overseas Highway, but if you want to explore the vast Dry Tortugas, historic Pigeon Key, and adults-only Little Palm Island, you'll have to leave your car behind.

Comprising seven small islands, the Dry Tortugas is most famous for its 100-square-mile Dry Tortugas National Park. America's southernmost national park is accessible via ferry, such as Yankee Freedom Ferry and Key West Seaplane Charters, seaplane, or private boat charter. The Dry Tortugas is home to a handful of park rangers, Fort Jefferson, and marine life.

Take a trolley, walk, or bike across the Old Seven Mile Bridge to reach Pigeon Key, which has a population of four. In the early 1900s, Pigeon Key housed 400 workers who built Henry Flagler’s Florida Keys' Over-Sea Railroad. The railroad that connected the Keys with the Florida mainland was destroyed during a hurricane in 1935. Visitors can picnic, snorkel, visit a museum dedicated to Flagler's railroad, and take a guided tour to learn about the island's history.

Little Palm Island is best known for Little Palm Island Resort & Spa. The island is primarily accessible via yacht to guests staying in the 30 thatched roof bungalow suites, but off-island guests can visit the luxury resort on Sundays 11am to 2pm for Sunday Brunch and 5pm to 7pm daily during Harry’s Social Hour, a reservations-only happy hour that pays homage to President Harry S. Truman, who frequented the island paradise.