9 Weekend Getaways From 9 U.S. Cities

Drive a few hours south and spend your weekend running around the beach or enjoying a drink in Port Aransas.

In less than three hours, you can go from San Diego to the Anza-Borrego Desert. Since it’s one of the few places in Southern California that lets you pull off the road and camp from your car pretty much wherever you want, all you’ll really need to bring is a change of clothes and lots and lots of water.

After a 40-minute flight from Oahu, followed by a slightly difficult access-road drive up Mauna Kea, strap into your snowboard for a weekend snow session atop the volcano. There aren’t any chairlifts on Mauna Kea, but as long as you have a four-wheel drive vehicle, you can take turns driving.

At 1,524 meters and guarded by Tonto National Forest and the switchbacks of Highway 89A, Jerome is a long way from the heat and neon of the Las Vegas strip. It’s a five-hour drive by car. Snap photos of historic buildings or admire the red-rock mountains in nearby Sedona.

Never Summer Nordic’s yurt system is an isolated weekend getaway in the Colorado State Forest. If you stay in the Ruby Jewel Yurt, you’ll have relatively easy access to backcountry skiing and snowboarding so good that you probably won’t mind the middle-of-the-night trek from the yurt to the outhouse.

Float down the Shenandoah or Potomac rivers in a huge inner tube within about two hours outside of Washington, D.C. There’s paddling and whitewater rafting on various sections of these rivers as well.

For a real break from busy New York City, head down to the Jersey Shore for a weekend on the beach.

If you love cheese – and who doesn’t? – head to Madison, Wisconsin. At the Dane County Farmers’ Market, you can get tons and tons of it for very reasonable prices. This college town also has plenty of entertainment options.

In winter, instead of following everyone from Los Angeles as they drive to Mammoth Lakes, try June Mountain instead. You can expect lots of snow without the correspondingly huge lift lines. And while your friends are still trying to get out of the Mammoth Lakes parking lot, you’ll already be shooting pool and having a drink at The Tiger.