This Underappreciated State Beat Out All Others For The Best Driving Conditions In America For 2025

When you envision your great American road trip, which state springs to mind? Perhaps you're cutting across the otherworldly landscapes of a wild national park in South Dakota's Badlands or charting the historic towns of Illinois on what travel expert Samantha Brown thinks is America's most underrated road trip. But how much do driving conditions play a factor in the route you choose? Ultimately, it's not much of a road trip if thick blankets of fog and rainfall obscure the scenery or you're stuck in logjam traffic on an interstate highway.

Financial advice platform WalletHub has suggested that not only do adverse road conditions send drivers into a frenzy, but traffic congestion alone squeezes their wallets to the tune of $771 annually. In a January 2025 study, the platform ranked U.S. states from best to worst based explicitly on driving conditions. And in the end, it wasn't a classic road trip state that came out on top. Kansas, a region known for its vast prairie lands, gorgeous Topeka Capitol Building, tangy barbecue, and a certain nonfiction novel by Truman Capote, now also holds the accolade of being the state with the best driving conditions in America.

WalletHub's methodology focused on four categories: cost of ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure (including meteorological conditions), safety (including law obedience and strictness of DUI punishments), and access to vehicles and maintenance. All categories were scored out of 30, except for "access to vehicles and maintenance," which was scored out of 10. A total score of 65.92 was enough for Kansas to top the podium, with the quality and safety of its roads particularly noteworthy. Its flat topography, generally short commutes to work, and low gas and auto-repair prices also contributed to its high score.

Stellar driving conditions are great, but having something to gawk at beyond your windshield is also a prerequisite for a worthwhile road trip. Kansas' reputation for being "flatter than a pancake" and smothered in yellow-brown agricultural land doesn't sound like it lends itself to road-tripping. 

But don't be fooled by the stereotypes. You can summit Kansas' highest mountain in the northern part of the state, time travel to Old West saloons in the southwest, or use major cities as your waypoints, driving from Kansas City to Wichita via Topeka. You could also tag on a trip through a neighboring state like Oklahoma, bordering Kansas to the south, or Iowa (by way of Missouri or Nebraska), both of which made it into WalletHub's top five states for driving. Driving along U.S. 40 is one of the state's most unusual road trips. Going from west to east, you'll start at Mount Sunflower on the Colorado border, the highest point in Kansas at 4,039 feet. 

Other points of interest include the otherworldly formations of Monument Rocks, a collection of chalk spires and arches left over from an 80-million-year-old inland sea, and Rock City Park, with its climbable, house-sized boulders. Food pilgrims, especially those who like flaming grills and marbled cuts of meat, should consider a cross-state drive to Kansas City for a road trip that's as much about the destination as the journey. Known as one of America's great barbecue cities, there are enough lively restaurants for smoky meats here to keep carnivores salivating from dawn until dusk.