A century ago next month, Arthur and Alfred Heineman opened the Milestone Mo-Tel, an economically named ‘motor hotel’ on the road from San Francisco to LA. In doing so they unwittingly coined not just a portmanteau for the ages, but a style of long, lean, low-slung architecture with easy access to the road, beach, pool or all three. Motels were designed for short stays, though the moment didn’t last long. Interstates and air travel put paid to their B-road appeal.

Yet for a segment of road-trip enthusiasts, the archetypal American motel has never gone out of fashion. Indeed the classic midcentury modern low-rise inn can be a huge motivator, as travel journalist Ellie Seymour recognised while researching her new coffee table book Vintage Motels, published this month by Luster. Seymour has compiled narratives for 40 charming retro inns from Idaho to North Carolina, built in the golden age of American road travel. Each has been restored and remodelled — some even saved from demolition by members of the community. Take the Palms in Atlantic Beach Florida, rescued in 2015 by lifelong Floridian Greg Schwartzenberger. ‘The best feature is the original exposed concrete floor the team unearthed beneath dark, wall-to-wall carpet,’ writes Seymour, ‘which happens to be filled with tiny crushed shells from the beach that were once used as aggregate.’

Shown off in photos from the 1950s to the current day, properties like the Palms now welcome new generations with all the mod cons, and some discretionary delights — like disco balls in every room in the case of the adults-only Dive in Nashville, ‘with its maximalist retro-style decor designed around… shag carpet… vintage radios… and wallpapers sourced at various vintage fairs.’

Seymour drops in on the Vagabond, a listed Miami property designed in the iconic MiMo style; San Diego’s Pearl, a 1959 desert haven surrounded by cactus gardens; and the Madonna Inn on California’s Central Coast, a highlight of her first American road trip. ‘No two rooms are the same,’ she writes, ‘each one individually decorated and named, ranging from the luxurious to the outrageous… Whenever I go on a USA road trip, I always make a point of staying in a motel, returning to the Madonna Inn when I can.’

All together they make a convincing argument to hit the road without a plan — or at least to revel in the nostalgia.