Angel & Vilma Delgadillo's Route 66 Gift Shop & Visitor's Center
Angel & Vilma Delgadillo's Route 66 Gift Shop & Visitor's Center
Angel & Vilma Delgadillo's Route 66 Gift Shop & Visitor's Center
4.5
About
Welcome to the Birthplace of HISTORIC Route 66! In 1987, Angel Delgadillo, the kindly crusader, led the charge to save the Main Street of America; Route 66. The Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona was formed to protect, promote, and preserve the Mother Road. The grassroots association and Angel's charisma have captured the world's attention. Today there are Route 66 associations worldwide.Angel and Vilma opened the very first Route 66 gift shop in 1987. The once pool hall and barber shop is now a unique blend of gift shop, barber shop, visitor center, and museum. The museum is dedicated to all the people who have made the pilgrimage to Historic Route 66 from all over the United States and the world. Your road trip is not complete until you experience living history at this Route 66 landmark!
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
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4.5
456 reviews
Excellent
296
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137
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18
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A Midlife Adventure
Dursley, UK2,766 contributions
Jul 2023 • Couples
We couldn’t come to Seligman without coming in here.
You are immediately greeted by a friendly face and made to feel welcome.
Whilst this is a gift shop I was more interested in the history and Angels fight to keep the Mother Road. They have created a great area within his barbers shop for this very purpose and it was lovely to read all about his crusade.
You definitely feel as though you matter when you come in here, thank you
You are immediately greeted by a friendly face and made to feel welcome.
Whilst this is a gift shop I was more interested in the history and Angels fight to keep the Mother Road. They have created a great area within his barbers shop for this very purpose and it was lovely to read all about his crusade.
You definitely feel as though you matter when you come in here, thank you
Written July 10, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Bunty8
United Kingdom644 contributions
May 2023
This was a great stop on our trip across the US. They have a lovely gift shop, staff very friendly and clean rest rooms.
Was a barber’s , you can get your photo taken in the barbers chair, lot of memorabilia and history of how Angel worked to preserve the original Route 66 as an historic route.
Can get very busy, was when we were there, if bus tours stop, but don’t let it put you off visiting.
Another highlight of our US holiday.
Was a barber’s , you can get your photo taken in the barbers chair, lot of memorabilia and history of how Angel worked to preserve the original Route 66 as an historic route.
Can get very busy, was when we were there, if bus tours stop, but don’t let it put you off visiting.
Another highlight of our US holiday.
Written July 2, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Donald S
Comstock Park, MI4,371 contributions
Sept 2022 • Couples
Four of us stopped to look for Route 66 articles. Great place, picked up two shirts and a parka. Spent some time talking to the gentleman who helps run the place. He was super informative.
Written September 2, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Captain Hook
Grimsby, UK422 contributions
Apr 2024 • Couples
We were so lucky to visit this shop on Angel's 97th birthday. Cakes were provided to us and then Angel visited. What a gentleman, what a privilege to meet him.
Classy souvenir shop. Whilst there sign the visitors book and be a part of history.
Classy souvenir shop. Whilst there sign the visitors book and be a part of history.
Written May 9, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Roy M
19 contributions
Mar 2023
Yes, Angel & Vilma's is a gift shop, but it's a special gift shop. What makes in special it's history. It's here where Angel led his fight to get the Mother Road designated as Historic Route 66. Yes, it's well worth stopping. If you're going to pick up some Route 66 memorable, this is the place to do it.
Written March 31, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dash On
54 contributions
Dec 2020 • Family
What an American treasure! Everyone should come and shop at Angel & Vilma Delgadillo’s. We had a great experience getting talk with their daughters who run the shop. They told us all the history. Their merchandise is American made. So come and support this historical treasure.
Written December 4, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
RomeoFernandez
Toronto, Canada69 contributions
Jan 2017 • Couples
My wife and I were on a very interesting but gruelling group tour last January. On our way from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon, while enjoying the off-beaten path road scenery and perhaps my mind was already imagining of what to expect in Grand Canyon, I didn’t catch what our Tour Director might have mentioned about our next restroom and coffee break. As well, our printed itinerary only said, “We will travel along the historic Route 66 where you can possibly ‘get your kicks.”
Because our coach were mostly seniors, as what we normally do on the tour, we headed first to the washrooms as soon as we left the coach. After emptying my gall bladder, it was only then I realized we were stopping at Angel & Vilma Delgadillo’s Original Route 66 Gift Shop and Visitor’s Center. After helping myself with free coffee, I then browsed on various, interesting memorabilia items displayed all over the place
In our travels, I operate my inexpensive digital camera most of the time because I could take pictures faster than my wife. Knowing we had limited time in our brief stopover, I then clicked my camera left and right, with the intention of viewing them at the end of the day or tour.
Perhaps my wife knew something that I didn’t know about the place, she urged that she take a picture of me sitting on what I would learn later, Angel’s historical barber chair. While holding the Information Center’s nicely printed pamphlet, The Birthplace of Historic Route 66, my wife picked up as a keepsake for our travel scrapbook and resuming my browsing over interesting memorabilia items, Mauricio, the son-in-law of Angel and Vilma, approached me with his contagious smile. He provided me information about Angel and what he did that made him respected and popular to the community of Seligman. His genuine hospitality and voluntarily providing me information about Angel impressed me. When I asked what kind of a man Angel at his age now, he told me in the morning, unless Angel does not feel good, the man still enjoys meeting compassionate visitors and receiving their sincere feedbacks make Angel healthy and happy.
Because of the interesting itinerary and gruelling demand of the tour, it was only when we returned home I was able to read the content of the pamphlet my wife picked up. Being a history buff and advocate that one man can make a difference at times, I fully appreciated the historical significance of the old Route 66 and the story of how the Seligman’s community bounced from an economic disaster when on September 22 1978, the newly constructed Interstate 40 by-passed Seligman and replaced the section of Route 66 that had brought the traffic of thousands of cars through town on a daily basis.
The story said livelihood of the businesses in Seligman disappeared in one day. For ten long years the residents of Seligman learned to live on very little. Businesses closed, townspeople moved, buildings were abandoned.
Angel Delgadillo, barber and proprietor of the Delgadillo Barber Shop and Pool Hall, decided he had enough of watching his town waste away. Through his initiative and leadership, he arranged a meeting of representatives from Route 66 towns in Arizona to organize a group to make old Route 66 (from Kingman to Seligman) a “historic” highway. At this meeting the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona was formed with Angel as President.
The story chronicled this was the first Route 66 preservation association ever formed and Angel’s barber shop/pool hall housed the first headquarters for the grassroots organization.
As interest in the cause and Route 66 nostalgia grew, people started to want Route 66 merchandise as travel memorabilia. Now enthusiasts from all over the U.S. and the world come to drive Route 66 and experience a more nostalgic America. The small unique towns along Route 66 have new life and a piece of American history has been saved.
And the story concluded it all started in little barber shop on Route 66 in Seligman, Arizona because Angel, the town barber, refused to watch his town die.
In retrospect, am I glad I took as many pictures as I could about the place and obliged to my wife’s taking a picture of me sitting on Angel’s historical barber chair! In a way, I experienced to be part of Angel’s amazing and incredible role in making the old Route 66 historical and providing economic renaissance to the community of Seligman.
Romeo R, Fernandez
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Because our coach were mostly seniors, as what we normally do on the tour, we headed first to the washrooms as soon as we left the coach. After emptying my gall bladder, it was only then I realized we were stopping at Angel & Vilma Delgadillo’s Original Route 66 Gift Shop and Visitor’s Center. After helping myself with free coffee, I then browsed on various, interesting memorabilia items displayed all over the place
In our travels, I operate my inexpensive digital camera most of the time because I could take pictures faster than my wife. Knowing we had limited time in our brief stopover, I then clicked my camera left and right, with the intention of viewing them at the end of the day or tour.
Perhaps my wife knew something that I didn’t know about the place, she urged that she take a picture of me sitting on what I would learn later, Angel’s historical barber chair. While holding the Information Center’s nicely printed pamphlet, The Birthplace of Historic Route 66, my wife picked up as a keepsake for our travel scrapbook and resuming my browsing over interesting memorabilia items, Mauricio, the son-in-law of Angel and Vilma, approached me with his contagious smile. He provided me information about Angel and what he did that made him respected and popular to the community of Seligman. His genuine hospitality and voluntarily providing me information about Angel impressed me. When I asked what kind of a man Angel at his age now, he told me in the morning, unless Angel does not feel good, the man still enjoys meeting compassionate visitors and receiving their sincere feedbacks make Angel healthy and happy.
Because of the interesting itinerary and gruelling demand of the tour, it was only when we returned home I was able to read the content of the pamphlet my wife picked up. Being a history buff and advocate that one man can make a difference at times, I fully appreciated the historical significance of the old Route 66 and the story of how the Seligman’s community bounced from an economic disaster when on September 22 1978, the newly constructed Interstate 40 by-passed Seligman and replaced the section of Route 66 that had brought the traffic of thousands of cars through town on a daily basis.
The story said livelihood of the businesses in Seligman disappeared in one day. For ten long years the residents of Seligman learned to live on very little. Businesses closed, townspeople moved, buildings were abandoned.
Angel Delgadillo, barber and proprietor of the Delgadillo Barber Shop and Pool Hall, decided he had enough of watching his town waste away. Through his initiative and leadership, he arranged a meeting of representatives from Route 66 towns in Arizona to organize a group to make old Route 66 (from Kingman to Seligman) a “historic” highway. At this meeting the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona was formed with Angel as President.
The story chronicled this was the first Route 66 preservation association ever formed and Angel’s barber shop/pool hall housed the first headquarters for the grassroots organization.
As interest in the cause and Route 66 nostalgia grew, people started to want Route 66 merchandise as travel memorabilia. Now enthusiasts from all over the U.S. and the world come to drive Route 66 and experience a more nostalgic America. The small unique towns along Route 66 have new life and a piece of American history has been saved.
And the story concluded it all started in little barber shop on Route 66 in Seligman, Arizona because Angel, the town barber, refused to watch his town die.
In retrospect, am I glad I took as many pictures as I could about the place and obliged to my wife’s taking a picture of me sitting on Angel’s historical barber chair! In a way, I experienced to be part of Angel’s amazing and incredible role in making the old Route 66 historical and providing economic renaissance to the community of Seligman.
Romeo R, Fernandez
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Written February 22, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Marissa B
Fort Wayne, IN229 contributions
Oct 2016
Angel is the reason Route 66 is alive and well in Seligman! Stop in and say hi and get your photo taken with him. Lots of photo ops. Lots of 66 merchandise. If you have time for a shave, Angel will provide a smooth one for you.
Written October 6, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
andylNottingham_
Nottingham!4 contributions
Aug 2011 • Couples
We travelled "Route 66"in August 2011 , met some incredible people , saw some sites that were breathtaking but meeting Angel was an hounour.The guy was born in the same year as my late father so it was good to talk to someone from that era although worlds apart in many ways.The guy makes sense and has done a magnificent job in keeping links with "66" open.We purchased a few bits while we were there as mementos of the trip,but when we got home i decided to go on-line and order a Christmas gift for my brother Dave who had a haircut by Angel.I asked if Angel would be kind enough to sign the "Route 66" plate that i ordered nad he did.A keepsake to treasure and a memory that will stay with us for the rest of our days.Love and good wishes to all.xx
Written January 23, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Achim4711
Gifhorn, Germany765 contributions
Mar 2022
This stire is more than a gift store. It is a place full of history and a must see for every tourist on the Route 66.
Written April 24, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hello everyone :) Do you know where we can park in Seligman ?
Thank you, we can't wait
Written August 21, 2018
Is there a Promo Code to order gifts online from this Gift Shop?
Written July 3, 2018
They have a website-route66giftshop. They gave me a card that says to use coupon code-GETYOURKICKS- for 10% off entire online order. Says they ship worldwide— hopes this helps
Written July 4, 2018
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