There is nothing like taking a drive in the Carolinas.

For anyone who loves the experience of driving along a country road, this year’s Art Trek Tryon open studio tour offers all of the Saluda, Mill Spring and Tryon favorites and some new routes.

Tryon Arts & Crafts School is a sponsoring gallery again for this year’s Trek, which kicks off with a preview party from 5-8 p.m. Friday,  sApril 26, and continues with tours of 36 participating artists’ studios and galleries on Saturday, April 27, and Sunday, April 28.

For the first time, the Tryon Arts & Crafts School is displaying work of some of the artists who regularly use its facility on Harmon Field Road as their studio space.  Five artists will greet visitors there during the Trek.

Take a turn down Palmer Street in downtown Tryon and you will find five artists giving demonstrations in various spaces at Thompson’s Garden Gallery and Outdoor Living.

Pop-in one doorway down from Vines and Stuff, in the Shops of Tryon, and you can enjoy the paintings of Vicki Van Vynckt.

In Landrum, artists James Cornell, Carol Beth Icard, Mike Hayes and Marie-Christine Maitre de Tarragon met recently to discuss preparing a welcome for visitors to their town and to their studios.