It’s no surprise that I love traveling, and in all these years of traveling across the world, I’ve been on every possible kind of trip – from backpacking to luxurious cruises; traveling by train, buses, on a plane or more recently sailing on a cruise ship. However, if there is one type of holiday that I love the most, it’s going on a road trip! For me, road trips are the most fun to plan and they excite me like nothing else can. I find there’s almost a therapeutic quality to being on the road and exploring new, unknown places. You know how they show it in the movies – a couple of friends randomly hop into a car, drive somewhere, roll down the windows, turn up the music and cruise into new adventures! Ah, there’s nothing better than a good old fashioned road trip.

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Today, I want to share with you the reasons why I think road trips are the best way to travel and why you should plan one NOW.

Road Trips Create Memories That Will Last A Lifetime

This is quite an obvious point but it’s worth stating. I don’t think it’s possible that you go on a road trip and come back without interesting stories. After all, road trips are full of discovery and adventure. They have their good moments and their bad, but overall you can be absolutely sure that you’ll create memories that you can talk about with friends and family for years to come. For instance, I still talk about my 14-day honeymoon road trip in New Zealand where we had hired a campervan and on the very first day we had a small accident since we weren’t used to driving that big a vehicle. It wasn’t anything major but I remember every detail of it and it makes for an interesting narrative

Road Trips Help You Get To Know Your Co-travelers Better

This one’s another favorite reason I love road trips. When you’re on the road for 20 hours or so, you will end up talking a lot. Whether you’re traveling with a group of friends, your family, or even just your spouse, conversations are bound to happen. And you have all the time to discuss everything under the sun. It’s been said that if you really want to know someone, travel with them. This is absolutely correct and more so if you take a road trip with them. All the interesting stories I know about my friends’ or spouse’s childhood, college days, past relationships, their life philosophies are mostly through road tripping with them.

You Discover Things About Yourself

Road trips always seem to turn on the introspective side of my brain. It’s not surprising since there is no rush to reach a destination, no distractions, no stress. It’s a great opportunity to learn about yourself: how flexible, spontaneous or adaptable you are, how you react to different situations, how much you appreciate and connect with nature, how you adjust to changing altitude, how you relate to people when you’re not stressed and much more.

You Rediscover What’s Really Important

We are often so busy in our daily lives that we tend to forget what really matters to us and what makes us truly happy. It’s not the material things, but the different experiences we have that make us who we are. Yes, travel does need money, but you don’t need a lot and you can get creative with it.

Over the years, as my husband and I have traveled on the open road, driving through rainstorms, seeing rainbows, green meadows dotted with grazing cows, and spending more time outdoors, we’ve together realized that these are the kinds of things that make us happy and that we’ll be talking about when we’re older. To experience it together – with a loved one – and have that to look back on – is a priceless gift.

It Encourages You To Be Spontaneous

Other forms of travel tend to be strict in terms of schedules and timing. However, with driving, you have complete and utter control regarding how long the journey will take, when you get there, when you leave, and so on and so forth. This means you are more likely to try new things and explore new places, especially those off the beaten path. You might have a planned itinerary of things you’ll do on the way, or stops you’ll make, but when you’re actually driving, you’re bound to come across places that you were unaware of. There’s always something new to be discovered. A new place, the countryside, new attractions, or even extraordinary eating places which you would not have experienced otherwise. Every time I go on a road trip, I end up doing more things than I had initially planned. I can never forget how we randomly discovered an amazing Indian Punjabi style Dhaba restaurant (typically a roadside restaurant found on the highways in India) while driving through West Texas on our way to New Mexico. The food was delicious, the owners made us feel like at home and we ended up spending almost two hours there. That’s the great thing about road trips!

Flexible Schedules

I’m not sure about you but I always experience a bit of anxiety whenever I have to catch a scheduled flight, train or bus. With road trips, schedules take a back seat. When you’re driving your own vehicle, departure and arrival times don’t matter. You can choose your own pace, pack everything up in your car, and zoom off. There is no stress of reaching the airport on time, checking-in baggage, and standing in the long queue for security checks.

You Can Travel Frequently

Road trips are the easiest and most convenient way to travel. You have to agree to this – if you take road trips, you end up traveling more often. Realistically speaking, you can’t always go on a distant exotic beach or island vacation. That needs a lot of planning, budgeting, advance bookings etc. But that doesn’t mean you have to stop traveling. If you choose to do road trips, you can always go to places you haven’t seen – near or far. Plus, there is always the opportunity to plan a trip last minute and just drive off.

Pack Everything You Want

This one’s another favorite of mine! Now, I really try hard to travel light, but I’ll be honest with you, I suck at it! It’s obvious then that I love road trips because road trips don’t come with a baggage limit. When you’re planning a road trip, you can pack everything you want or need, and even things you don’t actually need. This is a really important factor if you’re traveling as a family with kids. There’s space for everything – car seats, comfort toys, loads of clothing, favorite food and drinks, and anything and everything you can think of. You don’t need to make any tough decisions here!

Pack Your Own Food

This is again important if you’re traveling with kids. In fact, even without kids, if you have your own favorite food with you, there’s always an opportunity for an impromptu picnic at one of the rest areas or when you come across a beautiful spot on the way. It saves time and money, and is healthy too! I’m not saying you should not eat at restaurants, after all eating local is also part of experiencing a place. But carrying some food or even something to munch on while driving is great.

They Are Cost Effective

One of the great things about road trips is that you get to experience so much but you do not need to spend a fortune. Road trips are much more economical when compared with going on a cruise or taking a flight. Road trips can actually be as expensive or as budget friendly as you want them to be. If you are thinking about buying a new car for your road trip, there are so many funding options available to you, including bad credit car loans. Of course, you may also decide to rent a vehicle if your current one is not suitable for a road trip. If you do, just make sure you choose a model that will go easy on fuel use.

When it comes to accommodation, you can stay in motels, hotels, campgrounds if you’re driving a camper or even choose tent camping. Basically, you can tailor your road trip adventure to suit your comfort level and budget. We always have our camping gear ready in the car if and when we choose to camp on our road trips.

There are so many reasons why road trips are great for you. They are the perfect medicine for a tired soul. Of course, not everything will go as planned but that is when adventure and thrill kicks in. Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, said:

For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.

I completely agree with him. Go on a road trip, and when something inevitably goes wrong, be spontaneous and enjoy every second of it. Trust me, it’ll turn into a memory you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

Where do you want to go on your next road trip?

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