Travel by plane, train and ship is amazing – each in its own way. But for most of us, there might be no more freeing form of travel than when we settle into our own car for a good old fashioned road trip.

In what other form of modern mechanical transportation do you have full control? You decide how fast you want to go, when you are going to leave and return and, perhaps least importantly, where you are going.

On the City-Data forums BECLAZONE posits that, for him at least:

…the journey should be the best part of any outing, and driving/looking around, be a large part of any holiday/vacation.

Road trips planned and unplanned become the topic of this discussion, with some leaning heavily toward the unplanned approach.

Most of my vacations have consisted of flying somewhere and then getting a rental car and hitting the road. Then at the end of each day I look at the map and decide where to head the next day. One road trip I covered 5 states driving over 3,000 miles. A couple of times during that trip I would pull over when coming to a junction and flip a coin to see which way I would go next. ~Alaskan Mutt

there is nowhere I wouldn’t go, just to drive. I pretty much live for the serendipitous road trip (avoiding Interstate highways/other limited access freeways wherever possible, of course). I try to undertake one major trip a year, though it doesn’t always work out. Two years ago I managed a 3,500 mile round trip circuit through the south. This year, in a few weeks, I’m driving from Denver to San Francisco and then down to L.A.

 

I also try to take at least one weekend a month to just drive around, even if it’s just taking a completely new route to or from somewhere I’d be traveling to anyway. ~that412

Flipping a coin at an intersection to determine one’s next turn – that is really letting the wind take you where it may.

Of course, for many others the destination actually does matter. For those road trippers there is a “sister” discussion taking place on TripAdvisor centered around an article listing the “11 Coolest Small Cities It’s Time To Road Trip To.”

Me, I think I’m more of an unplanned road trip kind of guy. But work obligations and limited time off makes the planned road trip much more practical.

What about you? Have you ever taken an unplanned road trip, just following the center line to wherever it takes you for the night?

Read both threads in their entirety: Is There Anywhere You Would Go, Just To Drive? and 11 Coolest Small Cities It’s Time To Road Trip To..( in USA)