Road trips are by far our favourite way of traveling. We are flexible and able to see everything we want at our own pace. At the same, it’s highly comfortable and most of the time it’s not more expensive than the alternatives bus, train or plane.
Are road trips possible worldwide?
Well, it is possible! But to be honest, there are some countries where it may not be advisable to do so.
We haven’t made a road trip in Asia by car, so far. Traffic is often chaotic, roads are in bad conditions and the traffic signs are hard to read for Farangs like us. Additionally, it’s all about individual tourism here, which makes it easy and affordable to get literally everywhere by bus, train or taxi.
Our first choice: having a car on our own!
But in the rest of the world, a rental car is our first choice. Getting into your car at the airport, turning the music on and enjoying!
Or you take your own car on holiday, depending on how far your destination is. Freedom, flexibility and comfort are just unbeatable.
Luckily we haven’t had any hassles with rental car agencies neither with police and also no accident so far.
With the Travel God’s help, this won’t change!
Even more flexible: sleeping in a tent or in your car
A special kind of road trip: packing a tent in the boot or sleeping in a camper van. The higher flexibility comes with the price of lower comfort.
It’s a good alternative for expensive countries if the climate allows it to do! This year we discovered Norway in our Volkswagen Multivan. This was a very interesting experience for us. Especially for my spoilt wife.
Roadtrip destinations and ‘non-destinations’
Before we present to you our most favourite road trips: New Zealand, Florida, Sardinia and Sicily are great destinations and just short of making it to our top 5 list.
Turkey and Cuba are two destinations where we didn’t and wouldn’t make a road trip. We just read and heard too much about poor rental cars, scams by rental agencies, authorities or other hassles. That’s just not worth it. Besides, in Cuba, getting a vintage car with driver is the better choice by far.
Our top 5 road trips
The following destinations made it on our top 5 list for the following reasons:
- Decent road conditions
- Safety and security
- Having the chance to make the trip affordable (toll fees, gasoline, rental car)
- No hassles with rental agencies and authorities (which means no contact with authorities at all)
- And the most important reason: Being able to drive along scenic routes with lots of places to stop and enjoy the view
South Africa
Just the perfect example for an amazing road trip. We saw so much more than with a tour group or on organized trips. Road conditions are great, the rental car and gasoline are cheap while English is widely spoken. And you are quickly getting used to driving on the left side if you learned to drive on the right.
Iceland
The Icelandic winter is indeed a real winter; we don’t know anything similar in Central Europe.
Nonetheless, we recommend making a road trip. We had a small rental car without 4WD but no problems at all. Road maintenance works perfectly well on the ring road. But you should always take the weather forecast seriously and in doubt ask locals for help.
Discovering Iceland by rental car is an amazing experience and compared to organized tours you will save money and gain comfort.
Balkans
Still some kind of insider’s tip compared to the first two on our list. But we see a rising interest based on the number of clicks on our blog post on Montenegro, which is one of the most popular on our page.
Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro are easily to be discovered by car. Crossing the borders was never a problem and this way we were able to discover some unknown parts of the Western Balkans.
The Alps
Driving in the Alps alone would be a great trip: Mountain passes, scenic routes and outstanding landscape. Additionally, you can perfectly combine it with adjacent areas like the Provence or Slovenia.
Norway/Denmark
If you think about travelling to Norway but don’t want to spend a fortune on hotels, a camper van might be your choice. Or you bring camping gear with you. The possibility to drive on unknown, scenic roads away from most other tourists – priceless! Norwegian laws basically allow you to park and sleep wherever you don’t bother others and don’t destroy the nature. If you like the view, stop and enjoy!
For more photos click here for the galleries!
Where should we make our next road trip? Do you have some insiders’ tips?
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