Road trip guides
Road trip guides & tips
Everything for the drive itself — what to pack, what to play, what to eat and the apps worth installing before you set off.
Road trip fun
Road trip games
The right games turn a long drive from an endurance test into part of the holiday. These road trip games need little or no equipment, work for kids and adults, and keep everyone entertained without anyone reaching for a screen. Pick a few favourites before you set off and you'll never hear "are we there yet?" again.
Read guideRoad trip tools
Best road trip apps
The right apps make a road trip smoother — from planning the route and finding a bed for the night to navigating dead-signal valleys and keeping the car entertained. These are the best road trip apps by job, so you can build a small toolkit rather than juggling twenty downloads. Start with a planner, add offline maps, and fill the gaps from there.
Read guideCamping guide
Car camping and boondocking
Car camping and boondocking open up a freer, cheaper way to road trip — sleeping where the day ends instead of racing to a booked campsite. This guide covers the difference between the two, how to find spots, what to pack, and how to stay safe, legal and respectful so these options stay open for everyone.
Read guideRoad trip food
Road trip snacks
Good snacks are the difference between a happy car and a fractious one three hours from the services. The best road trip snacks travel well, don't melt or crumble everywhere, and can be passed round without a knife and fork. Pack a mix of savoury, sweet and a few healthier options, keep anything that needs chilling in a cool box, and you'll dodge both the hangry slump and the overpriced motorway shop.
Read guideRoad trip fun
Road trip songs
The right road trip songs turn a stretch of motorway into a moment worth remembering. A great road trip playlist has range: something to belt out when everyone's awake, something cinematic for the open road, something chilled when the miles are piling up, and a handful of classics nobody can resist. This guide groups the best road trip music by mood so you can build a playlist that matches the journey rather than just sounding good in the kitchen.
Read guide
Road trip planning
Road trip essentials
A good road trip lives and dies by what you remember to throw in the boot. Pack well and the miles look after themselves; forget the basics and you're paying motorway-services prices for a phone cable and a meal deal. This is the complete road trip essentials checklist — the car, navigation, comfort, food, safety and paperwork — written UK-first and easy to screenshot before you set off. Skim it the night before, tick off what matters for your trip, and leave the rest at home.
Read guide
Family road trips
Road trip ideas for kids
A long drive with children is a different sort of challenge to a quiet adult road trip — but it can still be one of the best parts of the holiday. The trick is to go in with a plan rather than hoping a tablet lasts the distance. These road trip ideas for kids mix no-screen games, hands-on activities, audio and a sensible snack-and-stop routine, so the miles pass with far fewer cries of "are we nearly there yet?". Pack a small bag of tricks, build in proper breaks, and the journey becomes part of the adventure instead of the bit everyone dreads.
Read guide
Road trip fun
Road trip questions
There's a particular kind of conversation that only happens in a moving car — no eye contact required, nowhere else to be, and hours to fill. The right road trip questions turn those hours into the part of the trip you remember. This is a big bank of conversation starters grouped by mood and company: deep ones for the quiet stretches, daft ones for when energy dips, would-you-rather rounds for the whole car, and tailored sets for couples, families and kids. Screenshot the ones you like, keep them in your pocket, and pull them out whenever the chat runs dry.
Read guide
Road trip fun
Road trip bingo
Road trip bingo is the rare back-seat game that keeps everyone watching the world go by rather than a screen. Each player gets a grid of things to spot out of the window — a red lorry, a sheep, a castle, a level crossing — and races to tick them off as they appear. It needs almost nothing to set up, scales from toddlers to grandparents, and quietly turns a long, samey stretch of road into a treasure hunt. This guide covers how to play, ready-to-use spotting lists for both motorways and country lanes, and a few rule tweaks so a four-year-old and a competitive teenager can play the same game without anyone storming off at the services.
Read guide
Road trip fun
Road trip scavenger hunt
A road trip scavenger hunt is the simplest way to turn a long, samey stretch of road into something everyone actually wants to look at. Each player works through a list of things to spot from the car — a red postbox, a horse box, a castle on a hill, a number plate ending in a 7 — and ticks them off as they appear. It needs nothing but a list and a pair of eyes, scales from toddlers to grandparents, and quietly keeps the whole car watching the world go by instead of asking how much longer. This guide has ready-to-use scavenger hunt lists for motorways, country roads and towns, simple rules and scoring, and easy tweaks so a four-year-old and a competitive teenager can play the same game without anyone falling out at the services. Copy a list straight onto your phone or screenshot it before you set off.
Read guideRoad trip tools
Best road trip planner
Most road trips begin in Google Maps, hit the ten-stop cap halfway through day one, and leave you wondering what the rest of the internet is using. The right road trip planner removes that ceiling: unlimited stops, organised by day, with notes, booking references and a shareable link so everyone knows the plan. This guide looks at the best road trip planners, explains where Google Maps falls short, and helps you choose the right tool for the way you like to travel.
Read guide
Camping guide
Wild camping in Northumberland
Northumberland is one of the most tempting corners of England to sleep under canvas: empty fells, the cleanest night skies in the country, and a coastline of dunes, castles and wide pale beaches. But wild camping here isn't the free-for-all some assume — England isn't Scotland, and the law is stricter than the scenery suggests. This guide explains where you actually stand, where responsible wild camping is realistically tolerated, how to leave no trace, and the reliable campsites that make a perfectly good — and legal — base when wild camping isn't an option.
Read guide
Family road trips
Family road trip
A family road trip is one of the cheapest, most flexible holidays going — the freedom to stop where you like, the boot crammed with everything, and a back seat full of people you mostly like. It can also unravel into a hot, fractious crawl with someone crying before the first services. The difference is almost never luck; it's planning. Get the routing, timing and stops right and pack the car so the things you need are within reach, and a long drive with children becomes part of the holiday rather than the toll you pay for it. This guide pulls together the family road trip tips that make the real difference — how to plan the days around the kids, a stop strategy that resets everyone, what to feed them, how to keep them entertained without surrendering to a tablet, a packing checklist you can screenshot, and age-by-age notes for whoever is actually in the back.
Read guide
Road trip inspiration
Road trip ideas
The hardest part of any road trip is often deciding where to point the car. The best road trip ideas aren't just a list of pretty places — they're routes with a clear character, so the drive itself becomes the holiday rather than the bit in between. This guide groups our favourite road trip ideas by vibe: wild coastlines, mountain passes, foodie wanders, history-soaked routes and dark-sky escapes, with UK-first picks then a few further afield. Whether you've got a free weekend or a fortnight, find the idea that fits your mood and follow the linked itinerary to turn it into a real plan.
Read guide
Trip inspiration
Road trip destinations
The best road trip destinations aren't just places to arrive — they're places where the drive is the holiday. The right one matches the time you've got, the season and the kind of trip you're after: a wild coastal loop, a string of mountain passes, somewhere dark enough to see the Milky Way, or a bucket-list route abroad. This guide rounds up our favourite road trip destinations, grouped by the kind of trip they make, with a ready-to-drive route attached to each so you can go from "that looks amazing" to a real plan. We've led with the UK and Ireland — most of these are a tank of fuel from home — then added a handful of international classics worth the flight.
Read guide
Route inspiration
Best road trip routes in Europe
Europe is built for road trips: a continent of hairpin mountain passes, cliff-edge coast roads and storybook villages, all close enough together that a fortnight can take in glaciers, beaches and vineyards. These are nine of the best road trip routes in Europe — coastal classics, white-knuckle alpine passes and gentle touring roads — each with its length, the highlights, the best time to go and an honest note on how demanding the driving is. There's a section at the end on the practical side of a European road trip for UK drivers, from which side of the road you'll be on to vignettes and tolls. Pick a route, block out the dates, and start mapping the stops.
Read guide
Road trip fun
Road trip trivia
Road trip trivia is the easiest way to turn a long, quiet stretch of motorway into the best half-hour of the journey. There's no kit to pack and nothing to download — one person reads out questions, everyone else shouts answers, and suddenly nobody's asking how much further it is. This guide is built to play straight from your phone: ready-made banks of questions with the answers, grouped by category and by difficulty so you can pitch it right for whoever's in the car. There's an easy warm-up round for mixed ages, a tougher set for adults, a whole bank of travel and geography questions to suit the occasion, and a quick guide to running it as a proper team quiz with scores. Hand the phone to whoever's not driving, pick a round, and away you go.
Read guide
Road trip tools
Best road trip cars
The best road trip car isn't the flashiest one on the forecourt — it's the one that's still comfortable after six hours, swallows everyone's luggage and doesn't leave you sweating over the fuel gauge on a remote stretch. There's no single right answer: the ideal car for a coastal cruise with two of you is rarely the one for a family of five chasing the school holidays. This guide covers what actually matters in a long-distance car, our favourite picks by category using models you can buy in the UK, and a quick pre-trip checklist to run before any big drive — whether you're taking your own car or hiring one.
Read guide
Road trip fun
Road trip games for adults
Once the kids' games have run their course — or it's just grown-ups in the car — you want something with a bit more bite. These road trip games for adults need no equipment, no screens and no printouts: just your voices, a decent memory and a willingness to be a little competitive. We've grouped them by type — verbal sparring, memory and list games, story-building, and bets on what the road throws up — with how to play each and tweaks for couples versus a full car. Pick three or four favourites before you set off and the miles take care of themselves.
Read guideRoad trip planning
Scenic road trips in the UK
Britain has more scenic road per square mile than it has any right to. The Highlands alone deliver more wild coast and mountain scenery than most European countries manage across hundreds more miles; add Northumberland's castle coastline, Cumbria's mountain passes, the Kerry cliffs and the lush north coast of Spain within a channel crossing, and the UK is one of the world's best road trip destinations. This guide brings together the best scenic road trips available from the UK — Scotland's great loops, England's classic drives and the Irish and European routes that pair well with a ferry or channel crossing — grouped by region and character so you can find the right route for your time, your vehicle and the landscape you want to see. Each entry links to a full planning guide with a day-by-day itinerary, best time to go and practical tips.
Read guide