Mastering The Art of the Road Trip

This blog post was updated on October 16, 2018.

Traveling by road should be an art form. You must select your subjects or travel companions carefully to ensure interest.

 

You must compose a plan for where you want to go on your canvas, or map rather. And most importantly you must paint a picture as to just what it is that drives you to drive these open roads.

 

If the gas prices aren’t scaring you away from taking a road trip, you can find other ways to feel good about hitting the open road.

 

Road trips are classic travel adventures, filled with memorable episodes and perhaps some incidents we would rather forget. If you are considering a road trip this summer, you will need to master it with these five tips.

 

Look for the weird and wacky—A road trip is nothing without weird and wacky attractions. If you have to go out of your way to find the biggest ball of yarn, do it. As I cruised through the middle of nowhere in Nevada, I saw a strange art sculpture or potential alien burial ground. Regardless, these strange attractions fill a road trip with color. If you just stay in your car the whole time, you are missing the point.

 

Get pulled over by Highway Patrol—Perhaps we avoid this on road trips, but sometimes those exchanges with highway patrol in the middle of nowhere make for the best stories when you get home. On my recent road trip out to California, I was pulled over for going 4 miles over the speed limit and then accused of having drugs in the back of my car. I escaped without a ticket, but those power tripping cop stories are priceless tales.

 

Find the great open road—If there is a stretch of the highway that promises panoramas of nothing but open space for miles and miles, take it. Part of mastering the art of the road trip comes through finding those stretches of road where you might be the only car in a vast landscape of prairie dogs and rolling hills.

 

Play the license plate game—If you are traveling with a group, tensions will flare, as the license plate game gets under way. Spotting the license plates of states thousands of miles away proves rewarding for the spotter. Turn it into a challenge and you can occupy those long days on the road.

 

Stop in seemingly nothing towns—On every road trip, you will pass towns where it might seem inconceivable that anyone could live out in the middle of nowhere. While from the highway, these towns might not look like much, when you need to fill up the car or get some food, make a point to explore these nothing towns. You will find they aren’t so nothing and rather fascinating secrets where giant white bears stand in front of diners and old motels appear lost in time.

 

Looking to hit the open road this summer? Find the best deals on car rentals with OneTravel.

 

Flickr: ejharaldseid