Image credit: Shutterstock/Monkeybusiness Images
There’s nothing like the freedom of the wide, open road. Whether you’re hitting the highway in a hire car or meandering through national parks in a motorhome, if you want to see the world on your terms, self-drive holidays give you the freedom and flexibility to do that, and then some.
So, grab the map, pop on your favourite playlist, and wind down the windows because the following five reasons to go on a road trip are guaranteed to get you in the mood for life in the happy lane.
Get under the skin of a country
Choose from famous routes in breath-taking places, like the USA’s Route 66. This legendary length of tarmac stretches for almost 4,000 kilometres from Chicago to California, crossing through St. Louis, Oklahoma, and Albuquerque, and allows for short detours to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas along the way.
It’s a route packed with blues, jazz and country bars, wide-reaching prairie grasslands and verdant river valleys. Classic images of Americana range from restored gas stations and roadside diners to glowing motel signs and memorabilia museums. You can pull over in Spanish-era old towns and learn more about life in New Mexico as well as discovering the deep-rooted heritage of Native American culture.
Completing the trip in Santa Monica is the cherry on the cake, with those beautiful beaches and LA boulevards providing excuses to celebrate just before you hand back the keys.
The Garden Route in South Africa is another of the world’s most desirable routes. This spectacular stretch of Indian Ocean coastline from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth is one of the world’s best loved.
Enjoy a couple of days of sightseeing around Table Mountain, Camps Bay, and Boulders Beach before picking up the keys and setting off to the seaside town of Swellendam. The region’s rolling wine estates and semi-arid Karoo Desert plains can be seen along the way, and you’ll have a chance to watch whales in Hermanus or visit the penguins at the Stony Point Nature Reserve.
From here, the journey continues around the East Cape where you might discover seals sunning themselves on secret stretches of sand and gourmet beachside restaurants serving up superb seafood suppers. Once you’ve driven through the ancient forests and river valleys in Tsitsikamma National Park, you’ll reach Port Elizabeth – where Victorian-era neighbourhoods give way to beautiful Eastern Cape beaches.
We asked Saga Travel Destination Specialist, Julian Lawman, which road trip route he felt ticked all the right boxes.
“My favourite road trip from our self-drive collection is the Civil Rights & Rhythms of the South," he says.
"It met every iconic image that I had about the region – music, food, history, culture – and exceeded every expectation."
Lawman flew into Charlotte and headed up into the Great Smoky Mountains for visits to Dollywood and the college town of Asheville, where he visited the Biltmore Estate (the largest private residence in the USA, built in the style of a French chateau).
"From there I did the Jack Daniel’s Distillery tour, spent two nights in Nashville enjoying the live country music, and then detoured off the interstate to the famous Loveless Cafe for a breakfast fit for a king," he says.
Next up was Memphis for a couple of nights, a visit to Graceland, and the National Civil Rights Museum. From Memphis, he drove down through the Civil War sites of Vicksburg, and along the Mississippi River to see the antebellum homes and riverside plantations of Natchez.
"A little detour into the swamps and bayous of Louisiana revealed a unique watery world of alligators and birds before I finished up in the Big Easy, New Orleans," he concludes.
Get someone else to organise it!
Planning the perfect road trip requires a whole lot of research. Where you stay, what to see and how long you’re going to spend behind the wheel are all things that need to be taken into consideration. That’s why choosing an organised self-drive itinerary, where all the legwork’s been done for you, bridges the gap between doing it all yourself and having the security to travel with confidence.
Not only that, but you’ll be safe in the knowledge that your itinerary includes all the highlights, not to mention those hidden gems that only true travel specialists and locals know about.
“Organised trips make the research process effortless – the broad route is pre-planned for you (in terms of your ‘A to B’) but you still have the flexibility to plan your day and go wherever you fancy," says Lawman.
He continues: "You can also relax knowing your overnight accommodation is arranged each night (so no pulling off the interstate and hoping you can find somewhere to stay).
"Saga’s self-drive itineraries can be tweaked in line with your requirements, so if you want to stay longer in a particular place, skip somewhere that you’ve maybe already visited, amend your route to take in a place that’s of particular personal interest, change your accommodation, upgrade your vehicle – all of this is possible.”
That’s another thing about organised self-drive tours: they always include lots of lovely surprises that you might never have thought of yourself.
The perfect holiday for explorers
Lawman recommends the following to ensure you have the best self-drive holiday you can.
Road trips come in all sorts of shapes and sizes
Create your dream itinerary
If you think self-drive holidays are designed to keep you on dry land, think again!
Why not enjoy a Caribbean cruise after completing a road trip from Miami to Fort Lauderdale? You’ll get to see all the highlights of the Sunshine State as well as the beautiful beaches of the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
Or, if you’ve got plans to drive around the great parks of the west in Canada, there’s no better opportunity to take a cruise along the Alaskan coast once you’ve given back the keys to your motorhome or rental car in Vancouver. Driving through the Rocky Mountains is one thing but cruising in Glacier Bay and College Fjord as well as wildlife watching in Denali National Park is quite something else.
Whether your perfect beach holiday is just sun, sea and sand, or if you like a bit of sightseeing, shopping or snorkelling thrown in, one of these might be your ideal destination.
Jetting off to Italy’s ‘Eternal City’? We reveal the best places to visit in Rome, from ancient temples to al fresco dining with a view.
A different destination every day - why a river cruise could be your perfect summer holiday.
