Road Trips

By Lonely Planet

Buckle up for a big adventure.

A regional guide to Europe's best road trips
Lonely Planet
Packed with ancient history, sophisticated cities, cultural treasures, fine food and even finer art, Europe has an embarrassment of riches and is a dream for all kinds of travellers. And with landscapes
Road-tripping through Hill Country: Texas’ up-and-coming vineyards
Lonely Planet - Regis St. Louis
One of America’s great unsung wine regions lies right in the heart of Texas. Hill Country may be better known for barbecue, but its rich soil has proved ideal for producing top-quality vineyards. There
Unforgettable road trips on Australia’s East Coast
Lonely Planet - Charles Rawlings-Way
Australia’s East Coast offers plenty to get excited about for road-tripping explorers. Along sun-bleached blacktop, you’ll find picture-perfect beaches, hip cities, lush rainforests, the Great Barrier
Road-tripping Sweden’s sublime Bohuslän Coast
Lonely Planet - James Kay
Drifting across the mirror-still surface of a shallow bay in Kosterhavet, Sweden’s first national marine park, the reason why the Bohuslän Coast beguiles visitors becomes as clear as the water barely beneath
Behind the wheel: our best European road trips
Lonely Planet
To mark the launch of our latest Best Trips book we asked Lonely Planet staff to share their stories of times spent on the road. Ever the adventurous bunch, these daring drivers recall time spent navigating
Travel gear reviews: perfect kit for road trips
Lonely Planet - David Else
It’s just you, a set of wheels, a full tank of gas and the wide open highway; it's easy to see why a road trip is the essence of travel for many people. In our latest gear reviews, we look at a range kit
Road trip: Toulouse and the architecture of southwest France
Lonely Planet - Anita Isalska
Southwest France is chock-full of crumbling abbeys, medieval villages, and Gothic churches that blush gold in the sunlight – you just have to know where to look. Setting out from the pink city of Toulouse,
5000 years in 5 days: a historical trip through Ireland's Ancient East
Lonely Planet - Catherine Le Nevez
The Emerald Isle might be small in size but it packs a powerful historical punch. Hit the road on a fascinating five-day trip through the picturesque landscapes and villages, towns and cities of Ireland's
San Luis Obispo: the perfect pitstop on your California road trip
Lonely Planet - Tim Richards
There’s nothing like an American road trip, and the coast road between Los Angeles and San Francisco offers one of the best. Hitting the wide open road between these two cities, you’ll encounter ocean
Unexplored Spain: road-tripping around Extremadura
Lonely Planet - Isabella Noble
Often overlooked and underrated Extremadura is, in fact, one of Spain’s most fascinating regions, a mix of world-changing history and contemporary culinary delights. This Portuguese-border-hugging homeland
Game of Thrones to the Gobbins: Northern Ireland's Causeway Coast
Lonely Planet - Paula Hardy
Northern Ireland has never had to contend with dragons, white walkers and the chill of an endless winter. That hasn’t stopped its wild landscape scoring a starring role in HBO’s Game of Thrones. Driving
Arizona's top five scenic drives
Lonely Planet - Amy C. Balfour
Back roads. Byways. Scenic highways. Arizona is chock full of them. Here are five of our favorites. Route 66: small-town America, with a side of kitsch 'Get your kitsch on Route 66' might be a better for
How to road-trip Canada on a budget
Lonely Planet - Benedict Walker
Canada is big and beautiful, but climate, distance and the high cost of domestic travel make it hard to get to know her. Having the freedom to throw your stuff in the trunk and set off as you please makes
The Grand Canyon: how to get the most from a short trip
Lonely Planet - Andy Murdock
On my first trip to the Grand Canyon, I made a classic rookie mistake: part of a longer road trip, I didn't give myself much time and I didn't do any advance research, so I ended up with a version of Griswold
On the road in remote Chile: ways to conquer the Carretera Austral
Lonely Planet - Carolyn McCarthy
Whether by foot, two wheels, or four-wheel drive, the Carretera Austral is an iconic challenge and a journey through South America’s most sublime end-of-the-world landscapes. Among the world's finest trips,
Hokkaidō road trip: exploring Japan's wild north
Lonely Planet - Rebecca Milner
With its wide-open spaces, national parks, active volcanoes, forests of silvery beech, forlorn coastlines and remote fishing towns, Hokkaidō is ideal for road trips. Japan is famous for its efficient system
Italy's six best road trips
Lonely Planet - Duncan Garwood
With a network of well-maintained roads that weave through a landscape of snow-capped peaks, plunging coastlines, lakes and historic towns, Italy offers plenty of epic driving. And while some routes are
Highs and lows of the 395: road tripping down California's highway of superlatives
Lonely Planet - Clifton Wilkinson
US highway 395 is California's backbone. Running east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, it's also a road of superlatives: highest, lowest, hottest, deepest, oldest – the 395 passes close by a whole
Albanian road trip: history behind the bunkers
Lonely Planet - Larissa Olenicoff
Having spent nearly half of the 20th century isolated from the rest of the world, Albania remains somewhat a land of mystery, only recently making its way onto European travel itineraries as an offbeat
South Dakota's best scenic drives
Lonely Planet - Ryan Ver Berkmoes
With jaw-dropping scenery and hundreds of miles of winding roads, western South Dakota is a driver’s playground. These top routes make up some of the state’s best scenic drives. The region is rife with
From highway to high waves: five offbeat coastal road trips
Lonely Planet - Etain OCarroll
California's Big Sur and Australia's Great Ocean Road may get all the headlines when it comes to coastal driving but they're not the only places where you can lose yourself in spectacular scenery, glowing
Beyond the dunes: road-tripping Mongolia's Gobi Desert
Lonely Planet - Stephen Lioy
Giant sand dunes fringed by sun-scorched valleys. Primordial fossils hidden within flaming-red cliffs. The sun setting pink and purple over a Mongolian yurt. Few experiences bring together offbeat adventure
Botswana: the rewards of self-drive safaris
Lonely Planet - Anthony Ham
Botswana may have a reputation as the most exclusive safari destination in Africa, but it does offer an incredibly tempting alternative to the fly-in, upmarket-tented-camp experience: the more budget-friendly
A road trip in the Peloponnese
Lonely Planet - Anna Kaminski
No other part of Greece combines stupendous mountain scenery and scenic hikes with deserted, pristine beaches and an incredible wealth of ancient sites like the Peloponnese. After all, this is where gods
The Golden Ring: a road trip through the heart of Russia
Lonely Planet - Leonid Ragozin
East of Moscow lies the land of small historical towns, ancient onion-domed churches, gingerbread cottages and largely unspoilt countryside, all in sharp contrast with the imperial megalomania of Moscow
Driving Egnatia Odos, Greece’s modern ancient highway
Lonely Planet - Chris Deliso
One of the most fascinating drives across Greece is the 670km journey from the Turkish border crossing of Kipi in Thrace to Igoumenitsa on the Ionian Sea. Known as the ‘Egnatia Odos’, after the ancient
Arabian sights: road-tripping in Oman
Lonely Planet - James Kay
Oman is hot right now. Not as in boiling (although it can be at the height of summer when the mercury touches 40C); hot as in 'of the moment'. Its star has risen steadily thanks to a carefully nurtured
The Pan-American Highway: join us on the ultimate road trip
Lonely Planet - Clifton Wilkinson
Ask your friends what their idea of a cool road trip is and you’ll get some great suggestions. South of France in summer in a convertible. Safari in Africa in a jeep. Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Picking the right set of wheels for a classic road trip
Lonely Planet - Steve Waters
There's nothing quite like the freedom of the open road – but, whether it's a Sunday drive through the timeless back roads of the English countryside or a continent-spanning overland epic, you’ll need