Ode to the Road Trip: Why a Detour Beats Every Other Summer Holiday Travel Plan
Photo Maserati
Take to the road and enjoy a freedom you’ll never experience by plane or train, says Detour’s founder Nik Berg.
“All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road,” wrote Jack Kerouac.
I may have missed the Beat Generation, but my Seventies’ childhood did prepare me for a life of road trips. We used to drive everywhere. Sightseeing in central London or day trips to the countryside, local or international, short haul or long haul – we’d drive it all.
I would often be bundled into the boot of our family estate car with the luggage and my father would drive one-handed as he lit cigarette after cigarette and we covered mile after mile. It was a different time of course and today we – rightly - take our health and our safety rather more seriously. Our roads and our cars are safer than ever, with high tech features to feed us valuable information and make driving easier and more relaxing.
But what hasn’t changed is the romance of the road trip. The freedom that Kerouac’s Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise craved, the dream of the open road, the escape from the everyday that, even in the 21st century, only independent car travel can offer.
When you take a road trip your route is your own. Go from A to B via C, D and E if you wish. Your final destination isn’t determined by landing fees or passenger demand. And it is your final destination, a door-to-door journey without connections.
Your time is your own. No two-hours for check-in, no need to plan around a train timetable. Go when suits you. Stop when suits you.
You can be spontaneous, impulsive. Turn left instead of right. Break for coffee, climb a mountain.
There’s no ‘chicken or fish’ with plastic forks, no paying above the odds for a shoddy sarnie and a cold tea. Make a pit stop to eat where and when you wish – a village tearoom or a Michelin-starred restaurant. After all, it was Michelin that invented the original guidebook in 1900, with the rationale that if people drove more, they’d need tyres more often.
Pack light, pack heavy, pack what you like, not what fits in an overhead locker or can be manhandled along a station platform.
Photo Nik Berg
Pay less for more passengers. The more seats you fill, the cheaper your trip becomes per person as the difference in fuel costs for a full car against an empty one is negligible. And changes to your plans aren’t subject to a fee.
Avoid the crowds. No more standing in line at security with thousands of others breathing down your neck. And only take your shoes off if you want to.
Enjoy the privacy and comfort of your own personal space. Spread out and adjust your seat with no armrest animosity. Set the temperature to your liking or crank the windows, open the sunroof and take in the air. There’s no need to worry about noisy neighbours and loud announcements that interrupt your conversation or choice of entertainment.
And what a choice of entertainment you have with modern technology. With a smartphone paired to your car’s infotainment system the options for music, podcasts, audiobooks, games and videos (for passengers only of course) are limitless. The ever-changing view from the window was all I had as a child and hours would pass as I daydreamed about when I would be the one behind the wheel.
Ever since that day arrived, I have never found myself bored when I’m driving. Even on the longest of motorway hauls I find it easy to maintain focus, by making every manoeuvre a challenge, every lane-change so smooth the passengers won’t notice and keeping a keen eye on other road users to anticipate any issues. Modern cars have plenty of advanced technology to help here, you’re still in control, but with a helping hand.
When the road is more twisty and less-travelled I enjoy nothing more than precisely carving corners, exploring a car’s performance and improving my own performance with every new driving experience.
Photo Pietro di Grandi / Unsplash
I have driven vast distances alone in all manner of cars, dispatching hundreds of miles without break, taking a sometimes almost masochistic pride in the challenge of endurance, rewarded only with a sore bum and a good story.
But the best road trips are those that are shared with friends and family. The time spent in conversation that takes as many turns as the road. The audio books or podcasts that become talking points for years to come. The discoveries of new music or rediscoveries of old tracks and the hidden gems you find along the way, whether that’s a detour to dip in a lake or a first taste of black pudding in a roadside café. Even wrong turns and breakdowns only add to the experience – in retrospect, at least.
Road trips make memories, tales to tell and inspire others to follow in your wheel tracks.
Finally, when you do reach your destination, there is a sense of achievement of having got there independently. You made your choices; you took your time. You did it your way.
And the best part is you get to do it all again on the way home.
Photo Nik Berg
Take to the road and enjoy a freedom you’ll never experience by plane or train, says Detour’s founder Nik Berg.