i find it really easy when i just get in the car & make turns. i will make a left then a right or straight. i’ve gotten lost a few times but its worth it!!! sometimes you end up in unusual places<33

so just do it…it doesn’t mean you have to have a completely empty mind. if you only have one day…figure out how far you can go. look at a map and see what is reachable where you have never been, look for an interesting route to that place. bring good music, good food, good attitude and take backroads wherever possible

I can do nothing better than share my experience. I was young (about 20), had a few weeks off, had some money. I was planning to stay at my parents cabin together with a friend for a week, but we heard the call of the highway. We were in the car and I said to him, “are you thinking what I’m thinking?” He grinned and said, “Yeah, let’s go.”

So we picked up our bags with toothbrushes and extra clothing and drove south east from Norway, all the way to Germany. We got to Hamburg before midnight and tried to find a cheap hotel. We found one, then went to get the bags from the car a few streets back, couldn’t find the hotel again. So we drove all night to Luxembourg.

In Lux, we ate hamburgers, then went for Paris. We stopped for a few hours in Reims. Nice place.

We stayed two nights in Paris and then drove back home. Good experience.

We were young, with not a worry in the world. Europe seemed a safe place to go wild. The world was our oyster for a few days.

It was good to have a friend to take along. We were young enough to either drive all night or sleep in the car if accomodations would have been hard to arrange.

Top tip: Either have a lot of money, of very few needs. And bring a friend.

Sarah, the goal is to go somewhere unplanned. Just say “I’m going on a drive” – and go. Don’t expect that you’re going to do anything but drive. Stay off freeways and highways – aim for the back roads. Bring a phone, some $, some munchies, & water. Don’t go if you have somewhere to be in four hours; you’ll be watching the clock. Another way to take an unpredetermined road trip is to have a destination, but make it far away and don’t take any direct routes to get there. Have fun!

pick a certain color car and follow someone else until you get somewhere interesting. or choose a letter and follow a car whose number plate starts with that letter.

or have a list of places you would like to go but never get to, and pick one out of a hat and just go.

i agree with the snacks and drinks too- nothing completes a road trip like coke and lollies. :)

It’s hard with only a single day… – I did this over a week and a bit, and just chose where I was going on to the next half of the day… – often stopping before I reached where I had intended to go.

With a single day I’d say get onto a motorway and drive until you find an exit that interests you…

How do you go about it? You get in your car pick a direction and just go with it. I got in my car and went North took every Rt and Highway that said North and just went and stopped at every random place that intrigued me along the way.

Remember, this is for you. Don’t do it because you have to, but because you want to. If there’s a destination you’ve been wanting to go, then go. You can always do the random stuff some other time.

If you do go random, plenty of good suggestions above. Take your time. Make your choices on what looks interesting to you. Have a map of the area(s) with you, but don’t refer to it until it’s nearing time to go home.

I’m a planner, so going on a roadtrip without any plans was weird for me too. My trick was that I did have a plan (sneaky me) but it was just a completely unreachable one. I’m good at thinking up unreachable plans. So after a few hours of driving I realised I was never going to get to the place I had thought of at first and then I had to improvise. And you just take it from there basically.

I did a roadtrip for about 5 days and had a great time going about it this way.

I once had this vague and cheesy idea of doing a sort of experiment. I felt trapped by my need to plan and overthink everything in my life, so I decided that while I was traveling, I would say “yes” to every whim I had and take every opportunity offered to me.

So when I drove past a turnoff for some little dirt road and wondered where it went, I drove down it to find out. When I saw a little roadside diner and wondered how their coffee was, I stopped to try it. When a thought of the ocean popped into my head, I went to the ocean. If a stranger in a new place said hello, I smiled and asked for ideas about things to do there. If I saw a beautiful meadow by the road, I stopped to eat my lunch there.

This is easiest to do alone or with a very easy-going friend. Fill up your gas tank, take water, snacks, a cell phone, a map, some good music, a blanket (for random picnics or unexpected cold), a little cash (the best roadside attractions won’t take plastic)... and keep an open mind.

I think we are all very capable of impulsiveness and randomness. The key is learning to trust it and go along for the ride that your thoughts take you on. It’s always worth it.

I say just do it! You can still have a basic plan, say pick an x number mile radius and then get off at any place that sound sinteresting or peaks your curiousity. Just thinkk of it as an adventure, have fun with it. It’s only one day so you aren’t going to end up anywhere you can’t get home from, right? SO no worries just go :-)

Just do it! It’s okay to have some planning, but just get on the highway and drive through the countryside maybe, or a forest, and enjoy the ride!

play the road trip by ear. if you want it to have no predetermined destination, you obviously cannot be planning where you’ll end up or how you’ll get there. bring a few of your favorite CDs, one or two bottles of water, a cell phone, possibly a blanket, and some cash. don’t bring any food and dont bring a map. thats the ultimate experience of a road trip with no destination. when the mood strikes for some food, take an exit you’ve never taken, head to a grocery store or gas station, and get what you’ve gotta get. you end up running into some pretty charming people that way. be nice to them; hold a mini-conversation and tell them that you’re just going for a drive. maybe the’ll give you a few ideas on where to stop. otherwise, typically, most grocery stores or gas stations have maps; if you dont feel the clerk is friendly enough, stop and take a look at a map. find out where you are & how far away from home you are.

just keep your eyes & mind open.

My friend and I decided a few months ago that we wanted to go on a road trip over spring break. First idea: Seattle. We were in San Diego.

So we took off. A little before the trip we decided we wanted to go to Vancouver while we were that close anyway. So we did.

The one thing we did that made the trip that much cooler was not sticking to our goal. We were rather open as to where we spent the time and whether we made it to Vancouver at all. It didn’t matter. It was a fantastic trip.

For a day I’d recommend something like “hmm, there’s this tiny town I keep seeing on the map but have never seen, it’s close enough to go there and come back in a day, I’m going.” And then go.

Enjoy! :)

(Pic is the odometer reading for the trip. :D)

Get on the freeway and pick a direction by flipping a coin.

Drive, baby.

If you see something interesting, take an exit and check it out.

Or take an exit that you’ve never taken before, and explore.

If you don’t know which road to take, flip a coin.

If you get lost, don’t worry! Remember that the route to civilization is going from dirt road, to gravel road, to paved road, to paved road with lines painted on it. When you see a road where all the crossing roads have stop signs, get onto it and you will eventually see civilization. If you run into a flashing signal light, go in the direction that is flashing yellow.

And don’t be afraid to stop at a business or gas station and ask. You’ll be able to meet a lot of awesome people.

Also, if you don’t want to go very far, just start flipping a coin at an intersection by your home, and explore your city. You can find new businesses and cool little areas that way.

One thing though… you must get out of your car and explore whatever catches your fancy.

Do this enough, Sarah, and you might catch wanderlust, and not need a coin to flip anymore!

(oh, and always make sure you have enough gasoline :) )