Your Favourite Road Trips?

[darklighter]

Looking for ideas. i've only been on road trips in Melbourne and Perth. Planning to go USA~

 

[coolhead]

How about Iceland? Never a boring scenary.

 

[Shiny Things]

Looking for ideas. i've only been on road trips in Melbourne and Perth. Planning to go USA~

Oh man, this is my time to shine.

There are some amazing road trips in America; you've probably heard about California Highway 1, and you've maybe heard about the Overseas Highway, but I'm going to pick one that's a little lesser known but (in my opinion) even more beautiful and more fun to drive: the Big Five National Parks in Utah.

The route looks like this. Click that link and follow along on the map.

You'll want to do this trip in summer, because there's a lot of mountain driving, and one snowstorm can really mess with your trip. (I did basically this drive with the oldies in April last year and we hit snowstorms three days in a row, including a spectacular one-foot-an-hour storm over the top of Utah 12; we spent an hour crawling along in low gear behind a Toyota Prius that was fishtailing all over the road.)

Start by flying into Las Vegas, but don't stick around too long: rent a car and point yourself west. Half an hour down the road—it's an easy freeway drive, good to get your bearings—is Red Rock Canyon, a very pretty desert hiking spot. It'll be hot, though, so make sure you bring water, and don't spend too long there. When you're done, get onto Interstate 15 and point your nose northeast, toward Arizona and Utah.

A couple of hours up the road is the Valley of Fire - not because it's hot, but because of the wildly colourful sandstone rock outcrops scattered throughout the park, everything from pure white to blood red to lemon yellow. It's so spectacular and so alien that car companies like to shoot their advertisements there; if you're lucky you might (like I did) see a trio of pre-release Chevy Corvettes screaming down the road. It's pretty special.

Hop back onto I-15 north, blast through Arizona, and when you get to Utah, head up the hill toward the cute little tourist town of Springdale. The town sits at the entrance to Zion National Park, one of the first national parks in the US system; it's a peaceful river canyon that's carved its way through thousands of feet of sandstone, creating towering cliffs and lush rock outcroppings. You can—if you're brave—hike the vertiginous path to Angel's Landing, or if you're not so brave you can catch the shuttle bus up and down the canyon, and go hiking in the river itself.

(Springdale pro tip: stay in the Cable Mountain Lodge, which backs onto the park entrance - you can literally walk from your front door to the park entrance, instead of having to cram yourself onto the shuttle bus that runs through town.)

Now you're getting to the really good bit of the trip. Head up the hill, eastward out of Zion National Park (stop and look over your shoulder occasionally, the view is unbelievable, especially in the morning when the sun lights up the canyon behind you), and head north.

After about an hour, you'll turn onto Utah State Route 12. UT-12 is the best driving road in America. California highway 1 is pretty but it's oh so crowded; the Overseas Highway down the Florida Keys has a strict speed limit and it's swarming with cops, but UT-12... it's got something for the low-speed nature lovers, the lead-foot sports-car drivers, it has everything.

You'll feel the air getting a little thinner as you head up to Bryce Canyon National Park - the highest point in the park is nearly ten thousand feet above sea level, and on a clear day you can see for two hundred miles across the eerie "hoodoo" landscape that makes up the park. You can spend a night here or (my preference) potter on down the hill to the cute little cowboy town of Escalante. Don't drive too fast, though: after you pass through the tiny town of Tropic, the road cascades down a spectacular sandstone slickrock hill and dives into a tiny canyon, giving you plenty of opportunity to stop and take vacation photos that will make your friends green with envy.

Escalante is a pretty good place to stop for a couple of days if you're really not in a hurry, because Escalante is a jumping-off point for lots of guided tours and activities; but if you're in a bit of a hurry, Moab's a better place for a two-night stopover.

(Escalante pro tip: the Prospector Inn is dirt cheap and perfectly good. Also, the pizzas at Escalante Saddlery are great, and they sell cute handmade "Esca-Latte" coffee mugs that make great souvenirs.)

Twenty miles down the road from Escalante... look at this. Just look at this.

This is The Hogsback, where the road narrows to two lanes and runs along the top of a mountain range with three-thousand-foot drops on each side, down into a valley with views for miles in each direction. Pull over. Stop. Take a look. Take a glamour photo of your car. There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world. This, right here, is why UT-12 is such an amazing drive.

Once you're done at the Hogsback, the scenery changes again. You climb up to the highest point of the drive, nearly ten thousand feet above sea level, then drop four thousand feet through aspens and conifer forests to the little town of Torrey, where UT-12 becomes UT-24. Point your nose east, because there's a lot more to see!

Just outside of Torrey is #3 of the Big Five national parks: Capitol Reef National Park. You can blast straight through it in half an hour if you want, but you should stop: admire the towering rocks that form the "reef", see native rock art lining the canyon walls beside the road, and pause for a while in the little orchard that marks one of the first attempts to colonise this harsh land in southern Utah.

As you drive through Capitol Reef you'll see the terrain abruptly change again. Two hours ago you were in a verdant alpine forest, one hour ago it was rich red rocks, now it's harsh white desert as far as the eye can see. The road follows the only source of water for miles - a thin river bed with a trickle running through it - and twists up and down through the desert to Hanksville, a dry desert town where you'll want to head north.

Now if you're a revhead like me, you'll love this stretch from Hanksville north to Interstate 70. It's forty miles of arrow-straight blacktop, with almost no cars, and a good five or six miles of visibility each way so you can see who's coming. So if you've wanted to test what your rental car's top end is like... you know what to do.

Once you get to Interstate 70, head east, and follow the signs to Moab. Moab's a very cool little town, and you should spend a couple of nights here; you can use it as a base for exploring Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, #4 and #5 in the Big Five. Congratulations, you've punched your passport... but there's more to come!

(Moab pro tip: stay on the north side of town. It's closest to Arches, closest to the town centre, and there's a bunch of nice little chain motels (Hampton, Comfort Suites) right on the main drag.)

From Moab, you've got a choice. You can either double back toward Las Vegas, which takes you right past the back entrance to Grand Canyon National Park, or you can head even further east, through Durango (where you can ride the charming Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad high up into the San Juan mountains), Santa Fe (with its cute 17th-century town square and a great museum of Native American art), and Albuquerque, where you can hop on Interstate 40 westbound and ride it almost all the way back to Las Vegas.

If you go through Albuquerque, there's a few bonuses on the way back: Petrified Forest National Park, home of the Painted Desert; Meteor Crater; the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff; Antelope Canyon if you can spare a side trip up to the tiny town of Page; the South Rim of the Grand Canyon(!); and the Hoover Dam just before you arrive back in Las Vegas.

(Grand Canyon pro tip: the little town of Cameron, near the east entrance to the park, has a great Native American trading post with tons of unique souvenirs and a great native-influenced restaurant.)

You can do this loop in a week-and-a-half, though two weeks is better - and you'll have vacation photos and memories that will make all your friends jealous.

 

[sendtolee]

@Shiny Things

Great itinerary and description.

Can you give the budget you had spent for this trip?

Since there are 5 stops, which hotels did you stayed for this trip?

Did you rent your car from Hertz?

Many thanks.

Have a great weekend...

 

[sendtolee]

Looking for ideas. i've only been on road trips in Melbourne and Perth. Planning to go USA~

How about New Zealand?

I did a month trip there covering North and South.

One trick I learnt from road trips is many car rental companies wanted to return the cars to the original franchaise outlet. So most of the times, they give free rental and petrol and you can choose to extend by a few days by paying a nominal sum.

 

[danielkok]

Scotland has some really pretty sights. You can start in Edinburgh, head north towards Sterling, then continue north west and end up at Isle of Skye. Along the way you've got Glencoe region, many other small towns. On the way back, you can head towards Inverness, go along the east coast towards Aberdeen, then back south towards Edinburgh.

Notice I skipped Glasgow. Hehe.

 

[Shiny Things]

@Shiny Things

Great itinerary and description.

Can you give the budget you had spent for this trip?

Since there are 5 stops, which hotels did you stayed for this trip?

Did you rent your car from Hertz?

Many thanks.

Have a great weekend...

1) Spitball $200-$250 USD a day, covering accommodation, food, travel, etc. Accommodation's going to be a big chunk of that, depending on where you stay.

2) My accommodation recommendations might be different from yours, depending on your budget and your tastes. I'm assuming you want pretty nice (but not ridiculous) hotels, and don't mind paying up a bit for quality, and I'm limiting this to places I've actually stayed at:
Vegas: Mandalay Bay or the Vdara.
Springdale: Cable Mountain Lodge; if that's full, the Desert Pearl Inn.
Bryce Canyon: not a lot of options here. The Bryce Canyon Grand Best Western is OK, but it's worth pushing on to Escalante and snagging the Prospector Inn, just because the dining options up top of Bryce are so abysmal.
Moab: Meh. I've stayed at the Comfort Suites and the Hampton and they were both fine.
Durango: the Doubletree. Get a room facing the river.
Santa Fe: the Hilton on the Plaza.
Page: Again, meh. The Marriott Courtyard is fine.

Other random towns: chain motels (e.g. Hampton, Holiday Inn Express, Best Western, Comfort Suites) are everywhere and they're usually fine because the chains set the standards. Just fire up Tripadvisor and see what it recommends; it's never steered me wrong.

3) I've rented from Hertz before, because I'm a giant petrol-head and Hertz has some pretty hot metal (Corvettes, AMG Mercs, etc), but they're also horrendously expensive. Your mileage may vary.

 

[darklighter]

Scandinavia and NZ; those are definite ones man. Thanks all for sharing, but do keep it coming!

P.S. i can't do no normal tours anymore!

 

[gerdhold]

I find California highway 1 overrated. Plenty of better coastline drives elsewhere outside of USA.

My favourites are:
The entire cape peninsula + Chapman's peak drive south of Cape Town


Amalfi coast

Adriatic coast between Split, Croatia and Kotor, Montenegro

Worth mentioning also the Gorges du Dades between the Atlas Mountains and the edge of the Sahara is also epic

 

[sendtolee]

Scandinavia and NZ; those are definite ones man. Thanks all for sharing, but do keep it coming!

P.S. i can't do no normal tours anymore!

Hi...

Please share more on the itinerary...

Thanks and have a good day.

 

[sendtolee]

I find California highway 1 overrated. Plenty of better coastline drives elsewhere outside of USA.

My favourites are:
The entire cape peninsula + Chapman's peak drive south of Cape Town


Amalfi coast

Adriatic coast between Split, Croatia and Kotor, Montenegro

Worth mentioning also the Gorges du Dades between the Atlas Mountains and the edge of the Sahara is also epic

Hi.

How manys days and estimated budget you spent on those road trips?

Thanks and have a good day.

 

[lunafan]

Glad to have found this thread. I guess it depends on what you want to see and who you are travelling with? I did road trips in Malaysia, Australia and Iceland. All are vastly different in experience.

Malaysia - JB > Muar > Melaka > Port Dickson > KL > Cameron Highlands > Ipoh > Penang
Spent around 7 days for entire trip. Lots of familiar food along the way. Affordable stays and cafe hopping. Get to visit cool mountainous area, city, small towns. Quite enjoyable trip with family

Australia - Brisbane > Gold Coast
Very short road trip done in 3 days. Went to natural reserve, theme park and enjoyed the beach. Good for family trip or adrenaline junkies (theme park + sky diving)

Iceland > Reykjavik > Golden circle > Vik > Hof > Hofn > Seydisfjordur > Myvatn > Husavik > Akureyri > Snaefellsjoekull peninsular > Blue lagoon
12 days round the island honeymoon road trip. Lots of beautiful scenery and enjoyed the vastly of nature. IMHO the best road trip I done so far. Felt a bit rush as 12 days isn't really sufficient to fully cover everything along the way.


Yet to try:
-Hokkaido
-New Zealand
-Scotland
-US Route 66
-Southern Australia
-Germany

 

[gerdhold]

Hi.

How manys days and estimated budget you spent on those road trips?

Thanks and have a good day.

Can't remember the budget on those. Developed countries are approximately similar except Europe which has much higher fuel costs and parking.

Cape peninsula - 2-3 days, rest of the trip you can drive to the winelands

Amalfi coast - 3 days. Prepared for traffic jams in summer. I rode a motorcycle for that trip so i breeze through everything.

Adriatic coast - about 1wk minimum.

Morocco - at least 1wk for the Atlas Mountains. If you want to do the cities and sahara you need minimum 2 wks

 

[touchme]

yup, the 4-5 days route after grand canyon, towards monument valley/ bridges/arches/escalante/capitol reef national parks and looping back thru Dixie/cedar/bryce/Zion and back to LV is indeed awesome.

You climb up and down landscapes of different terrains/spans /colors/temperature, inc snow at Dixie/Cedar forest (October). 7 full days of vastness and uluness around canyons/mountains/ravines/lakes roundabout LV. A route less traveled by most US visitors/locals.

 

[beanstalk6]

I just completed a 6-day road trip in Malaysia. JB-Klang-Sekinchan-Cameron Highlands-Ipoh-JB. Well worth the experience, especially with a toddler on board.

 

[BlurKillerEX]

Did road trips in Aus Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand. Have to say NZ is hands down my favourite. Especially driving in the south island, it's f*cking magical. I started at Nelson, drove down to the West coast, cut in through Arthur's Pass to Christchurch. From there I went towards Mount Cook, then down to Wanaka and Queenstown. From Queenstown you can decide whether you want to drive up to Te Anau where you can base yourself while exploring the fiordlands

 

[darklighter]

Scotland has some really pretty sights. You can start in Edinburgh, head north towards Sterling, then continue north west and end up at Isle of Skye. Along the way you've got Glencoe region, many other small towns. On the way back, you can head towards Inverness, go along the east coast towards Aberdeen, then back south towards Edinburgh.

Notice I skipped Glasgow. Hehe.

Went for this since the inception of this thread with my girlfriend. It is a great first destination for a couple

Edit: OH YA! I DID WEST COAST OF USA TOO!

 

[DarthKool]

Did a drive from Isle of Arran to Nairn in Scotland this July, felt like I was in LOTR with dramatic clouds. Regret did not have time to stop more. Good cheap oysters and whisky on that path

 

[Shiny Things]

Seconding Scotland. Did a loop a few years back: basically Edinburgh-Loch Lomond-Glencoe-ferry to Skye-Kyle of Lochalsh-Loch Ness-Inverness-St Andrews-Edinburgh — and it was some of the best driving roads I've ever been on. (Didn't hurt that the conveyance of choice was a 911 Turbo...)

The west coast of Ireland was magic as well, but it doesn't exactly lend itself to chucking a sports car around the bends.

 

[arfness]

Would love to do these road trips you guys have done, sounds amazing.

A couple of mine:
As mentioned before PD -> KL -> Cameron , good fun over a few days.

South Africa: Somewhere NOT in cape town

Start in Johannesburg and drive about 9 hours down to the middle of the country, we stopped off at Aliwal North, just some random town, literally for the stop over.

After that we headed towards Hogsback, 4-5 hour drive into a mountainous town, beautiful scenery high up, thick forests, amazing hiking, highest tree in the eastern cape, 36m tall and over 800 years old. Great accommodation ranging from hostels/backpackers to great non-chain hotels.
This is the area where allegedly JRR Tolkein got his inspiration for Lord of the rings. He was south African but never returned after left at 3 years old, it is said that he got the info from his maid and brother who visited the area who sent him back pics, descriptions etc. It's all a maybe, but i could definitely see why. It is magical.

After that we headed off to the coastal town of Gonubie, some fantastic beaches and a great little town to party at.

Then it was drive down the eastern cape coast which, as usual is great (not as nice as the Garden route thou). there are loads of national parks and little coastal towns a long the way to explore.

We ended up at Jefferys bay, a laid back surfer town where the Billabong pro is held due to the fantastic surf, known as the super tubes, monstrous beasts as well as great beaches.

From there it was back home up through the mountainous driving and karoo.

2nd: Trip to Mozambique
Started in Johannesburg again and went up towards Kruger park, spent 2 days there see'ing the big 5 and animals, then it's a short trip across the border into Mozam, we stopped off in Maputo for a night as the next leg is long.

Drove Up through Mozam to our next stop, Xai Xai, a good 9 hour drive great little town with a beeg lake to do all sorts on.

Then on wards again to our final destination Inhambane, awesome beach town where you can rent out big holidays homes or stay in the hotels. The homes usually come with a helper who cleans, gives you great info about the surrounds. In the mornings you will get the locals who have caught fresh seafood (Prawns and fish), its really cheap and they'll clean them for you then you can chuck them on a BBQ. They also bring around freshly baked Portuguese bread rolls. The sea and beaches are out of this world. Awesome little beach bars and lots of activities to do.
The driving can be a little scary and the police are d#cks but its all part of the experience