The Great Aussie Road Trip can be double or even triple the awesome when you change a couple of basic things about your approach and how you view the whole scenario.
How to have a kick-ass road trip in Australia
Grab some mates, close or not (you’ll all be best or worst mates by the end) and get out there on the tarmac. You’ll have the best trip ever! If you don’t have a car you can always arrange car rental in Melbourne or from wherever you live.
- Make plans but not rigid ones – and be prepared to change ‘em!
If you’re driving to a schedule (and most of us are, sadly, much as we’d love to hit the wide open road with nothing but a map and our faithful hound/lover/mixtape) at least plan so your driving time is eight hours or less every day, and don’t plan much else besides that.
If you do that, your trip will be filled with awesome adventures down winding roads and finding things, instead of worrying about whether you’re going to reach Perth in time. Hint Perth is exciting, but it’s always going to be there.
- Don’t research your stops too much in advance
What we mean by this is this: When you don’t know what’s in store for you or what’s coming up next at a stop, you can’t in any way, shape or form be let down or disappointed! You’re always going to have the best damn time, precisely because you have no idea what the hell is happening in the next spot!
Plus, the tourist guides and stuff usually only spruik the big touristy stuff, so make sure if you do research stuff that you look on blogs, in article and in the local news for each town so that you get the true awesome stuff, and not the tired old stuff that they want you to see…
- Discover the “world’s biggest” EVERYTHING
Ok, so if there’s one thing you’re permitted to seek out in the touristy guidebookit’s the ‘Big something’ – like the Big Sheep, the Big Pineapple… You get the idea. If it’s big, you NEED a photo of yourself hunkered down in front of it throwing some serious shade at the camera. Go for it. Look stupid. You probably haven’t showered for a few days anyway right, so why the hell not look dumb as well as smell bad?
- Bring a real map. And a pen.
Google Maps is wonderful for driving highlights and for following a basic map, but the real fun comes with an honest to goodness real live, reach out and touch it, map.
- Pack light so there’s space to grab more crap with you as you go
You’re totally going to stop at pretty much every single op shop and variety store on the way, and you’ll probably find a whole heap of stuff from roadside growers. You might even find the object of your dream on the road trip and wouldn’t it be a HUGE shame if you couldn’t bring it with you because your boot or car was already brimming with crap?
- Get a fuel card
You’re gonna be buying a hell of a lot of petrol. It would make sense to get a fuel card so you can get all the access to all the awesome stuff you’re going to experience. If you were going on a huge overseas trip you’d totally get frequent flyer points and stuff, right? Same deal with a fuel card.
- Bring only a few CDs or tapes
This one is a bit of fun, because if you have a driving compilation made up, and if you hear the songs a couple of times, every time you then hear one of the songs in the future when you’re languishing in your office or in traffic on the way home from work it’ll transport you back to the fun times of your road trip right away.
Are you ready for an Australian adventure? Visit DriveNow first to read more travel tips and to know how you can save on your car rentals. With DriveNow, you can compare car rates and book one that fits your budget.