Some of the most famous road trips have been undertaken by a few friends, heading off for an adventure. Actors Che Guevara and Alberto Granado in the film The Motorcycle Diaries, the Lord of the Ring's Sam and Frodo on the road to Mordor, even a van full of overly caffeinated teens in the novel Paper Towns.
Break tradition by swapping the annual end-of-summer cottage pilgrimage for an unforgettable drive with your best buds this Labour Day weekend. Planning a huge road trip can be intimidating, but lucky for you, we've broken down five of the most legendary routes so you can get inspired to hit the open road or start mapping out your next epic journey, because life is a highway! It's time to ride it.
For a change of pace, how about a road trip to nowhere? The "paper town" in John Green's novel by the same name is a made-up place that the teen heroes must travel to in search of their elusive school friend, Margo Roth Spiegelman. The route travels along the East Coast of the U.S. and is worth it for the scenery alone.
Grab a night's rest in Orlando and then head to the SunTrust Center to follow in the footsteps of John Green's tenacious teens. Drive north to the town of Agloe Delaware, stop off for a couple of selfies before heading on to New York City.
People come from all over the world to make the journey along the famous Sea-to-Sky highway route from Vancouver to just north of Whistler to get the full Canadian adventure experience. As a Canadian, you need to experience this trip at least once in your lifetime as a rite of passage in appreciation of how awesome our country is! Along the way you'll cruise past waterfalls, incredible mountain and ocean views and towering rock faces. Make sure to take your time and stop at some of peaceful coastal towns and of course the world-famous Sea-to-Sky gondola for a breathtaking experience.
The world's first road trip was undertaken by Bertha Benz, a German automotive pioneer who one day woke up and decided to drive her husband's latest prototype (the Patent Motorwagen automobile) from Mannheim to Pforzheim. Benz was accompanied by her two teenage sons and went without the knowledge or permission of her husband, something that was considered rather daring at the time.
Today there is a memorial route in Baden-Württemberg, dedicated to Benz, but if the 66 miles she travelled (at 10 miles an hour) doesn't feel as impressive now as it did in Bertha's day, you can always take a few days to travel along the famous German Autobahn.
Buenos Aires to Bariloche in Argentina
While travelling the entire length of South America might be a bit of a stretch, the first leg of Che Guevara's celebrated road trip is well-worth doing. Guevara started in Buenos Aires and travelled with his close friend Alberto Granado in a journey immortalised in the 2004 film, The Motorcycle Diaries.
From Buenos Aires, travel through the Swiss-style town of Miramar, onto the Argentinian Lake District, stopping off at the lakeside village of Villa la Angostura. Then you can travel on to the gateway to the Lanin National Park, San Martín de Los Andes, and finish your trip in the mountainside town of Bariloche. Finally, spend a few nights admiring the view from the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi.
John O'Groats to London in the U.K.
Any of the motorbike road trips undertaken by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are worth recreating, especially the start of their Long Way Down trip. A straightforward and picturesque route, the famous "end-to-end" journey from John O'Groats, the most northerly point in Britain, to London (or carrying on to Cornwall, if you're feeling intrepid) will take you through some of the most beautiful bits of Britain. The trip takes four to five days, and afterwards you can either fly out to complete the next leg of the journey or play the tourist for a few days in London.
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