Setting out on a solo road trip can be a freeing and empowering experience, offering unparalleled freedom and the chance to discover new places and maybe even a bit more about yourself in the process.

That being said, there’s no denying that cross-country road trips can often be filled with seemingly endless hours of driving which can see boredom creep in to compete with your excitement.  

Thankfully, there are a number of ways you can transform these quiet miles into periods that may actually enhance your trip or at the very least keep you entertained during the downtime transiting between destinations on your road trip itinerary.  

From in-car entertainment to unique ideas for road stops to break up long periods of monotonous driving and prevent boredom, let’s explore how to make every moment of your journey an enjoyable one next time you’re planning for a road trip.

Planning For All That Downtime on Your Next Solo Road Trip

Plan Scenic Routes or Detours

One of the easiest and best ways to keep boredom at bay is to make your daily drives interesting. Keeping your mind engaged with constantly changing scenery that’s actually enjoyable to look at will make time spent driving feel much quicker. Unlike major highways, scenic roadways have character and create more interactive driving where you must navigate winding roads, changing elevations, and often cut through a range of different landscapes.  

Research scenic byways and lesser-known routes that may offer beautiful natural views or interesting landmarks. Many regions often have dedicated tourist routes that take in notable small towns, quirky roadside attractions, or scenic lookouts.

Scenic routes are made even more enjoyable if you are able to time your road trip to take in natural seasonal events like autumn when the trees are ablaze with colour or spring when wildflowers or cherry blossoms in are full bloom.

Scenic routes not only often provide your very own nature documentary in real time right if front of your eyes, but also tend to be more relaxed and less prone to traffic than many highways or more popular travelled routes. You are also likely to increase your chances of spotting local wildlife along the road by opting for a scenic route or detour.

Before setting off on your road trip, go out and get an old-fashioned atlas as well, since physical atlases often highlight scenic routes, historic landmarks, and lesser-known attractions that digital maps often overlook.

While GPS and digital maps are convenient, an atlas offers a tangible connection to the journey, allowing you to see the bigger picture of your route. Use it not just for navigation but as a tool to learn about the destinations and regions you’ll pass through.

And don’t be afraid to mark up your atlas, since marking out your planned routes, jotting down notes, and highlighting favourite spots or interesting things you came across can create a personalised travel keepsake that will allow you to relive your road trip later on.

Become a Photojournalist

While most of us take photos while traveling, they often end up being a random serious of snaps that we post on social media without any organisation. Why not change that and become a sort of amateur photojournalist where you actually tell a story with your photos.

Becoming an actual photographer as opposed to simply someone who takes photos here and there not only provides a creative outlet but also gives you another purpose on your road trip. Create a goal of images you wish to capture or simply allow fate to run its course and document those moments to tell a story.

Constantly being on the lookout for photo opportunities makes you more observant and attuned to your surroundings, helping you not only appreciate the journey more but also makes the time go quicker.

Photographing your trip helps create a visual diary of your experiences, which you can then plan to share on social media with friends, family, or followers if you have them. The key is to post daily in chronological order so as to make people feel as though they are tagging along with you for the journey.

Simply create a visual daily diary with your images or perhaps consider focusing on a specific themed photo project such as roadside oddities, beautiful skies, impressive bridges, notable rivers, etc.

The pursuit of photographs not only fills downtime while your actually taking pictures, but can then also fill downtime later on at stops or in a hotel when you go to review what incredible shots you managed to take and possibly wish to edit.

Meals on Wheels: Equip Your Vehicle with Snacks

Never underestimate the power of good snacks on a road trip. A well-stocked supply of your favourite treats can make long stretches of driving much more enjoyable. Packing your car with snacks not only helps fill downtime and prevent boredom, but it will also boost your mood and energy levels while driving.

Eating snacks regularly helps maintain your blood sugar levels, preventing energy dips and keeping you alert. Certain snacks, like chocolate, can also trigger the release of endorphins, which improve your mood during those especially long stretches of straight road that are often inevitable.

Having snacks and planning out intervals to eat them will also give you something to look forward to, almost creating a reward system for completing a set amount of driving whether that is a certain number of miles or duration of time.  

When packing snacks, you want to bring easy-to-eat options that won’t create a distraction if you plan to eat while driving. You will have more flexibility of course if you plan to pull over for stops to have snacks. Bring a mix of sweet, savory, crunchy, and chewy snacks to keep things interesting and to satisfy your different cravings.

Individually wrapped snacks like protein bars, fruit snacks, and jerky are easy to eat on the go. If you happen to have a portable cooler, you can then include snacks like individual yogurts or a sort of on-the-road, snack-sized charcuterie board of meats and cheese you pack.

And for a few health and safety tips when snacking while driving, be sure to keep snacks within easy reach while driving so as to not interfere with driving. Have plenty of bottled water handy as well in the car to keep you hydrated during daily drives and in case you experience a vehicle breakdown and are far from a town.  

Pack snacks in single-serving portions to avoid overeating and keep snacks fresh with resealable bags, tupperware, or coolers.

Create a Road Trip Playlist

Creating a music playlist to fill downtime is hardly a unique idea, as road trippers have been resorting to music to fill downtime while driving ever since the ability to play music in vehicles was invented.

No road trip is complete without a killer playlist. Music has the power to boost your disposition and keep you from nodding off. Take some time before your trip to curate a playlist that captures the spirit of your journey.

Organise your playlist into themed periods such as upbeat tunes to wake you up on those early morning drives, more relaxing tracks for when you want to wind down during evening drives, and perhaps a mix of nostalgic songs thrown in to help you relive fond memories to take your mind off monotonous stretches of road.

It’s always a good idea to include a diverse mix of music styles such as rock, pop, indie, jazz, classical, and hip-hop to keep things interesting. You should also use a road trip as an opportunity to listen to genres you normally wouldn’t, to see if you’ve been missing out.

If you know your favourite artist(s) are releasing new tracks, maybe hold off on listening to new releases so you can treat yourself to their new tunes during your road trip, giving you something to look forward to.

And because road trips often mean multiple days of long driving, ensure your playlist offers enough songs to not only get you through a single day’s driving, but also many days so as to not have to constantly be listening to repeated tracks. Utilising shuffle mode will also help keep playlists unpredictable and therefore more interesting.

Lastly, think about including music from local artists of the destinations you will be traveling to, which may allow you to feel a stronger connection with the culture of the regions you visit.

Listen to Podcasts

Podcasts are yet another fantastic way to stay entertained and engaged when you’re riding solo on a road trip. Hearing human voices talk in the car with you can help you avoid feeling lonely. There are endless podcast choices these days, ensuring you’ll be able to find a topic that intrigues you whether its history, science, sports, birding, true crime, comedy, navigating relationships, etc.

Be sure to download a variety of episodes  and switch up topics for different days to keep things interesting. Have a mix of podcast lengths so you can choose ones that are suitable for the lengths of drives you have planned.

You have the option to select podcasts with compelling narratives and captivating storytelling to keep you hooked, or maybe you want to find one that teaches you a new skill. There are podcasts that will help you learn a new language, how to improve your chess game, assist with personal development, or how to improve productivity and business skills in your career

Record Voice Notes for a Travel Journal

One of the advantages of being alone in a car on a solo road trip is the ability to not only sing your heart out to songs on the radio without being judged by passengers, but also record voice notes without feeling embarrassed by others in the car.

Recording voice notes while driving can be an excellent way to keep a detailed travel journal of your experiences. You’ll be able to record your immediate thoughts and observations of travel experiences while they’re still fresh in your mind. This will allow you to later write travel journal entries that are much more vivid and detailed.

Using voice recording to save your thoughts is ideal for when you’re on the road and need hands-free things to keep your mind occupied. You can easily record voice notes these days thanks to smartphones with memo apps or voice-activated assistants, which are readily available and simple to operate.

Voice notes require much less effort than writing, especially during long drives, and can be more efficient for capturing lengthy thoughts. They also allow you to share and save spontaneous and detailed descriptions of travel experiences in real time as you encounter them if you wish.

Simply transcribe and edit the voice notes later when you have more time, turning them into a well-written travel journal you can keep for personal use, share with friends and family, or to help you create engaging and comprehensive travel articles for travel blog posts you can share online.

Use folders or tags to better organise your recordings by date or location in order to make it easier to find various recordings and transcribe them later. Maybe also mention the date and time in each recording as a backup to ensure you can keep notes in chronological order.

Sample Local Cuisine with a “Food Crawl”

You may have heard of a pub crawl where you hit up a number of bars in a single night to sample drinks, but why not plan a “food crawl” on your road trip that focuses on sampling local food specialties at roadside restaurants to introduce yourself to new adventurous flavours you may have never tasted before.

Research various restaurants and cafes along your route that may offer authentic local flavours and then plan your road trip stops around them. Or you may be fortunate to have a local festival or weekly market that’s happening where you might be able to catch food stalls selling a wide range of unique local produce and culinary creations.

Just as seeing new scenery keeps things interesting on a road trip, so too does discovering new and unique foods. And engaging with local food vendors or restaurant owners and staff often results in gaining interesting facts about the local area, with advice on things to check out while you’re passing through.

Hunt for Things You Collect

And our last recommendation goes out to all those collectors who have a passion for collecting something, whether it’s coins, stamps, postcards, antique bottles, books, or various antiques. Seek out shops that may sell whatever it is you collect, and plan stops to browse for a hidden treasures to add to your collection.  

Not only will you get to add another piece to your cherished collection, but items acquired while travelling often hold an added significance as they allow you to recall your travels. You often find too that you may be able to find items on the road while travelling that were otherwise hard to locate in your own hometown or even online.

You will of course be able to pick up items that are significant to the local area as well, such as books written by local authors, art created by local artisans, and local historical items that have a story to tell.

Shops selling collectible items are often locally or family-owned, meaning you will be supporting locals and be able to bring home more unique or one-of-a-kind souvenirs from your road trip.