Five top global road trips

It’s a timeless image, the open road, wind in your hair and music up loud as you drive by the last service station for 100km.

Long, straight highways with young men in souped up autos or a vintage classic tootling along windy hill roads. But, for all the masculine imagery the road trip conjures up, it was a female driver who started it all.

The young wife of revolutionary German car designer, Karl Benz, decided on the morning of August 5, 1888 to secretly take one of her husband’s cars and pop out to visit her mother.

Taking her two boys with her, this epic 106km journey is believed to be the first attempt at long distance driving and set in place the idea of the road trip. On her travels Bertha Benz also created demand for the first petrol station when she called into a chemist to buy fuel, and roadside assistance when a local blacksmith helped to repair a broken chain.

In 2008 the 194km, circular route was clearly marked out by the German government, making it easy for visitors to follow Bertha’s trip. Her memorable journey takes you around the wooded hills of the Black Forest in Bavaria between Mannheim and Pforzheim, passing Heidelberg and Weisloch enroute.

The classic image of the road trip has to be the 3666km stretch between Chicago and Santa Monica, Los Angeles on Route 66. The road was first opened in 1925 and finally decommissioned in 1985, when it was replaced by the faster Interstate Highways.

Today, with a little research, it’s possible to travel this famous road, which is still festooned with period petrol stations, faded advertising hoardings and seedy, neon lit motels.

Although no longer the main route across the United States, this evocative journey has lost none of its potency. The Historic Route 66, as the song tells us will take you through Saint Louis, Joplin, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Flagstaff and Winona, until its final destination at Santa Monica.

This road trip is pure 1950s nostalgic Americana, passing weird and wonderful attractions, breathtaking natural sights like the Grand Canyon and plenty of family run restaurants that boldly claim to serve the best pie in the states. Route 66 has to be the definitive road trip for anyone keen on travel.

While the United States is synonymous with road trips, Australia also possesses some of the most beautiful and challenging drives through wonderful landscapes. One of the destinations that holds a place of special interest, purely for its location in the middle of the country, has to be Alice Springs.

The 1500km journey between Adelaide and Alice Springs takes you into the spectacular outback, visiting the opal mining town of Coober Pedy and onto Australia’s iconic landmark, Uluru.

Alice Springs is ‘only’ a five-hour drive from Uluru but the area beyond is packed with interesting walks and places to visit such as Kings Canyon. To get a real taste of the outback you’ll want to get off the main highway at some stage, where a 4x4 wagon or ute will make some of the rougher surfaces more bearable.

The Mille Miglia was, from 1927 until 1957 a famous 1000 mile, Italian road race from Brescia in the north to Rome and back. In 1982 the trip was reinstated as a classic car tour and now covers the thousand miles at a more sedate and leisurely pace.

This gorgeous Italian road trip takes you around romantic Verona, Ferrari’s hometown of Modena, beautiful Florence, Bologna, Siena and the streets of Rome.

If, in March, you manage to join the official race, you’ll be driving a vintage vehicle and in every town you will experience the strange combination of medieval pageantry and 20th century automobile mania as only the Italians can pull off.

The Ho Chi Minh trail links Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh City and was the hidden web of roads, paths and tracks through the jungle during the Vietnam War. It was used by the North Vietnamese to move soldiers, weapons and supplies southwards and covered some 17,000km criss-crossing the countryside.

While many of these routes are once again returning to nature, parts of the trail have now been made into a comfortable highway, which makes it a lot easier to travel.

Although at present purists can still get off the beaten track and meander the original networks, riding over the Annamite Mountains, through Kon Tum and Ma Thuot, and take in the beautiful, tranquil countryside.

And while there are still many remnants of the war littering the roadsides and paddy fields, you can also visit welcoming traditional villages and ancient temples.