The road trip is on the rise. Recent research from travel site Kayak.com found that car hire searches from the UK have surged 10 per cent year on year, meaning more of us than ever are being tempted to opt for an adventure behind the wheel.
But road trips and children don’t always mix. Forget the thrill of the open road. That thrill disappears under the weight of 1,000 “are we nearly there yet”s, the pressure to find a loo stop every three miles and the stench of snacks “maturing” on the back seat.
For a family-friendly car-based holiday to work, it’s best to let go of ideas of heart-in-the-mouth mountain passes and wind-in-the-hair moments and instead embrace good roads, plenty of entertaining activities and, ideally, short distances between stops. Get it right, and these can be the most rewarding trips of all.
Below, we round up six of the best, from pootling around Dorset to tackling Australia’s epic Coral Coast.
UK
The Jurassic Coast from Swanage to Exmouth
Distance: 90 miles
Having something to look forward to at the end of a long drive is half the battle with kids: dinosaurs, sandcastles and cake-heavy cream teas should do the trick. For those, the 90-or-so-mile route along the pretty A-roads of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, from Swanage, Dorset, to Exmouth, Devon, can’t be beaten – and the trip can easily be done in a week, with three stops to break up the journey.
Ease little passengers in gently with a first break to collect shells along 18-mile Chesil Beach, then head towards the A35, stopping for overnights in campsites complete with their own fields, farms and plenty of space for bonfires and barbecues (do pitch up at Cummins Farm, a five-acre site in the countryside near Lyme Regis, Dorset, from where you can walk to the beach through hedgerow-sprinkled countryside).
For dinosaur-mad kids, the charms of Charmouth, Dorset (just over an hour from Chesil Beach) are three-fold. There’s a fascinating fossil museum at the Heritage Coast Centre, a shop next door in which to search out Megalodon teeth and even the opportunity to find ammonites on the shore. From there, the old-fashioned seaside appeal of Lyme Regis, with its fish-and-chip shops, shorefront arcade and lanes of souvenir and ice cream shops, is just eight minutes’ drive away.
Other beaches offer excellent rock-pooling (Kimmeridge) and perfect paddling (Lulworth Cove) and Seaton’s open-air Heritage Tramway should be a crowd-pleaser. Meanwhile, the ruins of 11th-century Corfe Castle make the ultimate backdrop for would-be knights or princesses.
Parents can schedule in their own, much-deserved stops, too. Wander the eerie ghost village of Tyneham, evacuated in 1943 due to military training, and scoff just-caught Brixham crab on the seaside terrace of Weymouth’s Crab House Café.
At the other end of the journey, around an hour on from Charmouth, there’s a treat in the form of Lympstone Manor, a five-star hotel with a heated pool and shepherd’s huts featuring star-gazing windows (huts from £488 per night, B&B).
Sicily
Round the island from Palermo to Riposto
Distance: about 500 miles
This Italian island may not be the first destination that springs to mind for those keen to put the pedal to the metal, but for Original Travel’s co-founder Tom Barber, it’s one of the best places for a road trip with kids in tow, best tackled on a round-island route that starts in the capital and ends in the sleepy seaside town of Riposto, with its fish market, street sellers and lovely harbour.
“It hits the sweet spot of their wants and needs,” he explains. “It’s the perfect mix of culture, coastline, adventure and food (including most children’s holy trinity of pizza, pasta and ice cream).”
Driving in Palermo gives the full Italian experience of honks, lane-drifters and tail-gating, but, after that, expect gentle dual carriageway skirting umber mountains and trimmed with olive groves along the southwestern coast, followed by invigorating glimpses of sea and golden fields from fast-paced stretches of autostrade to the east.
Out of the car, stop-offs provide plenty of scope “for children to interact with and learn about the world around them. While also having enormous amounts of fun, of course. Things like learning how to make an authentic Sicilian pizza or exploring ancient Greek and Roman ruins”, says Barber.
Circumnavigating the island over two weeks at a gentle pace means there’s time for two-night stopovers in some of Sicily’s most entrancing spots, including Agrigento, with its Unesco-listed Valley of the Temples and the seaside town of Marina di Ragusa. And, though journeys between the big hitters can reach up to two and a half hours, it’s easy to do them in bits, breaking up time in the car with coast-road stop-offs for sandcastles at lesser-visited beaches such as San Marco, near Sciacca, and wandering among the walls and turrets of Enna’s Castello di Lombardia.
Don’t miss Noto – a wonderfully preserved Baroque town also known for its excellent granita (flavoured shaved ice). If you’re nervous of planning a route yourself, Original Travel has a Grand Tour of Sicily from £2,115pp.
Switzerland
Zurich to Montreux
Distance: 130 miles
You can drive from Zurich to Montreux, switching languages along the way, in less than three hours – or you can stretch the journey over a week, making detours for hilltop castles and chocolate tastings, and slowing the pace to a potter once you reach Lake Geneva’s beaches. For families, the latter option makes a brilliant summer holiday.
Unless you’re venturing into the mountains, Swiss roads are well-maintained and signposted, so driving is a breeze and travel sickness a rarity. Plus, the country’s plethora of districts, dialects and distinct attractions means nobody is likely to get bored along the way. Just watch out for the country’s moving speed cameras and make sure you have a Vignette for the tolls (usually included with a hire car).
Roughly tracing the A1 and A12 motorways, there is one main stop-off point, the Swiss capital of Bern. It’s a surprisingly child-friendly city with an Old Town straight from a kids’ movie (featuring the Zytglogge mediaeval clock’s dancing bears and jester), as well as the zoo’s Bear Park on the banks of the River Aare. But it’s the side quests that make the trip particularly exciting. There’s the choice to veer east to Interlaken for cable-cars and toboggan runs, or west to Neuchatel for paddling and pedal-boating on the lake.
Leave time to detour 20 minutes off the motorway to the magical Maison Cailler Chocolate Museum for a tasting of the best bars in the world, as well as Gruyères’s fairytale castle, a further 15 minutes along, on a hill that looks out over cow-dotted meadows straight from Heidi. Once you hit the Swiss Riviera, the living (and driving) is especially easy.
Take the Route de Lavaux along the shoreline and wander between ancient, cobbled villages such as Cully and Lutry, which have lakeside beaches. Or park the car in Montreux, stop at Queen: The Studio Experience in the town’s casino (the kids might not know who Brian May is, but they’ll relish time at the recording studio’s interactive mixing deck) and walk to Territet, where the Château de Chillon stands sentry over the lake. It’s then around 10 minutes’ drive to the Les Marines lakeside pool at Villeneuve, perfect for cooling off during the country’s unexpectedly balmy summers.
Croatia
Island-hopping between Dubrovnik and Split
Distance: 225 miles
Though it may not be a road trip in the traditional sense, 10 days of island-hopping with kids (which can be romantically impromptu for couples, who can whimsically hop out-of-the-way buses and sunset ferries) is infinitely better with a car.
“The majority of travellers to Croatia’s islands travel just by ferry, which does limit exploration once you reach the island. Self-driving allows you to leave the crowds behind and get up into the pine-scented hills, stopping at quiet coves with few other tourists,” says Liddy Pleasants of family operator Stubborn Mule Travel, which organises tailor-made trips to the country. “For families, it is great to be able to explore independently – there are some wonderful tavernas up in the hills, with welcome breezes off the Adriatic, superb sea views and delicious seafood that was caught in the morning.”
Outside Dubrovnik (not a place to spend much time behind the wheel, thanks to snarled-up summer streets), driving in Croatia is a breeze. Away from its excellent stretches of motorway, expect the kind of cove-hugging coastal roads that are famous in Italy and France – minus the scary drivers.
Rather than hot-footing it to a different destination every night, this road trip works well with longer stops in between – far better for small children who need time to settle in new places. That means spending a couple of nights on the Dubrovnik Riviera pottering between the seaside villages of Mlini and Srebreno, with their pebbly beaches and ice cream shops. Then it’s time for the car ferry to Korčula – an event in itself for little ones – towards kayaking, cycling and boat trips off the coast.
Make a further stop on Brač, to wander Bol’s Old Town in search of souvenirs and shady terrace cafes and catch the land train to Zlatni Rat beach. End with a trip to Split for an obligatory culture hit with a trip around the Diocletian’s Palace, completed in 305 AD.
USA
San Francisco to San Diego
Distance: about 600 miles
Unlike some traffic-clogged stretches (French Riviera, we’re looking at you), the 656-mile Pacific Coast Highway is best in the school summer holidays, when June’s fog has lifted and the weather is warm and clear. And with the route finally reopened in its entirety after years of roadworks, Jo Still, of America specialist Bon Voyage, thinks now is a great time to embark on one of the world’s most famous road trips.
With more attractions than it’s possible to count, from whales offshore to magical forests of soaring redwoods, this is one of America’s best routes to tackle over 10 days with nature-loving kids – and most stretches are less than two hours long. Just be aware that side trips can sometimes be windy, so it’s worth packing the Kwells.
After a few days exploring San Fran’s most kid-friendly sites (from the aquarium to Alcatraz), drive the hour to Santa Cruz. This is the kind of old-fashioned seaside town kids adore (albeit with added Silicon Valley millionaire exiles, surfers and seals). The Beach Boardwalk has been serving up rides and hot dogs for a century, and there’s a brilliant Art Deco cinema for a screen-time treat.
From here, the road wriggles towards Monterey and then on to Santa Barbara. This is the longest stretch of the trip (three and a half hours), so stop off overnight at Pismo Beach and punctuate the journey by seeking out elephant seals on the sand of St Simeon or exploring kitsch Hearst Castle, once home to William Randolph Hearst (look out for zebras grazing en route: they’re the ancestors of the ones in his now-dismantled zoo).
After some downtime in Santa Barbara, Santa Monica makes the perfect seaside base for a visit to Universal Studios in Los Angeles – though the city itself can be too much for anyone, let alone little ones. Around two hours south, San Diego is a far better place to while away the last few days, with added bonuses of Legoland and the San Diego Zoo, plus seaside sunsets and slap-up pizza dinners in Little Italy.
As expected with such a popular itinerary, there are plenty of tour-operator options. Bon Voyage’s brilliant Coastal California Dream Drive costs from £3,695pp.
Australia
The Coral Coast from Perth to Exmouth
Distance: 775 miles
Beach babies and their parents should shun the dusty, seemingly endless roads of the Outback and Australia’s metropolitan charms in favour of the seaside stretch of Western Australia between Perth and Exmouth. Expect incredible white-sand beaches, neon fish and blustery dunes, ending with some beach-town fun in Exmouth.
At around 775 miles, this is the longest drive on the list, though some stretches do require four hours in the car, they can be diluted by spreading the journey over two weeks or more (still, it’s only wise to attempt this one with kids who are happy on long car journeys and don’t suffer travel sickness). It takes a bit of forward-planning, too, as campsites book up very early (see the Facebook group Western Australia camping for advice on booking and where to stay).
This is motorhome country: on drives this long with little ones, a portable kitchen and a place to store food are necessities (they also add novelty factor, and an always-available toilet is nothing short of trip-changing). Indie Campers has vehicles for families from around £54 per night. It recommends stops in Lancelin (for shell-collecting and swimming in Lancelin Lagoon), Jurien Bay (for seal-spotting), the empty wilderness of Kalbarri National Park and then Shark Bay, Turquoise Bay and Coral Bay for turtles, dolphins and more.
Myriad opportunities mean there’s something for most families. It’s a pinch-me moment to share a picnic overlooking the bizarre limestone rock forms of the Pinnacles Desert, park up and admire the Barbie hues of Hutt Lagoon or spot wild dolphins in the Monkey Mia Conservation Park.
This final stop deserves plenty of time for little ones: Exmouth has a child-friendly restaurant scene (try BBQ Father or Mutt’s cafe) and is surrounded by powdery sand and water so clear it’s like being in a glass-bottom boat (no scuba gear needed). If the kids aren’t quite big enough to snorkel, try the Ningaloo Centre aquarium.