Have you ever taken a road trip? Many Nigerians take road trips often but they don’t know they are doing it. A road trip is simply travelling from one location like a country/state to another or within large cities/states on vacation.
If someone moves from Ojo or Badagry to Epe or Lakowe, we can consider it a road trip because the time spent on that journey is almost the same (thanks to Lagos traffic) with travelling from Benin City to Lagos. Another cool example is travelling from Calabar to Obudu Mountain Resort or Cross River National Park by road. not to mention travelling from Abuja to Bauchi where you get to pass multiple states like Nassarawa, Kaduna and Plateau State before you reach Bauchi. The keyword is transportation by road. If you cross-country on water, that’s a cruise but when you do it by land, it is a Road trip.
Remember the saying, “it’s not about the destination but the journey”? It is possible it was coined from the road trip experience. A road trip allows you to make stops at certain locations to use the bathroom, buy food while making the ride in the car fun either by listening to podcasts, music, discussions, games or watching a movie. With a road trip for a vacation, you have control over the journey and plans of what to do in each city you come through. For foodies, you get to taste a wide range of new foods or eat your favourite foods cooked in a new spot by different chefs with their own unique twist on it. Bookworms, you get to read that novel you like with snacks and drinks nearby and the wind in your hair if it is in the dry season or with the pitter-patter of raindrops on your window in the rainy season.
Last Year, Fantastic Travel Gifts organised a Road trip using a Europe Bus through 18 European countries (25 cities) in 20 days for international travellers with a valid visa to join in. In America, people take road trips to Canada or from one end of Texas to another. But this concept of Road trip isn’t unique to foreigners. There are tour agencies in Nigeria that organise road trips through four states in a five-day period. E.g. Motley Travels organised a quad-city tour of four states – Ekiti, Ondo, sun and Lagos – last year. That was a road trip. And this year, Barnes the Wakawaka organised a road trip within Lagos during their beach house party.
Road trips differ from city tours. A city tour is a drive around one city to see the landmarks while road trips are about experiencing different cities on one trip. Although this period may not be the best for a road trip up north or around certain parts of the country, because of security concerns, that doesn’t mean you can’t still plan and have a safe road trip during this long vacation with your family. If you can’t do an interstate road trip, then opt for an intra-state road trip like driving from where you live to different local government areas within your state. Just choose a route – devoid of security challenges – with lovely landmarks to see along the way and hit the road.
Featured Image Source: Thenationonlineng
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