Road trips have always felt like too much work to me. You need to think of destinations, you have to figure out the route, you have to figure out the pit stops and what not. And then in our family, no one is a big fan of driving anyway. I am happy when someone else is driving. But when I have been in a fast moving bus on a scenic route, I often thought how nice it would be if we could stop for a while at a particular spot!
Then I came across the website GoRoadTrip. Before I go any further, at the moment all their content heavily focuses on South India only. The website would appeal to you a lot if you are based in that part of the country.
But for the segment they picked up, South India, they take away the hassle out of planning a road trip for sure. The concept is based on four things- profiling you as a traveler- what makes you tick, then comes plan creation, customization and finally downloading it for your use. The website is free to use. You will be asked to login only when you wish to save your plan.
If you do not wish to spend time and energy planning a trip, you could pick up one of the featured road trips from the website. Some examples are Bangalore-Mangalore, Bangalore- Pondicherry, Bangalore-Goa etc. This could be helpful when you decided to do a trip last minute and you do not have time to go for detailed planning. If Bangalore is not your starting point you can still customize the trip from your starting point. The website showcases 75k plus itineraries generated by 27K plus users. The itineraries are user generated.
The second bit, planning your own trip is more fun. It asks for a start and end destination. I picked up Bangalore and Coorg as starting and end points. The next option is to input what kind of places I would like to see. The options are religious sites, beaches, wildlife, heritage, entertainment, relaxation, parks and water bodies. I picked up beaches, wildlife and water bodies. The next question is about the dates. If I input the dates the website will match the hotel availability.
The next query is would you like to drive straight to the destination or stop en-route? I decided to stop on the way. Next they asked me about my hotel budget which I picked as frugal which is 0-2K. There are other two categories 2-5K and 5k and above. After this the question is if I would like to pick a plan or let them generate one. Here I decided to let them generate one.
As I had put in about 3 nights it generated a detailed plan for me. I have an option of removing any attraction I don’t wish to see. I also have an option of changing the suggested hotel.
Since I have been to Coorg twice, I picked it up as a destination to see what kind of sightseeing it would generate. All the usual suspects like Golden Temple, Dubare, Talacaveri, Harangi, Abbey Waterfalls etc. were there. Plus there were many attractions that I have not heard of. The plan also suggested me places for breakfast and lunch break. It I only when I want to save a trip I am being asked to sign in or sign up. They give you the option of signing in with Google, Facebook or Email.
Overall, to me it GoRoadTrip looks like a comprehensive site. I hope they will expand to other parts of India as well. It is a great way to get to enjoy your personalized road trips by doing exactly what you want!
Thank you for the info. First time hearing about the site – GoRoadTrip. I tried it with a few destinations I had already visited – like Munnar & Kanyakumari, and the plan generated was very detailed. It even included some destinations on the way which I missed to visit earlier.
Hope it will help for future trips. Will be more helpful if they can include other parts of the country, especially the North-East.
That is my hope too, to see more trips from other parts of the country too!
This should a great online help. Sounds very practical.
Indrani you are a great road trip planner, you should try it out!
Will surely be helpful…
I too hope so and I wish North gets covered too!
Seems very interesting and useful concept. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you Ravish!
Interesting.Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you Rajeev!
There was a need for such kind of app especially when language is a barrier. We will use it on our next South travel.
Happy to hear that! Do leave a feedback either here or directly to the company!
Nice to read about GoRoadTrip.Com. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Rupam!
I’m sure it will be very helpful..the flexibility is going to be their USP! Thank you Mridula:)
Thank you Amit!
Charting out itineraries on this sounds like a lot of fun. 🙂 But it looks like it’s going to be a while before I can even try to use it. 🙁
I’m impressed. I have to try it at some point.
Thank you Divya, I do hope you come back and try it sometime!
Undoubtedly beneficial apps for travellers . informative post
Thank you Yogi!
Nothing for North yet?
Needs lot of work before it becomes useful. I tried several starting points, but nothing came up. Strangely, it does not have any trips starting from Seattle, WA. Response time is extremely slow. Gave up after 2-3 failed attempts. However, very nice idea/ concept.
Would love a road trip for North India. I wonder I can plan it?