Let’s take a driving holiday around the world

By Amanda Kendle on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

As a big fan of clear-across-the-continent travel – I’ve crossed Russia on the Trans-Siberian from Vladivostok and up to St Petersburg, then wandered right across Europe – I’ve been following the story of a tunnel under the Bering Strait with a lot of interest.

If you haven’t heard about it, rumours started about a year ago that Russia was considering building the world’s longest tunnel under the Bering Strait to join up Russia with Alaska.

While the driving force behind the idea was to sell oil, natural gas and electricity to the United States, the tunnel would also have a high-speed train and a highway, so we could theoretically take our car from London all the way to New York – the long way!

The idea hit the headlines again recently when Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought a huge drill but it turned out he’s planning to use it to clean up the city of Sochi on the Black Sea, where the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held. So the idea is still out there, but there’s no action yet.

My very first reaction – from a traveller’s point of view, of course - was that it sounded like a great idea. Imagine being able to drive all the way to the US! Since we’ve talked about the idea of cheap flights dying out within the next decade, I started to wonder if we all might return to driving holidays, especially if we can drive all the way to another continent.

My environmental know-how isn’t enough to figure out if the total energy consumption would be less – considering not just the fuel but also the time it would take and accommodation needed along the way – but at least for a bit of an adventure, it might be a good thing. What do you think? Would you be inclined to take more driving holidays if budget airlines stop providing you with cheap flights?

There are definite advantages to having your car with you at your holiday destination, but the time involved could put an end to a lot of the weekend breaks that have become popular. So where’s the future - drive or fly?

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8 responses to “Let’s take a driving holiday around the world”

Soultravelers3 | 9 April, 2008 at 11:51 am

Driving is a great way to see the world, especially if you believe in slow travel or go with a family. Another way to do this is by shipping or long ferry.

On our slow trip around the world we have done this a lot ( from Spain to Italy and Italy to Greece etc.). We will ship our small RV to South Africa after Europe for a long stay, then South America.

There is a French family that went around the world as a family for four years by shipping their RV everywhere…on a very low budget. Another Swiss couple has been traveling all over the world by one car since 1987 & are close to having seen every country in the world by car.

It is really a wonderful and inexpensive way to travel and if you travel slow, gas prices are very low.

Darren Cronian | 9 April, 2008 at 1:31 pm

@Soultravelers

Gas is cheap unless you drive in to the UK

I’d love to slow travel around the World, it must cost alot though for accommodation etc. I don’t think I have the budget (or guts) to do it.

Amanda Kendle | 9 April, 2008 at 1:56 pm

Agreed, I’d love to do some really slow travel RTW - I think Soultravelers is right, it’s possible on a low budget. Actually last week - here in Western Australia - I saw a German 4WD car in my local supermarket car park, German plates and all - now that’s slow travel. I could hardly believe it. And I was jealous.

keely remey | 11 April, 2008 at 8:36 pm

me and my partner are at this minute planning our trip from cornwall in the uk and driving to Thailand… its not working out all that expensive.. the most expensive bit is the vehicle. as ours van is being converted into a camper we won’t have to pay out on accomodation… hopefully we’re going to go along the old hippie trail and finish off on the silk trail as we cant get through obvious countrys such as iran and afghanistan…

Amanda Kendle | 12 April, 2008 at 3:18 am

@keely, I’m envious, that trip you’re planning sounds fantastic. How long are you planning to take? Or is it all very open-ended? Good luck and enjoy, anyway!

keely remey | 12 April, 2008 at 8:00 pm

we have gave ourselves only 5 months, doesn;t sound very long put apparently having read one of the blogs somewhere they reached india in less than a month… our main aim is to get to thailand as quick as possible as we are also doing this to raise money for a young bot with a rare condition… so we really are giving ourselves alot of hope.