Road trips · 7 min · updated 2026-06-02
Building a driving day that does not wreck you
Distance targets that survive contact with reality, when to stop, and the case for arriving before dark.
Plan in hours, not kilometres
A four-hundred-kilometre day on a motorway and a four-hundred-kilometre day on a coast road are different jobs. Plan in driving hours — five is comfortable, seven is a long day, nine is a day you will pay for tomorrow — and let the distance be whatever it turns out to be.
Stop before you need to
The stop that helps is the one taken at ninety minutes while you still feel fine. The stop taken when you notice you are tired is already late. Build the day around two or three real stops, out of the vehicle, rather than a fuel stop counted as a break.
Arrive in daylight
Unfamiliar roads, unfamiliar parking and unfamiliar signage are all substantially harder in the dark, and almost every logistical problem is easier to solve while places are still open. Set the day's end an hour before sunset and treat it as fixed.