Road trips: everything you need to know

The typical road trip lasts just under four hours, covers 150 miles and includes 41 songs to sing-along to, according to a new study by Esso.

More than a third of the of 2,000 adults questioned believe one of the most important aspects of a road trip is who they’re travelling with, while three passengers and the driver was found to be the preferred number.

It also emerged the average year sees Brits go on eight road trips – with 61 per cent currently having one lined up.

Of those, 43 per cent plan to travel with their partner, 20 per cent with their children and 10 per cent with their parents.

Other important aspects for a road trip were good weather (36 per cent), the scenery (31 per cent) and the final destination (31 per cent).

Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’, Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ and Pharrell William’s ‘Happy’ were revealed as the go-to songs to singalong to in the car that transcend the generation gap, while The Killers ‘Mr Brightside’ is a firm favourite among millennials.

Esso, which is the technical partner of the Red Bull Racing Honda Formula 1 team, asked drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, about their road trip memories as children.

“The long rides I remember, were back in the day with my dad,” said Max. “So, we’d be listening to like, 70s, 80s, 90s – it would go from like Elvis Presley, to Michael Jackson, to Barry White, you know all this kind of stuff.”

The research also revealed that one in six Brits also believe regular scheduled stops are vital, with the typical ‘pit stop’ lasting 17 minutes, which usually involves stopping off at a service station (40 per cent), visiting a viewpoint (33 per cent) and enjoying a picnic (25 per cent).

Favourite in-car games were ‘I Spy’ (20 per cent), spotting unusual number plates (10 per cent) and ’20 questions’ (10 per cent). Other popular games are ‘Guess the tune’, ‘Spot the Animal’ and ‘Yellow Car’.