Plan it or go with the flow?

I'm a Go-with-the-flow kind of traveller, I like to be able to wander of the beaten track when something catches my attention, however the last time I did this was pre-kids and having children along actually requires some attention to the little things. For example, they are unlikely to enjoy sleeping overnight in the car between destinations. For that matter I suspect that I would no longer be very happy about this either.

I found a whole range of online planning tools (such as Jasons) for this trip and have tried most of them. I even found a service that can custom design a self-drive tour, book you accommodation and car and generally take on the burden of planning your trip. I got both a quote and itinerary from one and it was a fine piece of work. In the end though I decided that for all my flaws I'd rather do the planning ourselves (and have only ourselves to blame if it goes awry at some point - note how I've deftly slipped from the singular to the plural at this point. . .)

I've compromised settling on pre-booked accommodation but leaving each leg as short as I can so that we have flexibility for activities along the way.

I want to be able to stop and enjoy the view - after all it is not as if we have anything here in Perth that even resembles a foothill let alone a mountain.

SO basically we have somewhere to sleep each night, a good car to drive in, a map to show us where we are going (if he hold it up the right way) and new horizons to explore - beyond that what other plans do you need?


Does anyone have a map of toilets?