Solo road trip or a road trip buddy: how to plan it

It is Sunday night and the route is already done: the map is saved, the playlist has forty songs, and you already know which lay-by on the west coast you want for the sunset. What nobody has decided is who you are going with. Your friends said "sounds amazing" and then went quiet. So the question becomes whether you go alone, or find someone who wants the same road.

Both work. A solo road trip gives you complete freedom over the route and the stops, but every mile of driving, every pound of fuel and every evening is yours alone. A road trip buddy halves the cost and the driving, as long as you agree three things before you set off: how fuel and tolls are split, who drives and how often you stop, and who is named on the hire car or insurance. If your friends cannot make your dates, on TravelMatch you can post the trip and see on each profile whether the person lists road trips among their interests and the car as their preferred way to travel.

Solo road trip or a road trip buddy: what changes

Alone, the trip bends to you. You stop when a view deserves it, skip the town that looked better in photos and sleep where you end up. Plenty of people prefer it that way.

A second person changes mostly practical things: someone to take the wheel when you are tired, half the cost of fuel and accommodation, and someone to talk to in the evenings, which matters more on day six than on day one. If the evenings are what worry you, travelling alone and feeling lonely is worth a read before you decide.

Solo road trip UK: Scotland and the NC500

The North Coast 500 is the classic answer to a Scotland road trip. Its official website describes it as "just over 500 miles (516 to be exact)" through the Black Isle, Easter Ross, Caithness, Sutherland, Wester Ross and Inverness-shire.

The part that surprises first-timers is the single-track roads. The Highway Code's rule 155 describes them as "only wide enough for one vehicle" with "special passing places": if a vehicle comes towards you, or the driver behind wants to overtake, "pull into a passing place on your left, or wait opposite a passing place on your right". Police Scotland's advice for the NC500 adds a rule worth remembering: "Do not park in passing places." They also advise driving at a speed that "doesn't affect your decision-making ability", which on some stretches is well below the limit.

Alone, this kind of road is doable but tiring, because you cannot hand over the wheel, so plan shorter days than the mileage suggests. For flights to Inverness from other parts of the UK, Skyscanner is a quick way to compare.

Solo road trip in Iceland: the Ring Road

Iceland is the other big search: solo road trip Iceland, solo driving Iceland. Visit Iceland describes the Ring Road as "a 1,322 km (820 miles) loop connecting most towns and villages", suggests "at least 7 days", and notes that a 4x4 is not required for the Ring Road itself. Between September and May, it warns, some high passes are prone to closures in storms or high winds.

Before you hire a car there, check two things. GOV.UK says "you can use a UK photocard driving licence to drive in Iceland for up to 30 days", and that "hire car companies often have stricter requirements for their customers, such as a year of driving experience". Compare what each company asks before booking; Discover Cars is one place to compare hire companies.

Is Iceland safe to travel alone?

Nobody can promise you that anywhere, and we will not. What the official sources say is this. GOV.UK's travel advice for Iceland states that "crime levels are low but petty theft and antisocial behaviour can occur", and that "the weather can change quickly and make driving conditions challenging at times". It tells you to check road and weather advice from the Icelandic Road Administration at road.is.

Safetravel.is, Iceland's official safety site, asks travellers to leave a travel plan with "a trusted individual who is capable of taking appropriate action", says the emergency number is 112, and suggests saving 599-0112 as a backup number in case a call to 112 does not connect. Its app can send your GPS location to the emergency services. Read together, the official advice is mostly about weather and roads, which is why a second driver in Iceland is a practical choice, not just a social one.

How to find a road trip buddy

People search for a road trip buddy, a road trip partner app or a road trip buddy finder because the usual options do not fit. Friends depend on their dates, and lift-sharing apps are built for one journey on one day, not a week of shared decisions. What you need is a travel companion, not just a seat.

TravelMatch is built for that. You post your road trip with a destination and dates, say ten days on the NC500 in May or a week on Iceland's Ring Road in September, or ask to join one someone else has posted. In your profile you mark your interests, road trips among them, and your preferred transport, which can be the car, plus your pace, budget and the kind of accommodation you like. The person who created the trip decides who joins. Before accepting, you see their profile, your compatibility percentage and reviews that only people who have travelled with them can leave. You can also say whether you prefer a women-only, mixed or any group; it is a preference people read, not an automatic filter. Once someone is accepted, they join the group chat, and that is where you talk about driving, the car and stops. TravelMatch is free and does not book anything.

A week in a car with someone new is a bigger step than sharing a hostel, so start with a video call and, if you can, a shorter trip. How to choose travel companions has the questions that reveal how someone really travels, and is it safe to travel with strangers covers the sensible precautions.

What to agree before you set off: fuel, tolls and driving turns

The problems on a road trip are rarely the car. They are the feeling that one person pays, drives or decides more than the others.

Driving turns. The Highway Code recommends "a minimum break of at least 15 minutes after every two hours of driving" and advises avoiding long journeys between midnight and 6am. With two drivers, the simplest system is to swap at every stop. Agree who drives the last day, because that is when everyone is tired.

Tolls. In the UK there are few: the Dartford Crossing, for example, has to be paid online "by midnight the day after you cross", which is easy to forget in a hire car. Abroad, check each country's own toll system before you leave. Tolls go into the shared pot, like fuel.

The small things. Music, eating in the car, early starts or lie-ins, booking ahead or improvising. Ten minutes on this saves a lot of silence.

Hire cars and named drivers

If the car is hired, anyone who drives must be named on the rental agreement. Additional drivers often cost extra, and each company sets its own conditions on age and how long you have held a licence, so check them before you share out the driving. If someone who is not named drives and something happens, it is everyone's problem.

UK licence holders may also be asked for a licence check code. GOV.UK explains that you can create one to share your driving record "with someone, for example a car hire company", and that "the check code will be valid for 21 days", so create it close to the trip. If the car belongs to one of you, the owner should ask their insurer whether the other person can be added as a named driver for the trip. And if one person provides the car, they should not also do most of the driving.

Splitting road trip costs

The maths is simple and worth doing out loud before you go: total miles, divided by the car's miles per gallon, gives gallons; multiply by 4.55 to get litres, then by the price per litre. A round example, just to show the sum: 1,000 miles in a car that does 45 mpg is about 22 gallons, or roughly 101 litres. At an example price of £1.40 a litre (not today's price), that is about £141, or around £35 each between four, plus tolls and parking.

The practical system is that one person pays for fuel and tolls, logs it, and you split at the end, while each person pays for anything personal. Shared accommodation is easier still if you compare places together first, on Booking.com for example, and one person books. Inside each TravelMatch trip there are shared expenses for logging every tank and every toll, and how to split travel costs fairly has the full method.

The best road trips are not the ones with the perfect route. They are the ones where nobody comes home doing sums.

On TravelMatch you can post your road trip with a destination and dates, and choose who joins: each profile shows whether the person prefers to travel by car. It is free.

→ Create your trip on TravelMatch · Free, in a minute.

Reviewed in October 2026. Route information from northcoast500.com and visiticeland.com, road rules from the Highway Code on GOV.UK, NC500 advice from Police Scotland (published by the Highland Council), Iceland travel advice from GOV.UK and safetravel.is, and licence check codes and the Dartford Crossing from GOV.UK, all checked on 14 October 2026. Roads, rules and hire conditions change, so check before you set off.

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