Five of the world's top road trips

Pacific Coast Highway, California. Photo / Thinkstock

Find your sense of adventure and plan a road trip, says Megan Singleton.

1: Pacific Coast Highway, California

This is one of the world's most iconic roadies where your playlist needs to start with Sheryl Crow's All I Wanna Do and end with Otis Redding's (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay as you glide into San Francisco.

You can put your foot down and do the PCH in eight hours, but we took five days overnighting at Santa Barbara, Big Sur and San Jose.

2: Margaret River, Western Australia

Margaret River, Western Australia. Photo / Flickr Creative Commons, user nodeworx

The Margaret River is a peninsula south of Perth that is full of hidden treasures. Wineries hide behind stands of gum trees and limestone caves with outstanding natural sculptures hide underground.

This region is also famous for cheese, so what better way to spend your road trip than stocking up on the local produce and taking a picnic to a different beach each night for yet another killer sunset.

3: Dublin to Galway, Ireland

I love ferreting around little villages and stopping for pub lunches, calling on castles and taking too many photos of ruins, so five days in a southern loop from Dublin via Cork and Limerick to Galway had it all.

I'd take more than five days next time though, to dash off on side trips to the Cliffs of Moher and the Dingle Peninsula.

Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. Photo / Thinkstock

4: Canterbury, New Zealand

Starting in Christchurch we took five days to get to Blenheim and stayed in the tranquillity of Queen Charlotte Sound. We popped into wineries, stayed in Hanmer Springs and found a lodge among the treetops in Kaikoura.

The whales were showing off the day we went out and so too were the crays from Nin's Bin before a night in the Sounds and another in Blenheim. Nelson/Tasman you're next.

Queen Charlotte Sounds. Photo / Peter Mack

5: Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans, US

We called this the Music Road Trip and spent two nights in Nashville hanging out on Honky Tonk Row, visiting the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame, then three in Memphis with Elvis at Graceland, Sun Studio and walking with "my feet ten feet off of Beale".

Then six hours' drive later we arrived at the birthplace of jazz where every bar is jumping and buskers add the real flavour to New Orleans.

Honky Tonk Row in Nashville. Photo / Flickr Creative Commons, user denisemattox

Read itinerary ideas from Megan's best road trips here.