We have been lucky enough to tackle some of the world’s most amazing road trips here at Flat-Out, whether that’s dodging potholes and cartel members in Colombia or covering the length of South Korea in a cutting-edge EV.
While we have spent plenty of time poring over maps, scrolling through Google Earth and attempting to speak French into a mobile phone, it’s often the case that we have also relied not he encyclopaedic knowledge of professional planners.
See, behind every automotive launch is a crack team of folks that spend weeks scoping out the best roads, the most stylish hotels and the most coveted restaurants in order to paint their new vehicles in the best light. We’ve often picked their brains in order to plan our own road trips.
However, there’s now a new digital companion that everyone can access, even if you don’t have a direct line to insider knowledge.
It’s called New Roads and it exists because its founders were sick of opening myriad Google Maps tabs, rifling through obscure forum threads, half-saved hotel links and blurry Street View screenshots of roads they hoped were actually decent.
Created by husband-and-wife duo Steve and Sian James-Royle, alongside a small team of fellow enthusiasts, the platform uses AI to generate hyper-personalised road trips for 45 European countries, based on everything from the type of car you drive to the sort of roads you enjoy.
Driving a low-slung Porsche GT3? It will avoid sending you down gravel farm tracks with suspension-snapping potholes. Planning a road trip in a classic Beetle? It can tailor routes so you don’t overheat or wear out a clutch.
“The platform uses AI to generate hyper-personalised road trips for 45 European countries”
It takes all of the knowledge us road testers and diehard road trip fanatics have garnered over the years and puts it in the pocket of anyone with a smartphone… or a laptop.
Off the beaten path
The really clever bit is that New Roads doesn’t just spit out generic tourist routes that have been copied and pasted across the internet for the last decade. The AI system asks detailed questions about your preferences, the length of your trip, where you want to stay and even what sort of food you enjoy before creating a completely bespoke itinerary.
Once complete, everything can be exported into Google Maps, which means there’s no need to learn an entirely new navigation system or import fiddly GPX files.
But perhaps the biggest reason New Roads feels refreshing is because it understands that driving enthusiasts don’t always want efficiency. Sometimes the joy comes from taking the long way round, discovering a hidden café at the top of a mountain pass or stumbling across a perfect lakeside view.
We’ve already been using it to plan photoshoots in Cornwall and have even started picking its digital brains about a motorcycle-based road trip through France this summer. While the system currently doesn’t take into account exact motorcycle models, it will pick “flowing routes with better sightlines and more frequent coffee stops” for those behind bars.
The ultimate trip-planner
One thing worth highlighting is that New Roads isn’t simply a fancy AI route generator — it’s also trying to become a genuine one-stop shop for planning an entire driving holiday.
“New Roads doesn’t just spit out generic tourist routes that have been copied and pasted across the internet for the last decade”
Pricing starts from around £10 per month for the Explorer tier, while more comprehensive subscriptions unlock additional trip planning tools, multi-day itineraries and deeper customisation options. There’s also a higher-end Club membership aimed at serious road-trippers and frequent travellers.
More importantly, the platform integrates direct booking links for hotels, accommodation and points of interest, which removes a huge amount of the usual faff involved with organising a road trip. Instead of spending hours bouncing between Booking.com, Google Maps and random hotel websites, New Roads neatly packages everything into a single itinerary.
And because the accommodation suggestions are curated with drivers in mind, there’s a noticeable focus on characterful stays, scenic locations and places where you’d actually want to end a day behind the wheel — rather than generic chain hotels dumped next to motorway junctions.
It’s this attention to detail that really helps New Roads stand out. The platform, like us, understands that a great road trip isn’t just about the road itself, but the coffee stops, mountain-view hotels and the people you meet along the way.
Keep your eyes peeled for more New Roads developments and who knows, maybe there will be greater integration with Flat-Out in the near future.
Check out the website for yourself by clicking here.
