The ultimate music curated playlists for these iconic road trips
From cruising down Santa Monica Boulevard in America to taking on the Great Ocean Road in Australia, there is nothing quite like a road trip adventure. And of course, every great road trip is not complete without uninterrupted tracks playing at top volume. However, it is often difficult to create a playlist with the perfect number of tunes to last the entire journey… until now!
The experts at Uswitch.com/car-insurance decided to investigate how many songs per music genre it would take to enjoy the world’s most popular road trips on Instagram with a perfectly curated playlist. After analysing Google Maps to find each trip’s estimated journey time, and Spotify to calculate the number of songs that would fit into the journey per genre, they can now reveal all.
The most popular road trips according to Instagrammers
| Road Trip | Location | Estimated time (Hours) | |
| 1 | Route 66 | USA | 32.0 |
| 2 | Big Sur Coast Highway | USA | 2.2 |
| 3 | Great Ocean Road | Australia | 3.3 |
| 4 | The Wild Atlantic Way | Ireland | 16.6 |
| 5 | Snowdonia | Wales | 1.6 |
| 6 | Blue Ridge Parkway | USA | 10.6 |
| 7 | Costa Verde | Brazil | 4.2 |
| 8 | South Island Circuit | New Zealand | 23.5 |
| 9 | Pacific Coast Highway | USA | 28.0 |
| 10 | Valley of Fire Road | USA | 2.4 |
Our experts at uswitch.com/car-insurance can reveal the most popular road trip according to Instagram hashtags is the Route 66 trip in the United States with a whopping 1,908,149 hashtags. Placing second for the most popular road trips, with 1,422,501 hashtags on Instagram, is the Big Sur Coast Highway in California that runs along most of the Pacific coastline. Taking the third spot with 1,403,245 hashtags is the Great Ocean Road trip, situated along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Allansford.
Number of tracks needed per musical genre complete the iconic road trips:
Top 5 road trip playlist durations for pop lovers
Reports that show ‘pop’ being the most popular musical genre in this generation, the analysis can reveal the tracks needed is the second most in the study behind instrumental tracks. A whopping 590 songs would be needed for the Route 66 road trip – a playlist 12% shorter than for the Instrumental genre. From Britney Spears to Michael Jackson, it would take an average of 40 pop tracks to drive through all the Big Sur Coast Highway and 60 to complete the Great Ocean Road drive. For the Wild Atlantic Way (Ireland), 305 pop successes could be included for the perfect playlist, and only 29 for the Snowdonia trip.
Top 5 road trip playlist durations for dance lovers
For dance genre lovers, a curated playlist of 490 songs would fit the Route 66 trip perfectly, 34% less than the genre with the most tracks for this road trip (Instrumental). For the Big Sur Coast Highway (US) drive, only 33 songs would be needed, 50 for the Great Ocean Road (Australia), 254 for the Wild Atlantic Way (Ireland) and only 24 for the Snowdonia road trip in Wales.
Top 5 road trip playlist durations for rock lovers
Rock fans would need 474 songs to complete the Route 66 (US), a mere 32 songs for the Big Sur Coast Highway (US) and 48 for the Great Ocean Road (AUS) stretch. For the Wild Atlantic Way route in Ireland, rock fans would need 245 songs for the estimated 16.6-hour road trip and a shy 23 songs for the Snowdonia trip in Wales.
Top 5 road trip playlist durations for metal lovers
For the Route 66 road trip, metal fans can choose 452 tracks for their playlist. The 2.2-hour trip around the American Big Sur Coast Highway could be completed with 31 tracks, and 46 for the Great Ocean Road drive in Australia. From Iron Maiden to Black Sabbath, it would take 234 metal songs for the 16.6-hour trip of the Wild Atlantic Way (Ireland) and only 22 for the Snowdonia trip.
Top 5 road trip playlist durations for classical lovers
From Mozart to Beethoven, classical music lovers would need 417 tracks for the Route 66 road trip, the least number of songs needed in the analysed genres. It would take only 28 tracks for the Big Sur Coast Highway road trip and 43 for the Aussie round trip. The Wild Atlantic Road playlist could count with 216 songs, and a shy 20 for the Welsh Snowdonia, 60% than the genre with the highest number of tracks needed (Instrumental).
Top 5 road trip playlist durations for hip hop lovers
Either a fan of classic hip hop or more modern beats, you would need to curate a playlist of 556 hip hop tracks to complete the 32-hour Route 66 trip. For the Big Sur Coast Highway, hip hoppers would choose 45 tracks, compared to 67 for the Aussie Great Ocean Road trip. It would take an impressive 342 hip hop tunes to complete the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland and 32 for the Snowdonia trip (Wales).
Top 5 road trip playlist durations for R&B lovers
Lovers of R&B would need an impressive 561 songs to drive the entirety of Route 66, 14% more tracks than dance and 18% more than rock fans for the same trip. On average, 38 tracks would be needed for the Big Sur Coast Highway in the states and 57 tracks for the Aussie Great Ocean Road 3+ hour trip. 291 R&B songs are necessary to complete the Irish Wild Atlantic Way road trip and only 27 for the Welsh Snowdonia round trip.
Top 5 road trip playlist durations for instrumental lovers
Lovers of instrumental tracks would need a whopping 660 tracks for the Route 66 trip, the highest of the genres for this trip – 58% more than classical, the genre with the least needed tracks. If driving through the Big Sur Coast Highway, 45 songs should be included in your playlist, whilst the Great Ocean Road (Australia) would need an average of 67. For the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland, it would take 342 tunes, 90% more songs than the 1.6-hour Snowdonia trip (32).
Top 5 road trip playlist durations for gaming lovers
Perhaps the most eclectic playlist on our list, fans of gaming tunes would need 527 tracks for the Route 66 trip, only 36 tracks for the Big Sur Coast road trip and 54 for the Great Ocean Road drive. 273 songs could be used to complete the Irish Wild Atlantic Way drive and only 25 for the Snowdonia trip.
Top 5 road trip playlist durations for Caribbean lovers
Lovers of Caribbean music would need 560 tracks to complete the Route 66 road trip without any skips or replays, the third genre with the most tracks needed. It would take an average of 38 tunes for the California Big Sur Coast Highway and 57 tracks for the Aussie road trip. The Wild Atlantic Way road trip in Ireland would be completed with 290 tracks, whilst 27 songs would be required for the Snowdonia road trip.
