Plan a random trip
You can visit a place that is off the beaten path--a place so unique that you would never imagine going there with the Random Point Generator, a free online tool that let's you throw virtual darts at a map, then you can see a Google map showing you where those darts landed at.
The random point tool let's you generate points over the entire surface of the earth, or you can restrict the random points to be within a certain distance of your home or vacation destination. Once you have selected a random point you can visit it using a handheld GPS unit. Please read these GPS guidelines before you start your trip.
Set up your rules
The good thing about this game is that you can set your own rules--eliminating those random points that you know you don't want to visit. You generate random points one by one until you find one that passes all of your rules, and that's where you'll be headed to with your GPS. Here are some examples of rules you may want to use:
- Set a maximum distance that you are willing to travel.
- Throw out any points that are on water. If you've got a boat this may be no problem, but most of us are probably pretty much landlubbers.
- Want to go hiking? You can discard points that are too far away from the nearest road or that are inaccessible.
- If you don't feel like hiking or the point is on private property or restricted public land you may want to only drive to the road that is closest to the point.
- You can throw out locations that cost more to get to than you have in your travel budget. If you are going to be flying you can use online travel sites like Travelocity to get this information.
- It's probably wise to avoid countries that have a Department of State travel warning. Not that Iran and Iraq are big tourist destinations anyway.
If you want to, you can generate five or ten random points that meet your criteria Then take your pick.
Turn it into a vacation
The random point you choose may turn out to be a really interesting place to visit or it may be a stick next to a couple of rocks out in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes half the fun is just getting there and seeing something that you would not have seen otherwise. You can make the trip more enjoyable by turning it into a real vacation, expanding it to include nearby attractions such as national parks, monuments, museums, recreational activities or whatever you like to see and do. The Internet is loaded with information about attractions in different locations.