The 11 Best Road Trips Podcasts (2026)

The Ultimate Road Trip Podcast asks one beautifully simple question to every guest: if you could take one road trip anywhere, what would it look like? Host James Whalley sits down with petrolheads, motorsport legends, musicians, and public figures and walks them through five specific prompts -- the car (make, model, color), why that car, the destination, the passenger, and the soundtrack. It sounds like a formula, but the answers reveal a surprising amount about each person.

Now in its fifth season with 50 episodes under its belt, the show has featured Formula 1 drivers, automotive designers, and entertainment personalities. Episodes range from quick 10-minute chats to extended 90-minute conversations, though most land around 40 to 50 minutes. The tone is relaxed and enthusiastic without being overly technical -- you don't need to know your camshafts from your crankshafts to enjoy it.

What makes the show genuinely engaging is how the format strips away the usual promotional interview energy. When someone explains why they'd pick a beaten-up 1972 Land Rover over a brand-new supercar, or why they'd drive to a specific stretch of Scottish coastline, you get real personality instead of rehearsed talking points. The soundtrack choices alone tell you more about a guest than most hour-long interviews manage. It's the kind of show that makes you want to start planning your own ultimate road trip before the episode even ends.

Noah Mulgrew and his dog Noodles spend their lives on America's backroads, and Backroad Odyssey is their field report. The show focuses on the places most travelers blow past on the interstate -- the small towns, roadside oddities, and overlooked historical sites that make American road trips genuinely interesting once you get off the highway.

With 81 episodes across two seasons, the podcast alternates between deep-dive location episodes and shorter "On the Road" segments packed with travel trivia and listener questions. Recent episodes have covered spots like Sanibel Island's shell beaches and other locations that rarely show up in mainstream travel guides. Each episode runs 20 to 35 minutes, which is just enough time to thoroughly cover a place without dragging.

Noah's research is thorough -- he digs into the history of each location with the kind of detail you'd expect from a documentary, but delivers it with the casual energy of someone telling you about a cool place they just stumbled across. The production quality is polished, and listeners have given it a perfect 5.0 rating across 25 reviews, which is unusual for a podcast this size. The show updates weekly and has built a following on Instagram where Noah shares photos from the road. If you tend to pull off at every brown highway sign pointing toward something historical, this show was made for you.

The Atlas Obscura Podcast is an audio companion to the wildly popular Atlas Obscura website and book series, both of which catalog the world's strangest and most fascinating places. Co-founder Dylan Thuras hosts, joined by Atlas Obscura reporters who fan out across the globe to track down stories about locations you won't find in any standard guidebook.

The format is built for road trips in a very specific way: episodes drop Monday through Thursday and run under 15 minutes each. That means you can queue up a handful and burn through them between rest stops. With over 1,300 episodes in the archive, you could drive coast to coast several times before running out of material. The show has a 4.6 rating from over 1,680 reviews, which speaks to how consistently it delivers.

Each episode focuses on a single place or phenomenon -- a hidden cave system in Hungary, a cemetery where people are buried standing up, a lake that turns animals to stone. The stories are well-researched and narrated with genuine curiosity rather than forced excitement. Original music by Sam Tyndall gives the whole thing a distinctive atmosphere that sits somewhere between a travel documentary and a campfire story. It's the kind of podcast that will make you reroute your road trip to see something bizarre you never knew existed 30 miles off the highway.

Kim, Brittanie, Jamal, and Zeina are long-time friends who turned their group travel obsession into a podcast that now bills itself as the number one vacation show. With 443 episodes and counting, they cover international destinations, national park adventures, road trips, wine regions, and weekend getaways with the kind of energy that makes you want to open a booking app mid-episode.

What sets Travel Squad apart from other travel podcasts is the group dynamic. These aren't polished travel influencers reading scripts. They argue about itineraries, disagree on restaurants, and roast each other's packing choices. The chemistry is genuine, and it makes even a detailed breakdown of glamping options in Colorado feel like you're sitting in on a friend group's trip-planning session. They also offer downloadable itineraries for many episodes, which is a nice touch if you want to actually replicate their trips.

The show includes regular "Just the Tip" bonus segments that offer focused travel advice on topics like points-and-miles strategy, packing essentials, and how to maximize layovers. Episodes run anywhere from 30 minutes to multi-hour deep dives depending on the destination. The podcast holds a 4.5 rating from 256 reviews on Apple Podcasts, with listeners consistently praising the actionable recommendations. Some reviews mention that ad frequency can be a bit much, but the content between the ads is solid. If you prefer your travel advice served with personality and real opinions rather than generic listicle vibes, this one delivers.

Mike and Jennifer Wendland have been living the RV life and reporting on it since 2014, making the RV Podcast one of the longest-running shows in the road travel space. The format blends industry news, campground reviews, gear recommendations, and interviews with fellow travelers into episodes that run 20 to 30 minutes on average.

The show updates weekly with main episodes and also drops Monday "News Edition" segments covering the latest developments in the RV world. Recent episodes have featured stories like meeting the youngest RV YouTubers on the road, practical tips for boondocking, and interviews with families who sold everything to travel full-time. The Wendlands have a 4.4 rating from 632 reviews, and the show's community extends to RVCommunity.com where listeners connect between episodes.

What sets this apart from other travel podcasts is the practical depth. Mike spent decades as a journalist before hitting the road, and that background shows in how he structures stories and asks questions. Jennifer brings a complementary perspective, and recurring contributor Wendy adds field reports from different locations. The show doesn't romanticize the RV lifestyle -- they talk openly about mechanical breakdowns, bad campgrounds, and the realities of living in a small space. For anyone who has ever fantasized about buying an RV and just driving, this podcast gives you the honest version of what that actually looks like.

Matt and Karen Smith visited all 63 U.S. National Parks, wrote bestselling books about the experience, and then started this podcast to keep sharing stories from the road. Dear Bob and Sue (named after the friends they wrote their original travel emails to) has grown to 176 episodes and earned a 4.9 rating from over 1,250 reviews -- numbers that put it among the most beloved travel podcasts anywhere.

Episodes run 40 to 65 minutes and typically focus on a single park or destination. A recent episode covered Pinnacles National Park with specifics about the caves, California condor viewing spots, and the High Peaks trail. Other episodes tackle mailbag questions from listeners planning their own trips, state park recommendations, and honest recaps of adventures that didn't go according to plan. The Smiths are refreshingly candid about their mistakes and misadventures, which makes the show feel like getting travel advice from experienced friends rather than polished travel influencers.

The podcast is a natural companion for anyone planning a national parks road trip. Matt and Karen break down logistics like when to visit, where to stay, which hikes are worth the effort, and which ones are overhyped. They've been doing this long enough to have strong opinions, and they aren't shy about sharing them. The weekly episodes are supplemented by companion blog posts with additional details and photos. If you've got a parks passport and a full tank of gas, this is the podcast to queue up.

Ash and John from the Dirt In My Shoes blog turned their national parks obsession into a weekly podcast, and it's quickly become one of the most popular shows in the outdoor travel space. With 138 episodes and a 4.8 rating from 600 reviews, Exploring the National Parks covers everything from trip planning specifics to fun facts about the geology, wildlife, and history of America's park system.

Episodes typically run 45 minutes to just over an hour and follow a few different formats. Some focus on a single park with detailed breakdowns of the best hikes, viewpoints, and campgrounds. Others are fun-fact episodes that cover park trivia and lesser-known stories. Trip report episodes share Ash and John's own experiences from recent visits, complete with honest assessments of crowd levels, trail conditions, and whether a park lived up to the hype.

The hosts have an easy chemistry that makes the longer episodes fly by. Their banter is genuine -- they clearly enjoy both the parks and making the podcast, which comes through in every episode. The show also offers downloadable resources through their website, including reservation checklists and packing guides, which turns it from pure entertainment into a genuine trip-planning tool. Recent episodes have covered parks like Saguaro and included seasonal timing advice that can make the difference between an incredible trip and a frustrating one.

Family Road Trip Trivia Podcast has a simple premise that works brilliantly in a car: host Brittany Gibbons (known as BG) and co-host Meredith serve up trivia questions across dozens of categories while keeping things competitive, funny, and family-friendly. With 244 episodes and a 4.6 rating from nearly 3,000 reviews, it's one of the most popular family-oriented road trip shows out there.

Each episode runs 9 to 18 minutes, which is a smart length for keeping kids engaged without wearing out the format. Categories rotate constantly -- movies, music, sports, video games, TV shows, holiday themes, pop culture -- and the difficulty level shifts between episodes so everyone from a 7-year-old to a grandparent can play along. Some episodes are deliberately labeled as hard or easy, which helps families pick the right one for their group.

The dynamic between BG and Meredith is where the show gets its personality. They're hilariously competitive with each other, tossing out sarcastic commentary and genuine surprise when one of them gets something wrong. The show has replaced "I Spy" and the license plate game for a lot of families, and listener reviews are full of stories about kids requesting specific episodes for car rides. Guest hosts appear occasionally to mix things up. It's the rare podcast that genuinely improves a family road trip by giving everyone something to do together instead of retreating into separate screens.

Aaron Mahnke created Lore, one of the most successful podcasts in history, and then launched Cabinet of Curiosities as a companion project with a very different format. Instead of 30-minute deep dives, each episode here runs just 8 to 12 minutes and packs in two short stories about historical oddities, strange facts, and bizarre real-life events. The show drops twice a week, and with 807 episodes in the archive, there's an absurd amount of content to work through.

The stories span everything from obscure crimes to scientific curiosities to cultural phenomena you've probably never heard of. One segment might cover the inventor of a food product you eat every day, while the next tells the story of a 19th-century con artist who fooled an entire city. Mahnke's narration style is measured and deliberate -- he knows how to build tension and land a punchline without rushing. The production is clean, with subtle music and sound design that never overwhelms the storytelling.

For road trips specifically, the bite-sized format is ideal. You can listen to three or four episodes between gas stops, and each one is self-contained so there's no serialized plot to track. The show has a 4.5 rating from over 8,300 reviews and a content rating of clean, meaning it works in a car with passengers of any age. Think of it as a bottomless bag of conversation starters -- you'll spend half the drive discussing what you just heard.

Lisa and Paul are two self-described restless souls who packed their lives into a pickup truck camper they call "The Bobs" and hit the road across America. Road Tripping In America documents their overlanding adventures with the kind of unvarnished honesty that makes you feel like you're riding along in the back seat.

The show ran for four seasons and 39 episodes before the hosts paused production in late 2022, but the existing catalog remains a fantastic listen for anyone planning their own cross-country trip. Episodes range from 10 to 53 minutes, with most landing in the 25 to 40-minute sweet spot. The format includes day-in-the-life stories from the road, a "Driver's Ed" interview series featuring other travelers they met along the way, and a quirky recurring segment called "Stocks and Vagabonds" where they discuss the financial side of full-time travel.

Lisa and Paul have an easygoing chemistry that makes even their mundane travel moments entertaining. They talk about the gorgeous vistas and the memorable encounters, but they're equally willing to discuss the flat tires, the campgrounds that turned out to be parking lots, and the days when they just wanted to stay put. The show has a 4.7 rating from 15 reviews, and while the episode count is modest, every one of them captures something genuine about what it means to choose the road over a fixed address.

Women Who Travel comes from Conde Nast Traveler, and it's exactly the kind of travel podcast you'd hope that pedigree would produce. Host Lale Arikoglu interviews women about their most memorable travel experiences -- from going off-grid in the Danish wilderness to country-hopping solo across Southeast Asia -- and the show invites listeners to share their own stories, too. It's part travel inspiration, part practical advice, part community.

The episodes run weekly at about 25 to 35 minutes, which is a nice length for a commute or a lunch break. With 347 episodes in the archive, the show covers an impressive range of destinations and travel styles. What sets it apart from generic travel podcasts is the specific focus on women's perspectives: the logistics of solo female travel, the cultural encounters that hit differently when you're a woman abroad, the freedom and vulnerability that come with exploring unfamiliar places on your own terms. The show has a 4.3-star rating from over 600 reviews and has gone through some format evolution over the years. The current iteration under Lale focuses heavily on personal narrative and diverse voices, featuring women from different backgrounds sharing how travel has shaped their understanding of themselves and the world. If you're planning your next trip or just daydreaming about one, this podcast will give you both the destination ideas and the courage to book the ticket.