Hit the Road With These 20 Best Songs for a Road Trip

I love road trips. If I’m not on a road trip, I’m either planning a road trip or dreaming about the next one. Since road trips and music go together like peanut butter and jelly or in my case — queso and chips — I made a playlist of what I consider some of the best songs for a road trip. All of these tunes make me want to grab my bag and hit the road immediately.

Beautiful Day | U2

How can you listen to this song and not want to take a road trip and see the country? Even though the band is Irish, their Joshua Tree album was inspired by U2’s American tour experiences. They sing about, and mention some of the USA’s best features — mountains, canyons, deserts. I mean who hasn’t been inspired by Joshua trees? Best lyrics:

You’re on the road
But you’ve got no destination
You’re in the mud
In the maze of her imagination

Traveller | Chris Stapleton

Chris Stapleton knows a few things about writing number one songs. He’s written six! You don’t write that many good songs without some real life experience and knowing a few things about being on the road. Best lyrics:

And I’m just a traveller on this earth
Sure as my heart’s behind the pocket of my shirt
I’ll just keep rollin’ ’til I’m in the dirt
‘Cause I’m a traveller, oh, I’m a traveller

Highway to Hell | ACDC

If ever there was a road trip inspiration anthem, it’s this song. It also works well when you are actually on the road trip. Play it in the middle of the night to stay awake or during the day for some serious head banging that will make everyone wonder what you are listening to. Best lyrics:

Hotel California | The Eagles

Could your imagine hearing the opening chords of this song and NOT thinking about being on the road somewhere. Maybe Nevada or Baja Sur where the infamous Hotel California is said to be. At the very least, it taught us gringos a new word for weed. Best lyrics? Why the opening lines of course.

On a dark desert highway
Cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas
Rising up through the air

Panama | Van Halen

When David Lee Roth sings about easing the seat back, you know it’s time for a road trip. Panama is one of those feel good 80’s songs, about a car — maybe — that you just can’t help but sing along to and be inspired by. Best lyrics:

A Thousand Miles From Nowhere | Dwight Yoakam

What can I say about Dwight Yoakam? He just looks like he might know a thing or two about road trips. Especially if you remember those things called videos. His cowboy hat, denim jackets and guitar playing on top of a moving train through some of the most beautiful parts of the county in his video will give you severe wanderlust. Best lyrics:

Peace of Mind | Boston

As I was writing this, I realized I don’t know a lot about the band called Boston. Only that I love their music and it was so hard to pick one favorite song but I think this is it. It’s definitely one of the best songs for a road trip. Best lyrics:

Ramblin’ Man | The Allman Brothers Band

I just can’t help myself with this one and the shameless plug for a Southern Band. The fact that they name several of the best Southern cities, hail from Macon, Georgia and mention highway 41, one of the busiest highways in the country, it was a given. Let’s ride y’all! Best lyrics:

I’m on my way to New Orleans this mornin’
Leaving out of Nashville, Tennessee
They’re always having a good time down on the bayou
Lord, and Delta women think the world of me

Every Mile a Memory | Dierks Bentley

With ten albums under his belt, so many of Dierks’ songs are about life on the road. His genre may be country but he includes a little bluegrass, some lovely ballads and enough sing-a-longs about trucks and driving that anyone would be inspired to grab their keys to hit the road. Dierks continues to see time on my playlists again and again. Best lyrics:

When You Were Young | The Killers

Choosing just one song by The KIllers was tough. Carry Me Home, All These Things I’ve Done, Somebody Told Me and Human are all favorites that make me want to jump in the car, roll down my windows and drive off into the sunset. Ultimately, When You Were Young won because we all wish we were young again so we could take more road trips. Best lyrics:

We’re burning down the highway skyline
On the back of a hurricane that started turning
When you were young
When you were young

Freedom Song | Blackberry Smoke

The first time I saw Blackberry Smoke in concert I was blown away. They definitely filled a gap in what — in my opinion — had been missing from southern rock. The fact that they’re from Georgia also makes me a fan. This song is from the Little Piece of Dixie album but overall, The Whippoorwill is my favorite album. Just about all of their songs are good riding songs. Best lyrics:

Put me on a highway, the interstate
A dirt road to anyplace
As long as I’m long gone
Chasin’ down some blue skies in my old truck

Crazy on You | Heart

It doesn’t have anything to do with a road trip but Ann Wilson has one of the greatest rock voices of all time and how can you not have a Heart song on an ultimate road trip play list? The acoustic intro lulls you in and then it just takes off. Windows down, volume up — there’s no other way to listen to it. Best lyrics:

I was a willow last night in a dream
I bent down over a clear running stream
Sang you the song that I heard up above
And you kept me alive with your sweet flowing love

You’re Gonna Go Far | Noah Kahan

Even though most road trips are happy, depending on the circumstances they can also be a little sad. Noah Kahan captures that amazingly well and has a way of making you feel everything all at once in this song. It’s bittersweet — about leaving and being set free — but something about it just makes you want to point your car down the road and go. Just make sure you have some tissues. Best lyrics:

So pack up your car, put a hand on your heart
Say whatever you feel, be wherever you are
We ain’t angry at you, love
You’re the greatest thing we’ve lost

Kashmir | Led Zeppelin

There is no better song for driving through the desert than Kashmir. It doesn’t matter that it was inspired by a road trip through Morocco — put this on somewhere between Las Vegas and Los Angeles and tell me it doesn’t hit just right. Even if it didn’t have words it’s still a jam. Best lyrics:

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face,
with stars to fill my dream.
I am a traveler of both time and space
to be where I have been.

Waiting Around to Die | Townes Van Zandt

Dark? Yes. Road trip worthy? Absolutely. Townes Van Zandt was Texas through and through and this song proves it. It’s the kind of song that sounds best at 2am on a two-lane highway in the middle of nowhere. Maybe West Texas. Best lyrics:

Sometimes I don’t know where this dirty road is taking me
Sometimes I don’t even know the reason why
But I guess I’ll keep a-gamblin’,
lots of booze and lots of ramblin’

Wheel in the Sky | Journey

If you’ve ever been on a long drive with no set end date, this song was written for you. Where will you go and where will you end up? Who knows? Journey captured the nomadic road tripper’s way of life perfectly. This is one of those songs that sounds exactly like the open road feels. It’s obvious what the best lyrics are:

Ooh, the wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’
I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’

Place Out on the Ocean | Jamey Johnson

I’ve been a Jamey Johnson fan for years — long before most people knew who he was. He’s from Alabama, I’m from Alabama, which makes me claim him a little harder than I probably should. This one has that daydreaming-while-driving quality — like you’re not sure where you’re headed but you know it’s somewhere better. Those second verse lyrics hit a little close to home if I’m being honest. Best lyrics:

I’ve been riding down a two-lane highway
For pretty much all of my life
Trying to do things my way
Wondering if I’ll ever get anywhere but where I came from

The Chain | Fleetwood Mac

There are songs you listen to and songs that listen to you. “The Chain” is the latter. That bass line hits somewhere deep, and by the time Stevie and Lindsey are trading vocals you’re already plotting your escape route. Sometimes the best road trips start with someone you’re trying to put some miles between you and. Best lyrics:

Listen to the wind blow
Watch the sun rise
Run in the shadows
Damn your love, damn your lies

California Dreaming | Freischwimmer

Not every road trip song has to have a lot of lyrics and not every playlist has to stay in one lane. This EDM remix of the Mamas and the Papas classic is pure driving music — steady beat, open road, sunroof open. It’ll surprise you the first time it comes on and then when you hear the last few beats you’ll be hitting repeat. Best part? It still has that dreamy California feeling the original always had, just with a pulse underneath it.

If I didn’t tell her
I could leave today
California dreamin’
On such a winter’s day

I’m Comin’ Home | Robert Earl Keen

Sometimes the best thing about a road trip is going home. If you don’t know Robert Earl Keen by now fix that immediately. He’s been writing songs about the road, the South and real life longer than most people have been road tripping. This one has that lonesome but in a good way highway feeling — like you’ve been gone long enough and it’s time to head back. Best lyrics:

I’m comin’ home
Made up my mind that’s what I’m gonna do
Can’t love nobody on the telephone
I’m comin’ home to you

Best Road Trip Songs

Twenty songs and I still had to leave some off. That’s the thing about road trip music — the list never really ends. Honorable mention to other artists like the Drive-by Truckers, Alabama Shakes, ODESZA, Calexico, Glass Animals and yes, a little bit of Morgan Wallen. Don’t judge me.

If you have Spotify, here’s the playlist that you can add to your own account. And if all this talk of open roads has you itching to actually go somewhere, my road trip planning guide will get you moving.

See you on the road!