But while browsing maps online makes sense if you've got the time, up till now there's been a missing link for people wanting to use that online travel advice for a road trip - getting all that data into your car's GPS.
Rather than waste hours sitting in your hotel room, planning the most scenic route to drive, there's now a quicker alternative - jump in your car and dial up a pre-planned itinerary on your GPS unit.
The feature is available on selected Navman GPS units, and uses pre-planned routes deemed by Lonely Planet to be of interest to tourists. Australia has 25 of these routes, including the Great Ocean Road, the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, the Barossa Valley for wine lovers, and the Blue Mountains and Canberra.
The GPS units with this feature (Navman's MY75T, or via download for the MY65T) also have the advantage of telling your about restaurants, hotels and other locations from Lonely Planet's vault of travel advice.
While it's designed for "spontaneous" road trips, we'd say it's also potentially a useful idea for anyone doing a road trip in any of the coverage areas where the "Scenic Drives" are available. On the upside, there's no pre-planning needed, though we'll be interested to see whether there's much room for customising the routes to suit your travel plans.
It's also another reason to consider a dedicated GPS. There are a variety of phone and iPad apps and travel guides, but we checked with Lonely Planet who told us this is the first pre-planned digital itinerary they've done for a "PND" (or dedicated GPS).
Online city guides and reviews are already having a huge impact in the way smartphone users plan and book their holidays. In addition to TripAdvisor for user reviews of hotels, restaurants, and travel tips, the Lonely Planet iPhone app has also been updated.
Another place you can find pre-planned digital itineraries is on the iPad. Lonely Planet has made its Discover guidebooks for France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, and Spain available on the iPad, including "tailored" itineraries.
