How to Take a Road Trip Without Using GPS

Somewhere along the way, we humans gave up the task of finding our own way while driving. Instead, we now mostly rely on technology to show us the way. We simply type our destination into our phones and let that little device do the rest.

But doesn’t that defeat the purpose at some point? Instead of going the way we want to go, we’re going the way we’re told to go. And that’s really the point of a road trip anyway: to go where we want to go and see what we want to see.

Before smartphones, people got around just fine for the better part of the 20th century. As someone who has done four cross-country road trips before the advent of the smartphone, I’m here to tell you it can be done—and how.

Turn off the GPS, don’t open Google Maps on your phone and set off for an adventure on the open road. So what if your phone doesn’t reroute you to avoid a patch of traffic? Here are six tips to help you reconnect with your instincts and feel that open road.