We spend too much time travelling with a sat-nav. Don't get me wrong, I use Google Maps as much as the next person, and it has helped me find my destination without dozens of U-turns. But where's the fun in that?

A growing number of drivers are realising this, spending their holidays by going on road trips where the main focus is not a particular attraction or venue, but the things that can be discovered along the way.

However, many of the most popular trips to make in the UK, such as the North Coast 500 in Scotland and the South Downs in Sussex still involve drivers sticking to certain roads and intently studying road maps.

To many, this is what's expected for a road trip, but does it need to be this way? As part of their Everyday Adventure campaign, Dacia has suggested that drivers try out a spontaneous road trip, where motorists only plan the starting point and flip a coin to determine where they travel next.

To determine whether it could work, I decided to try it out for myself, taking one of the company's latest generation Duster SUVs, just in case the coin led me off the beaten track.

As if the idea was not quite ambitious enough, I decided it would be a good idea to start my road trip at the infamous Snake Pass in the Peak District. If you think you've heard that name before, you probably have - traffic reports usually mention it is completely closed in snowy and wet conditions.

There's a very good reason for this. In addition to the high altitude, narrow lanes and hairpin bends, the hilly surroundings are particularly susceptible to the odd landslide. When I visited, one stretch of the road was plagued with temporary traffic lights after an entire lane had crumbled to nothing and slid down the hill.

In all, Snake Pass is certainly not for the faint of heart and takes plenty of concentration, but is still a particularly enjoyable road. Besides, as it would turn out, it was far from the most challenging road I would encounter during the trip.

Approaching a junction, my passenger flipped the penny which confirmed it was time for us to to leave the famous pass for a much more narrow lane. In any other situation, I would never have given the junction a second look, and I felt somewhat nervous in case I was trespassing on a farmer's private road.

Fortunately, I was quickly reassured by a National Trust sign which explained that the public is allowed on the little lane, which took us over a small bridge before running parallel with Snake Pass for a short while.

Unfortunately, the road did not lead us anywhere useful, so after a four-point turn to avoid plummeting down into a valley, we headed back onto the Snake Pass towards the Ladybower Reservoir.

I sadly don't have anywhere near enough space to write about every road that the penny took us on, but by far the most ambitious was - Winnats Pass. Just past the village of Castleton, Winnats Pass is a much smaller road that winds its way through various limestone ridges.

Compared to Snake Pass, Winnats is significantly narrower. But don't let the single open gate at either side of the pass fool you, this is not a quiet road. During my first time on Winnats Pass (that damn penny made me do it again later in the day), I was being tailgated by a lorry whilst doing my best to let oncoming traffic pass whilst not straying off the side of the track.

That said, there are very few public roads I have encountered that felt quite so entertaining to use. The twists and turns naturally mean that drivers will need to keep their speed down, but a slow pace will help to give drivers plenty of time to admire the views, particularly towards the top of the road, which overlooks 

On the whole, my penny-controlled road trip was undoubtedly entertaining, taking me to roads I would never have visited and through villages I had never even heard of, despite all being around two hours away from my doorstep.

Needless to say, there were a fair amount of U-turns and hair-raising moments, but isn't that exactly what road trips are about? Even without any particular knowledge when I was there, taking the randomised route made me feel more inclined to do some research once I was home and certainly boosted my confidence behind the wheel.

I would definitely recommend that drivers with a day to spare and an adventurous spirit try out a penny road trip, but would remind them that they still should follow all driving laws - staying away from tracks marked 'private road' and letting a passenger do all of the coin flipping not to avoid distractions.