how to go about organising a self-drive tour

first, decide on the country of visit.

narrow it down to the region you want to cover if it is a big country and you do not have the time to take in all in one visit.

visit tour agencies to get brochures on the tours that they have to your intended destination. go through their itineraries. this will give you a fairly good idea of the main attractions of the country/region. some tour companies like, sime travels, have proposed itineraries of their self-drive tours.

collect 'literature' of the places. read up as much as possible. get hold of travel guides. no need to buy them. nowadays, the public libraries stock them. read travel magazines.

surf the internet. read travellers' accounts of the places that you want to visit.

visit the tourism promotion board/authority of the country of visit. for example, if you are intending to visit australia, visit the australian mission at united square. if you are visiting uk, you can get materials from the bta at cecil street. (don't know if they have moved)

get first hand information. talk to friends, relatives and people who have done self-drive to the same places.

get hold of a road map. this is very useful when you are drawing up the day-to-day itinerary. take the types of road into account - sealed or unsealed, motorway or country road.

try not to overstretch yourself, covering too much in one day. not more than 300km a day...if possible. this will give you more time and energy to explore the places.

be adventurous. get off the beaten path but do not take unnecessary risks.