I Took A Spontaneous Road Trip Just For The Perfect Brunch & It's The Best Way To Do It
Brunch is a necessary weekend plan for many friend groups. It’s the perfect excuse to get together once a week with your favorite girls for Insta-worthy bites and sips, along with even better conversation. That’s why I took a spontaneous road trip for brunch with my best friends, and it's the best way to do it.
Looking at my calendar, I realized that I had nothing to do on Sunday, but didn’t want to have yet another lazy day on the couch with my cat. (Don’t get me wrong, though — that's the definition of my perfect day.) I was looking for an excuse to get out of the house for a bit, and brunch was just that.
My friends and I always end up at our go-to brunch places, where I order the same dish over and over again. I wanted something new, and that's why I decided embarking on a road trip to find the perfect brunch spot was the way to go.
I texted my besties in our group chat to see who was available, and thankfully, everyone was down for the adventure. They even started pitching places to go. I live in LA, and because of the traffic, I usually never make it over to the beach. But as soon as my friend suggested, "Malibu," I knew that's where we needed to go. So, when Sunday arrived, we hopped in the car in our cutest brunch attire and headed towards the ocean.
We were equipped with the perfect driving essentials.
For the drive, we were sure to pack the road trip necessities. Of course, I'm talking about great tunes, a few snacks, water bottles, sunglasses, and a full tank of gas. If you're planning on taking a spontaneous road trip, I highly recommend creating a Spotify playlist where you and your friends can add all of your favorite songs. (I mean, what's a road trip without belting out the jams with your sunnies on?)
Every crew is different, but my squad decided on early '00s throwbacks, including "Bye Bye Bye" by *NSYNC and "Hey Ya!" by OutKast. Driving with the windows rolled down and wind blowing our hair, my friends and I felt like we were in a music video all the way to brunch.
Choosing just the right brunch spot is not always an easy task.
Since Malibu was entirely new brunch territory for us, my friends and I were pretty clueless on where to even begin. That's when we let Yelp be our guide. With a quick search of "best brunch spots," we stumbled upon Duke's Malibu, which is perfectly situated on the beach.
There are ocean views everywhere, "Duke's island mimosas" and bloody Marys ready to get the party started, and all the food you could ever want to eat at brunch — from cheddar cheese scrambled eggs and hickory smoked bacon, to coconut French toast and banana-macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup. (Yum!) As a hardcore foodie myself, I was in complete heaven and definitely hit up the buffet more times than once.
This road trip was the best excuse to stop along the way for new squad pics.
After brunch, we decided to drive along the Pacific Coast Highway until we spotted a place to stop and check out the beach. That's when we found a picturesque rocky lookout that was basically begging us to take a few pics for the 'Gram. I set up a self-timer and put my camera on the roof of my car, and we posed for some amazing shots. (To be honest, most of the pics we took looked like they could be the cover of our girl band album if we ever decided to drop one.)
After the pics, we spent time catching up, looking out to the ocean, and of course, doing our best Ariel impressions on the rocks as we sang "Part of Your World" with the waves crashing below. It's safe to say, our brunch road trip was a success.
When all is said and done, I believe a good rule to follow for any road trip is to be spontaneous. You have to be flexible and open to whatever comes your way. That especially means stopping on the side of the road for fun photo ops.
On the drive home, I kept thinking about how grateful I was to have that Sunday Funday feeling. What I got out of it was great food, fun pics, amazing memories with my favorite people, and no Sunday scaries in sight.
