How to Earn Points for Driving to New Places
The quickest way to earn points for driving to new places is to use an app that rewards exploring, then plan your drives so they leave your usual patch. In Horizn, every mile earns XP and discovering new areas earns more, so the aim is simple: spend more of your normal driving time on roads and in places you haven't covered before.
That doesn't mean racking up pointless miles. The best exploration fits the driving life you already have: a Saturday errand routed through a market town, a scenic way home from a friend's, a day out with a deliberately unfamiliar destination. Below you'll find how to build a list of places worth visiting, how to theme your routes, and how to get the most from discovery without driving unsafely or wastefully.
Key takeaways
- Draw a rough 30-mile circle around home and treat everything inside it that you haven't visited as your discovery list.
- Give each outing a theme (market towns, a B-road loop, a reservoir, a stretch of coast) so the route has a reason to exist.
- Twist one familiar errand a week: a different town, a different road home. It costs very little extra time.
- In the app, tap Start Drive before you set off, lock your phone and end the drive when you arrive. Check the app for the exact discovery rules.
- Safety sets the pace. Plan before you move, never touch the phone while driving, and stay within the limit.
What counts as a new place, and why it matters
Exploration only works if you're honest about what is new to you. A town you've driven past on the bypass ten times hasn't really been explored; the high street one junction off it might be. It helps to think in three layers:
- New areas: a town, district or stretch of countryside you've never been to.
- New roads: a different way between two places you already know.
- New stops: somewhere you've parked, got out and had a look around.
The layers matter because they stack. A new road to a new town with a new stop at the end is a proper discovery drive. A new road to a place you visit every week is still fun, but it's a smaller change.
The app rewards exploring, and the more you explore, the more you earn. How discovery is scored in detail is something to read in the app itself rather than guess at, so treat anything in this guide about scoring as direction, not arithmetic. What we can say is that variety is the point of enjoying your car in the first place. Familiar roads fade into the background. Unfamiliar ones make you pay attention, and that's the good bit.
Draw a 30-mile circle and fill it in
Thirty miles is a sensible radius: close enough for a half-day out, far enough that a surprising amount of it will be unfamiliar. Do this planning at home on a laptop or tablet, never at the wheel.
- Centre a map on your home postcode and draw a rough circle with a 30-mile radius. Most map tools have a distance-measuring option, but a ruler on a paper road atlas works just as well.
- Mark what you already know. Pin the towns you visit regularly and the roads you drive without thinking. That's your explored zone.
- Mark the gaps. Look for towns, villages, hills, reservoirs, estuaries or stretches of coast inside the circle that you've never visited. Aim for a list of about ten.
- Group the list by direction. North-east, south-west and so on. Neighbouring gaps can often be combined into one trip, which keeps your mileage purposeful.
- Choose an anchor for each outing. That's the thing you'll stop for: a café, a viewpoint, a short walk, a farm shop, a pub lunch. A destination with something to do at the end is what turns a drive into a day.
- Plan the route before you go. Horizn isn't navigation, so use your usual sat nav or map app for directions and set it up while parked. Download offline maps for rural areas where signal is patchy.
Work through the list one gap at a time. After a month or two, your circle will look noticeably different, and you'll have a ready-made list of places to recommend to friends.
Pick a theme so the route has a point
A vague plan to go somewhere new tends to end up on the same old A-road. A theme gives you a shape for the day. Three that work well:
Market towns
Market towns are the easiest win. They have a centre worth parking up in, independent shops, somewhere decent to eat and usually a handful of interesting roads in and out. Pick a cluster of three within your circle and visit one per outing, or all three if you fancy a long day. Check market days before you go: parking is tighter and the streets busier when the stalls are out, and some town centres are partly closed to traffic.
Scenic B-roads
The joy of a good B-road is the scenery, not the speed, so build the trip around the view and a stop rather than the time on the clock. Before you plan one, know the risks. Rural roads can be narrow, with blind bends, hidden entrances, cyclists, horse riders, farm vehicles, mud and surface debris, and sometimes livestock. Drive to what you can see, give vulnerable road users plenty of room, use passing places properly on single-track roads, and take your time. If a road looks rough or unsuitable for your car, turn round and find another. Never treat a lovely road as a stage to be driven quickly.
Water, hills and coast
Reservoirs, lakes, ridges and estuaries make excellent anchors because they come with a view and usually a car park and a path. Pair one with a nearby village for lunch and you have a full day from a single destination. Carry a bit of cash for car parks that don't take cards, and check opening times in advance, especially out of season.
Fold exploration into errands you already do
Not every discovery needs a day out. The cheapest, most sustainable way to explore is to bend the driving you already do.
The one-detour rule
Each week, give one errand a twist. Shop in the next town along instead of the usual one. Take a different road home. Meet a friend somewhere half-way you've never been. Park in a different town for your lunch break and walk around for twenty minutes. The test for whether a detour is worth it is simple: if it adds more than 10 to 15 minutes, it's really a separate outing, so plan it as one. Below that, it's close to free.
Worked example: a Saturday from Leicester
Say you live in Leicester and need to pick up a few bits from a garden centre. Your usual one is ten minutes up the road. Instead, you look at your circle and spot a gap: you've never explored the Rutland side.
You choose a garden centre near Oakham, around 25 miles away, and build a loop with the theme market towns and water. The plan, made at home the night before:
- Outbound via Melton Mowbray, parking in the town centre for a coffee and a wander. You've only ever seen it from the bypass.
- On to Oakham and the garden centre, which is your errand.
- A stop by Rutland Water for half an hour on foot, as your anchor.
- Home through Uppingham and Market Harborough on a different road from the outbound leg, so the loop doesn't repeat itself.
The distances are all roughly 15 to 25 miles from the city, so the whole day is under three hours of actual driving. You still got your errand done. You also visited several places you'd never stopped in, drove a loop that's new from start to finish, and have somewhere to recommend to friends. A different garden centre in another direction would have worked just as well; the template is what matters.
Getting the most from discovery in the app
Horizn doesn't track automatically, so the setup is worth getting right. Tap the big Start Drive button before you set off, then lock your phone and drive normally: the route is tracked in the background. End the drive when you arrive. Do both while parked or stopped safely, never while moving. If you forget to start, don't fiddle with the phone mid-journey; deal with it once you've pulled in somewhere sensible.
A few habits make the most of the discovery side:
- Look at your road atlas or maps app afterwards. Seeing the places you've covered, and the gaps still left, is the best prompt for planning the next outing.
- Check the weekly challenges before you plan. If one happens to line up with a trip you were already considering, great. Don't bend a route around it if the result is a worse or less safe drive.
- Share the project. Leaderboards with friends and clubs work well with a split-the-circle approach: one person takes the northern sectors, another the south, and everyone swaps tips on what's worth the detour. Your car shows on your public profile and to club members, so a photo and a short bio make the comparison more fun.
Remember that every mile still earns XP, and you level up and climb ranks over time. Exploration earns more, but there's no reason to chase it at the expense of enjoying the drive.
Common mistakes
- Driving in circles for XP. Looping the same roads for the sake of it burns fuel, annoys the people who live there and defeats the purpose. If you've got no destination, you've got no discovery.
- Treating B-roads as a time trial. Speeding, racing or timed runs on public roads are never on the table. If you catch yourself rushing, pull in at the next safe spot and have a coffee.
- Going too far, too soon. A four-hour round trip when you're tired is a bad plan. Build up from short loops, and bring a break stop into any long day.
- Forgetting to start the drive. It's an easy slip because nothing happens automatically. Make it part of the same routine as fastening your seatbelt and setting the sat nav.
- Relying on phone signal. Rural dead spots are common. Download offline maps and sort your route before you leave.
- Ignoring access rules. Weight limits, restricted-access lanes, private roads and single-track etiquette all apply. If a sign tells you no, believe it.
- Choosing a destination with nothing to do. An anchor stop, even just a walk, is what makes a place worth the drive.
Your first exploration drive this weekend
You don't need a grand plan. Spend ten minutes tonight drawing your 30-mile circle, choose one gap on the map, pick a stop that makes it worth the trip, and sort the route before you leave. On the day, tap Start Drive in Horizn before you pull away, lock your phone, enjoy the drive and end it when you arrive. Then check the app to see what the new ground did for your XP and rank, and decide where the next one goes.
FAQ
Do I only earn points for driving to new places?
No. Every mile you drive earns XP, and discovering new areas earns more on top of that. The app has the exact rules, so check there for the detail rather than relying on guesses.
How far do I need to go to find somewhere new?
Often not far. A town one junction off a bypass you always use can count as unexplored in practice. A 30-mile radius is a good planning guide, but new roads and new stops closer to home are worth having too.
Does the app track my drives automatically?
No. You tap Start Drive before you set off and end the drive when you arrive. In between you can lock your phone and drive normally. Do both steps while stopped, never while moving.
Can I explore without wasting fuel?
Yes, if you attach it to errands you were making anyway. Swap your usual shop for one in the next town, take a different road home, or meet friends somewhere half-way. If a detour adds more than 10 to 15 minutes, treat it as its own planned outing instead.
Is it safe to chase new roads?
It is if safety leads. Plan routes before you move off, stay within the speed limit, expect cyclists, horse riders and farm vehicles on country roads, and never use your phone while driving. If a road looks unsuitable or you feel tired, turn back and try another day.