Thanks for the great feedback. I will start evolving the design based on this. Please let me know if you want to see any specific fonts/colours whilst I am at it. Feel free to send links to things to like as they can be really helpful.
Here are some variations based on your feedback. I have gone with a sort of street painted line to maintain the journey aspect in a more subtle way. Please let me know if you want to see combinations of any of these designs.
Spent some time picking the colouring for this one based on your comments, textured the background and altered the mark to use negative space to create a route through it. Really like this one, eager to hear your thoughts.