I feel like fast travel is too immersion breaking in Skyrim. How did I get to this place so fast without running into someone? Did I meet a merchant along the way, pass a courier, or missed a dragon attacking a village? What have I missed by simply teleporting to a destination on my map? How did I get into the middle of a giant camp without alerting the giant guarding the entrance? This just doesn't make sense to me. Fast travel is just too boring and makes the game less fun to me.

Further, is there some way at all to make it so that you can still take carriages, but make the travelling more real time? I want carriages to actually travel when I sit in them instead of acting like a fast travel to a place, a major city that I haven't been to. All I have to do is carriage to the major cities and then I can fast travel for free, not that 50g is anything to me anyhow. So, why not allow me to take carriages to other towns, besides the major ones? Instead of appearing at a dungeon entrance instantly, it makes more sense to me to be able to take a carriage to a nearby town and then hike up, since, of course, the carriage may have difficulties getting to a secluded daedric shrine nestled atop the freezing mountains of Skyrim and it's a risk that the carriage driver is not willing to take. Also, I think that carriages should cost much more than they do presently. I have 90 thousand + gold sitting in my inventory and paying a mere 50 gold to get from one side of Skyrim to the other end is ridiculous, at best. Do I have to pay for the horse's food or rest at an inn if it's a long journey? Will I have to stop the carriage from being attacked my bandits and raiders? Will other people want to join me because it's safer to travel with a greater number of people and the Dovahkiin?

Things like this would make the game much better for me, and others may agree with me as well. I understand something like what I described above is not easy and there are limitations due to the creation kit not being out yet, but I can hope that one day, something like this may be accomplished.

Your first sentence reminds me of Fallout 1/2 and you could use the Outdoorsman skill or whatever it was called to reduce random encounters or choose whether or not to encounter them. I was hoping to sit in carriages too, and stare at the beautiful mountains while it rode me to another town. I was surprised when it was just instant. The carriage driver person guy (what are they called? carriagemaster?) never gets to finish his sentences before it starts loading, too.

I don't know if RT carriage rides are possible, I doubt it, but I could very easily be wrong.

What should be doable with some scripting and some CK world building.....

Make a carriage ride be interrupted with many different kinds of event's.

1. Getting robbed
2. Picking up another passenger (not sure being there isn't a animation to show you on a cart with someone else getting in)
3. Dragon attack
4. Animal attack
5. Option to stop to help someone
6. With high enough bounty get stopped by the local guards
7. Mage attack (I hate those guys )

well actually

"insert anything here" attack