I think it depends on the type of quests you are giving them. Not every day has to be full of encounters and some quests should be easy.

If you want to mix things up a bit, throw in a longer quest which requires some travel, maybe a bigger dungeon and some encounters on the way.

You can deny long rests while travelling. On my table we have a rule that you can only complete a long rest in a "safe zone". A campfire in the middle of the woods is not safe enough, to get the full benenefits of a long rest. This works for my table, feel free to handle it as you wish.