I did my night rating here in the UK and was told the similar story to most of the points above i.e. head for the dark patch , water, or nearby a city, but to try and avoid landing on the roads.
Conversely when I was in the US last year I did some night flying and took an instructor as it had been a while since I had done any and yes to be honest I didn't want to get lost. But he was adamant that you should head for a road/highway and wouldn't teach anything else, within the bounds of safety of course.
It was interesting the different opinions on opposite sides of the Pond.
Mind you this week I am in Finland and its -25c
. Good things is there are plenty of lakes to land on.
