The world's best road trips
Search legendary driving routes across the globe. Each guide covers the iconic stops, toll costs and a live estimator, traffic and road-condition alerts, and the best maps to plan your journey, whether you are exploring your new home country or chasing the open road.
Showing 39 of 39 routes
United StatesPacific Coast Highway
California's State Route 1 hugs the Pacific from the redwoods near San Francisco down to the beaches of Southern California, threading cliffside curves through Big Sur.
AustraliaGreat Ocean Road
Built by returned WWI soldiers, this coastal drive west of Melbourne curves past surf beaches, rainforest, and the limestone stacks of the Twelve Apostles.
IcelandRing Road (Route 1)
Route 1 loops the entire island past waterfalls, glaciers, black-sand beaches, and geothermal fields. The definitive Icelandic road trip.
ItalyAmalfi Coast Drive (SS163)
The Strada Statale 163 threads a narrow cliff ledge above the Tyrrhenian Sea, linking pastel towns like Positano and Amalfi below the Sorrentine peninsula.
South AfricaGarden Route
The N2 highway runs along the lush southern Cape coast from Mossel Bay to Storms River, past lagoons, forests, and dramatic ocean cliffs.
United StatesRoute 66
The "Mother Road" runs from Chicago to Santa Monica across eight states, a nostalgic ribbon of diners, neon motels, and desert Americana.
ScotlandNorth Coast 500
A 516-mile loop from Inverness around the wild Scottish Highlands, past lochs, castles, single-track passes, and rugged northern beaches.
GermanyRomantic Road
A 350-km ribbon through Bavaria linking walled medieval towns, baroque churches, and fairytale castles from Würzburg to the Alps at Füssen.
RomaniaTransfăgărășan Highway
A serpentine mountain road climbing over the Făgăraș range to 2,042 m, with dizzying switchbacks, tunnels, and a glacial lake at the summit.
AustriaGrossglockner High Alpine Road
A 48-km toll road of 36 hairpins climbing to 2,504 m below Austria's highest peak, with glacier views and high-alpine visitor centers.
United StatesRoad to Hana
Maui's Hana Highway threads more than 600 curves and 50 one-lane bridges past waterfalls, rainforest, and black-sand beaches on the island's wild eastern shore.
ItalyStelvio Pass
One of the highest paved passes in the Alps, the Stelvio stacks 48 numbered hairpin bends up to 2,758 m, a legendary drive between Lombardy and South Tyrol.
New ZealandMilford Road
State Highway 94 runs from Te Anau into the heart of Fiordland, climbing through glacial valleys and the Homer Tunnel to the fjord at Milford Sound.
NorwayAtlantic Ocean Road
A short, spectacular ribbon of bridges and causeways hopping between tiny islets on Norway's west coast, crowned by the wave-battered Storseisundet Bridge.
CanadaCabot Trail
A loop around the highlands of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, climbing coastal headlands above the Atlantic and Gulf of St. Lawrence, unforgettable in autumn.
FranceRoute des Grandes Alpes
A classic alpine traverse from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean, crossing more than a dozen high passes including the mighty Col de l'Iseran, Europe's highest paved pass.
VietnamHa Giang Loop
A mountainous circuit through Vietnam's far north, winding past limestone karst peaks, terraced rice fields, and ethnic-minority villages on the dramatic Ma Pi Leng Pass.
IndiaLeh to Manali Highway
A high-altitude Himalayan crossing linking Manali with Leh in Ladakh, topping several passes above 5,000 m across a stark, otherworldly mountain desert.
ChileCarretera Austral
Route 7 runs deep into Chilean Patagonia, a mostly remote road of gravel and forest linking fjords, glaciers, and turquoise rivers through near-untouched wilderness.
ArgentinaRuta 40 (Patagonia)
Argentina's legendary Route 40 runs the length of the country beside the Andes. Its Patagonian stretch is an epic of empty steppe, glaciers, and turquoise lakes.
FranceRoute des Grands Crus
Burgundy's "Champs-Elysees of wine" runs south from Dijon through the Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune, past some of the most famous vineyard names on earth.
FranceAlsace Wine Route
France's oldest wine route threads more than a hundred miles of vineyards and fairytale half-timbered villages along the foot of the Vosges, from Marlenheim to Thann.
ItalyChianti Wine Road (SR222)
The Chiantigiana (SR222) rolls through the heart of Tuscany between Florence and Siena, past cypress-lined lanes, hilltop wine towns, and endless vineyards and olive groves.
PortugalDouro Valley (N-222)
The N-222 traces the Douro River through the world's oldest demarcated wine region, past dizzying terraced vineyards and the quintas that produce port and Douro wines.
FranceLoire Valley Chateaux Route
A grand tour of the "Garden of France", linking the Loire's Renaissance chateaux, royal gardens, and riverside wine towns across a UNESCO-listed valley.
GermanyGerman Castle Road (Burgenstrasse)
The Burgenstrasse strings together more than seventy castles and palaces from Mannheim through Heidelberg and medieval Franconia toward Nuremberg and the Czech border.
GermanyBavarian Alpine Road (Alpenstrasse)
Germany's oldest holiday road, the Deutsche Alpenstrasse, runs along the Bavarian Alps from Lake Constance to Berchtesgaden, past fairytale castles, alpine lakes, and mountain passes.
AustriaWachau Valley (Danube)
A short, storybook drive along the Danube between Melk and Krems, past terraced vineyards, apricot orchards, a great baroque abbey, and riverside wine villages.
CroatiaCamino Dubrovnik
Europe's newest Camino is a 145 km walking pilgrimage that slips away from Dubrovnik's crowded Old Town and heads north through the quiet Dalmatian hinterland, crossing into Bosnia and Herzegovina to finish at the shrine of Medjugorje. It follows old trade and pilgrim paths, Mediterranean coast, and mountain slopes, and reveals a side of Dubrovnik most visitors never see.
IrelandWild Atlantic Way
The longest defined coastal driving route in the world stretches 2,500 km along Ireland's western seaboard, from Donegal's sea cliffs to the tropical gardens of West Cork, passing through Connemara, the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher and the Ring of Kerry.
NorwayTrollstigen (Troll Road)
Norway's most famous mountain road climbs eleven hairpin bends up a near-vertical valley wall between Andalsnes and Valldal, with waterfalls crashing beside the tarmac and a glass viewing platform at the top.
CanadaIcefields Parkway
A 232-km highway through the heart of the Canadian Rockies connecting Lake Louise and Jasper, passing glaciers, turquoise lakes, waterfalls and some of the most dramatic mountain scenery on Earth.
South AfricaChapman's Peak Drive
A spectacular 9-km toll road carved into the cliff face between Hout Bay and Noordhoek, offering 114 curves and constant views of the Atlantic Ocean from the slopes of Chapman's Peak.
United StatesOverseas Highway (US-1 Florida Keys)
A 182-km drive across 42 bridges connecting the Florida Keys from Key Largo to Key West, with the Atlantic on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other, culminating at the southernmost point of the continental US.
ThailandMae Hong Son Loop
A 600-km mountain-road loop through northern Thailand's most remote province, passing through 1,864 curves and crossing misty peaks, hill-tribe villages, hot springs and jungle-lined gorges between Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son.
Chile / ArgentinaRuta de los Lagos (Lake District Crossing)
A multi-modal journey across the Andes between Puerto Varas (Chile) and Bariloche (Argentina), traveling by bus, boat, bus, boat, and bus through a chain of glacial lakes beneath smoking volcanoes.
BoliviaSalar de Uyuni Route
A three-day 4x4 expedition across Bolivia's altiplano from Uyuni through the world's largest salt flat, past coloured lagoons, steaming geysers, flamingo colonies and surreal rock formations to the Chilean border.
UzbekistanSilk Road (Uzbekistan Corridor)
A 700-km journey through Central Asia's Silk Road heartland, connecting the great trading cities of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva via high-speed rail and desert highways, past turquoise-tiled mosques, caravanserais and fortress ruins.
ChinaGreat Wall Trek (Jinshanling to Simatai)
A 10-km hike along the best-preserved and most photogenic section of the Great Wall, crossing crumbling watchtowers and rolling mountain ridges between Jinshanling and Simatai, northeast of Beijing.