The 2018 to-do list: RIDE THESE ROADS

It’s hard for most people to make time for big trips these days. But we’re here to make it even easier for you in 2018, with a selection of top jaunts in the UK and Europe-land, all parcelled up and ready to go. Pack your tank bag and your top box, check your tyre pressures, and let’s go.

The Cote d’Azur has fabulous roads, the best weather on the Med, lovely little towns and loads to do. The roads and beaches are busy and the prices high in summer, so pop down in early spring or late autumn, and you’ll have a ball.

We start in the chic seaside town of Frejus, and head east. There’s a mountain route (DN7), and a coastal road (D559), so you can do a circuit.

The scenery is pretty without being particularly rugged, the deep red sandstone peeping out between the scrubby greenery in this semi-arid climate. The coast road properly winds back and forth, with just the right amount of short peppy straights and super-twisty sections.

When you get to Mandelieu, you can keep going into Cannes for a pricey lunch, or else turn left, and go up into the hills. This is a quieter route – the nearby Autoroute takes all the through traffic, and there’s none of the beach traffic.

Must See

St Tropez isn’t too far away from Frejus, and the roads in the hills behind there are thoroughly fantastic too. In the other direction, Cannes leads to Nice which leads to Monaco, which is certainly worth a look…

Top Tip

Watch out for locals, especially in the hills: there are lots of farms and the like up here, with the attendant elderly men in ancient 2CVs and three-wheeled micro-trucks. Beware of folk taking sudden turns into vineyards, or charging round blind bends to find postwar Peugeots doing 20kph.