The 10 best Drives in the world
1 LOS ANGELES TO LAS VEGAS VIA DEATH VALLEY
Spend a day on one of the US’s most dramatic routes, CA-190. It goes right through the middle of Death Valley, winding through the huge dunes and colourful rock formations of Eastern California’s famous national park. It’s the lowest, hottest and driest place in the US. Highlights include Furnace Creek, with the world record for the highest air temperature at a seriously sweaty 57°C.
2 TRANS CANADA AND YOHO VALLEY ROAD
At 7,800km, the Trans Canada Highway is one of the world’s longest, most spectacular road trips. It’s hard to do it all but why not fly into Vancouver and cross the Rockies on the 965km stretch to Calgary? And for an adventurous detour on the way, take a short drive north from the Highway at Kicking Horse Pass, west of Banff. You’ll head into Yoho National Park and discover why Yoho is Cree for ‘awesome’.
3 SERRA DO RIO DO RASTRO ROAD, BRAZIL
This dramatic road in the southeast is only 25km long but motorists come from all over the world to drive its winding route through junglecovered peaks. The SC390 twists up cliffs, round rock pinnacles and past deep rainforest chasms to reach a plateau that’s a popular eco-resort. Locals enjoy regular driving festivals on the route – there are 250 hairpins to fear or enjoy, depending on your taste.
4 THE TRANSANDEAN HIGHWAY, VENEZUALA
The Transandean Highway runs for 1,600km across Venezuela. If you haven’t time for such a marathon trip, the central section across the northern Andes is the best bit. The 650km between two international airports at San Cristobal and Barquisimeto crosses the country’s highest mountain pass, Collado del Condor, at a breathless 4,100m. At the top of the pass there’s a chapel, cafe, gift shop… and a bronze monument of a condor.
5 ROAD TO HEAVEN, CHINA
Road signs warn: ‘Don’t drive up here if you are prone to car-sickness.’ But if you can stomach scores of hairpins up Tianmen Mountain, you’ll experience one of the world’s most remarkable roads. The mountain is an interesting 320km drive west through forests from Changsha airport. But it’s the final 10km that you’ll remember. It’s so ridiculously bendy that tourists visit just to watch people trying to drive up it. If you reach the top of this helterskelter you can park and climb 999 steps to a natural rock arch, beautiful old temple and glass ‘skywalk’ above a canyon that’s almost as scary as the road.
6 THREE LEVEL ZIGZAG, INDIA
Drive 160km north of Bagdogra to find the pretty Sikkim village of Nimachen. From here, the drive to the spectacular Lungthung viewpoint near the Chinese border is only 30km – but on the map it resembles a printing error. The road turns into a big squiggle. It was once part of the ancient Silk Road, connecting Japan to Europe, and traders travelled the zigzag by mule. Today it crisscrosses the Himalayan foothills in a breath-taking serpentine tangle. There are incredible mountain views, including Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak.
7 THE GREAT BEACH DRIVE, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
Just north of Brisbane, this could be classed as a brilliant road trip… except it doesn’t use a road at all. Instead, it’s one of the world’s longest beach drives. The 160km route connects Australia’s Sunshine Coast with Fraser Island. This ‘Nature Coast’ is renowned for kangaroos, whales, turtles, dingoes, koalas and platypus. You’ll need an SUV, a couple of ferry trips and a permit that can be arranged at Tewantin at the start.
8 THE GARDEN ROUTE, SOUTH AFRICA
It’s a short drive from Cape Town to this 200km strip of Western Cape coastline between Mossel Bay and Storms River. Take the well-signed route with the Tsitsikamma and Outeniqua mountains on one side and a sequence of wild rocky coves and sandy beaches on the other. Along the way enjoy a few lakes and lagoons, too. You’ll drive through forests, mountain passes and dramatic gorges.
9 THE STONE ROAD, TURKEY
To drive from Kemaliye through the Munzur Mountains to see Divrigi mosque, you can take the easy journey on modern roads round the mountains… or a direct route right through them. This is Turkey’s ‘Stone Road’ that took more than a century to build. Labourers toiled for lifetimes, cutting and tunnelling through cliffs by hand. It’s not for the faint-hearted as it is a narrow, unpaved route through the deep canyon of the River Euphrates. It’s humbling to reach the monument honouring workmen who died building the road.
10 ROUTE ONE, ICELAND
Iceland’s national ring road runs for about 1,300km, right around its coast. It offers a drive through extraordinary landscapes of glaciers, volcanoes, waterfalls, geysers, lakes, mountains, sea stacks, fjords, islands and icebergs. Allow a few weeks to take it all in… and keep an eye out for boiling blue geothermal mud pits, fresh lava flows and inquisitive reindeer.
DON’T DRIVE UP HERE IF PRONE TO CAR SICKNESS