Best European drives beside the seaside
You scarcely need to leave your car to admire some of Europe’s most splendid scenery.
1 Algarve Coast, Portugal
This short, windswept 38-kilometre drive on the N125 between Lagos and Cape St Vincent on Europe’s south-west corner is wild and wave-pounded, yet also takes in millennia of history, from ancient megaliths to Roman ruins, baroque churches to the charming resort town of Lagos.
At Sagres a huge medieval fort looms. The drive ends near a redand-white lighthouse above a foaming Atlantic Ocean – time your arrival for sunset, which is often lurid. See visitalgarve.pt
2 Causeway Coast, Northern Ireland
Ireland’s northernmost coast features a string of glorious (if chilly) beaches, rugged headlands and whitewashed fishing villages, plus a beautiful hinterland of stream-tumbled glens opening up to the sea. Its dramatic landscapes feature in Game of Thrones and are peppered with ruined castles, though most famous is the Giant’s Causeway, where 40,000 hexagonal rock columns edge the sea.
Cliff-spanning Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge will test your head for heights above frothing waves. See visitcausewaycoastandglens.com
selects his 10 top coastal driving routes that will give you good reason to take the slow lane.
3 Amalfi Coast, Italy
The road from Sorrento to Positano and on to Ravello along this famous holiday coast south of Naples plunges up, down and along a coastline that is World Heritage-listed for its landscapes and historic towns. Pastelcoloured houses tumble towards an emerald sea and are backed by lemon groves and forested crags. Narrow bends, tourist traffic and limited parking are frustrations, but this is the ultimate romantic seaside drive. See amalfitouristoffice.it
4 Les Corniches, France
You don’t have to get remote to get fabulous views. The French Riviera’s three pine-scented corniche routes head from Nice to Menton through some of the most densely populated real estate in Europe.
Follow the lowest to inspect glitzy resort towns such as Cannes and Monte Carlo. The highest, the cliff-hugging Grande Corniche or D2564, has you suspended between sky and Mediterranean with plunging views of villas and yachtcrowded harbours. See frenchriviera-tourism.com
5 Atlantic Road, Norway
This wild 36-kilometre drive between Karvag and Bud on western Norway’s RV64 highway runs along a coast of fjords and mountains. It packs a particular punch on an eight-kilometre section that runs over numerous eye-popping bridges connecting several islands.
Norwegians voted it the engineering feat of the century in 2005. Don’t wait for the sun: the sinuous road is sprayed by spume from Atlantic waves on dramatic, windy days. See fjordnorway.com
6 Ring of Kerry, Ireland
The 179-kilometre circuit around the Iveragh peninsula, mostly on the N70, has superb views of coast, loughs and mountains that culminate in the south-west in a bedazzlement of beauty. It’s rightly famous and often crowded; tour coaches generally travel anticlockwise, so head in the other direction. The landscape is dotted with historic standing stones, ruins and castles. It’s worth detouring to the inland Gap of Dunloe for more tremendous scenery. See theringofkerry.com
7 The High Coast, Sweden
This section of Sweden’s E4 highway from Harnosand to Ornskoldsvik takes under 1.5 hours, but runs through a World Heritage-listed, glacier-produced landscape to make you linger.
The Baltic coast here is one of Sweden’s best hiking regions and is a convolution of red-granite cliffs and islands, rocky outcrops and pine forest. The route’s highlights are Bonhamn fishing village, the unique rock-slab coastline at Rotsidan and green countryside around Nordingra. See hogakusten.com
8 Trotternish Peninsula, Scotland
Wind-whipped beaches, moors and peat bogs, sheep farms and lush, deep valleys characterise Skye, an island off Scotland’s west coast, making almost any drive spectacular. But take to the A855 around the Trotternish Peninsula in the north for the best landscapes. Mountains have a dramatic, cloudy beauty, heather glows on the hillsides and waterfalls plunge off cliffs into the ocean. The jagged rock pinnacles of the Quiraing are magnificent. See skye.co.uk
9 Adriatic Highway, Croatia
It takes six hours to motor almost the entire Croatian coast from Rijeka to Dubrovnik on the D8, but budget at least a week. At times the road follows bay edges and passes through seaside towns, at others climbs over cliffs in switchbacks and blind bends to test the nerves, with fine views over the Mediterranean and Croatia’s gorgeous islands. Zadar and Split are two top towns for a pause. See croatia.hr
10 Route One, Iceland
Iceland is famously scenic thanks to its collision of waterfalls, fjords, volcanoes, hot springs and glaciers. Route 1 circumnavigates the whole island nation, taking in most of its notable towns and some truly remote regions where the road occasionally becomes gravel. The whole loop is nearly 1300 kilometres, but the northern section through waterfallthundering mountains, dramatic coastal rock formations and past the fjord at Akureyri might be the best section. See visiticeland.com
Brian Johnston has travelled as a guest of tourist offices or tour companies in many of these destinations.