Driver's Bucket List
The world's greatest driving routes — from Alpine passes to desert climbs
48 hairpin turns climbing to 2,757 metres — declared the greatest driving road in the world by Top Gear. Every corner reveals a view more dramatic than the last.
Built by Nicolae Ceaușescu across the highest peaks of the Southern Carpathians. Jeremy Clarkson called it "the best road in the world". Tunnels, waterfalls and an alpine lake await.
Austria's highest paved mountain road with 36 bends and direct views of the Grossglockner glacier. A masterpiece of 1930s engineering threading through the High Tauern National Park.
Eight bridges linking a string of small islands above the open North Atlantic. Storm waves crash over the road in winter. Voted Norway's Construction of the Century.
"The Troll's Path" — 11 hairpins climbing a near-vertical cliff face with a 180-metre waterfall cascading beside the road. One of the most photographed roads in the world.
Immortalised in James Bond's Goldfinger (1964). The road traverses the Rhône Glacier and offers relentless switchbacks between two of Switzerland's most dramatic Alpine valleys.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site carved into cliffs above the Tyrrhenian Sea. Ancient villages cling to the hillside as the road twists between lemon groves and sheer drops to the Mediterranean.
Carved directly into the vertical limestone cliffs of the Vercors Massif, this vertiginous road hangs above a 400-metre void. One of France's most breathtaking — and terrifying — mountain drives.
Crowned by a dizzying loop road around the Cime de la Bonette, this is France's highest paved road at 2,802 m. Views stretch from the Maritime Alps to the Mediterranean on a clear day.
Retracing Napoleon's triumphant march from Golfe-Juan to Grenoble after his return from Elba in 1815, the N85 threads through lavender fields, gorges and high Alpine passes.
Rising above Cortina d'Ampezzo through the heart of the Dolomites, Passo Giau delivers jaw-dropping vistas of jagged pale peaks and emerald meadows — a photographer's and driver's paradise.
The Passo di Gavia is a legend among cyclists and drivers alike — narrow, partially unpaved, brutally steep and prone to sudden snow even in summer. Raw and unforgiving Alpine beauty.
UNESCO-listed since 2007, the Lavaux terraced vineyards cascade steeply down to Lake Geneva. Driving these narrow roads between the vines, with the Alps shimmering across the water, is pure magic.
La Côte stretches along the north shore of Lake Geneva between Geneva and Lausanne, its gentle vine-terraced slopes dropping toward the water. A serene contrast to Alpine drama — elegance over excitement.
Blasted into the sheer granite and sandstone cliffs of the Cape Peninsula, Chappies features 114 curves above the Atlantic. One of the world's most spectacular marine drives.
Built by returned soldiers after WWI as a memorial, it winds along the Southern Ocean past rainforests, gorges and the Twelve Apostles limestone stacks. The world's largest war memorial.
Route 1 traces the California coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco through Big Sur's dramatic cliffs, redwood forests and golden beaches. The definitive American road trip.
The "Mother Road" — America's first interstate highway crossing eight states from Chicago to Santa Monica. Ghost towns, neon diners and endless desert mark one of the world's most mythic drives.
Called "the most beautiful drive in America" by Charles Kuralt. A series of dramatic switchbacks climbing above the tree line into alpine tundra with panoramic views of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness.
A figure-8 highway through Yellowstone National Park weaving past geysers, hot springs, bison herds and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. America's oldest national park at its most raw.
Rising from the desert floor, this immaculate road spirals 60 times around the ancient Hafeet Mountain. A favourite Bugatti test route — perfectly surfaced with sweeping curves and zero traffic.
The highest paved international road on Earth crosses the Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Himalaya ranges through Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 metres. Ancient Silk Road trade route rebuilt as an engineering marvel.
Scotland's answer to Route 66 loops around the remote northern Highlands past white-sand beaches, ancient castles, whisky distilleries and mountains reflected in mirror-still lochs.
Route 1 circles the entire island of Iceland past glaciers, volcanoes, lava fields, waterfalls and black-sand beaches. Every kilometre of this ring road reveals a different, otherworldly landscape.
A circular route around the Iveragh Peninsula hugging the Atlantic coast with views of the MacGillycuddy's Reeks mountains. Stone forts, ruined abbeys and some of Ireland's wildest scenery.
48 consecutive hairpin bends climbing to the sacred shrines of Nikkō and the shores of Lake Chūzenji — each turn named after a character of the ancient iroha poem. Japan's most celebrated touge, a UNESCO World Heritage gateway where autumn maples turn the entire mountainside crimson.
Perfectly surfaced tarmac winding up the Hakone volcanic range with commanding views of Mt. Fuji on clear days. A favourite of Japanese manufacturers for prototype testing and the backdrop for countless automotive campaigns — minimal traffic, maximum drama.
A road unlike any other on Earth — carved through the rim of one of the world's largest active volcanic calderas. Mt. Aso's Nakadake crater steams beside the tarmac as the road traverses an ash moonscape above vivid green valleys. May close without notice when eruption alerts rise.