Top 10 Driving Roads Every Car Enthusiast Should Experience

The Stelvio Pass climbs to 9,045 feet via 48 hairpin turns on the north side alone — each one numbered on stone markers as you ascend. Built in 1820-1825 by the Austrian Empire, it's the highest paved pass in the Eastern Alps and was voted the greatest driving road in the world by Top Gear. The switchbacks are impossibly tight, the gradients are brutal, and the views across the Ortler Alps are breathtaking. The road is typically open June through October, and every car enthusiast should drive it at least once before they die.

Built by dictator Nicolae Ceausescu as a military strategic route across the Carpathian Mountains, the Transfagarasan is 56 miles of tunnels, viaducts, and switchbacks climbing to 6,699 feet through the Fagaras Mountains. Jeremy Clarkson called it "the best road in the world" on Top Gear in 2009. The northern descent features a continuous series of sweeping curves alongside Balea Lake that are among the most photogenic in Europe. It's only open four months a year (late June through October), making each drive feel like a limited-edition experience.

Highway 1 from Monterey to Morro Bay through Big Sur is 90 miles of coastal road clinging to cliffs 1,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean. The Bixby Creek Bridge, built in 1932, is the most photographed bridge in California. The road twists through redwood forests, past McWay Falls (which drops directly onto the beach), and along stretches where the only thing between your tires and the ocean is a prayer. It's not the fastest road or the twistiest, but the combination of scenery, drama, and driving engagement is unmatched in North America.

The Furka Pass connects the cantons of Uri and Valais at 7,992 feet with a series of perfectly engineered sweeping curves through Alpine meadows and past the Rhone Glacier. James Bond drove it in Goldfinger (1964) in a silver Aston Martin DB5, cementing its place in automotive mythology. The road surface is immaculate — Swiss engineering at its finest — and the elevation changes offer constant visual drama. Combined with the Grimsel and Susten passes, it forms the "Swiss Alps Triangle," one of the greatest single-day driving loops in the world.

The "Troll's Ladder" is an 11-hairpin road carved into a near-vertical mountainside in western Norway, with a gradient of 9% and two lanes barely wide enough for a single bus. Stigfossen waterfall drops 1,050 feet beside the road, spraying mist across the pavement at the tightest turns. The viewing platform at the top cantilevers over the edge, offering a vertigo-inducing view of the road snaking below. Open only from late May to October, Trollstigen is engineering defiance — a road that has no business existing, built because Norwegians decided a mountain wasn't going to stop them.

The Great Ocean Road stretches 151 miles along Victoria's southwestern coast, built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 as a memorial to their fallen comrades. It's the world's largest war memorial and one of the most scenic coastal drives on Earth. The Twelve Apostles limestone stacks, the rainforest canopy of the Otway Ranges, and the surf breaks of Bells Beach create a constantly changing backdrop. The driving is engaging without being terrifying — sweeping coastal curves interspersed with tighter inland sections through eucalyptus forests.

The Col de Turini is the spiritual heart of the Monte Carlo Rally — the stage where championships are won and lost. At 5,272 feet, the pass connects Sospel to La Bollene-Vesubie through dense forest with dozens of tight, technical hairpins that reward precision over speed. The road surface changes from smooth tarmac to rough patches without warning, and the tight tree-lined sections feel like driving through a tunnel at speed. Rally legends from Walter Rohrl to Sebastien Loeb have made their names here. Drive it at night with your headlights on full beam for the authentic rally experience.

The SS163 Amalfitana winds 25 miles along the cliffsides between Sorrento and Salerno, threading through pastel-colored villages perched impossibly on vertical rock faces above the Tyrrhenian Sea. The road is barely two lanes wide, carved directly into the limestone cliffs by hand in the mid-19th century. Tight tunnels open suddenly to panoramic Mediterranean views. Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello punctuate the drive with espresso stops that feel like movie sets. The driving is intense — oncoming buses will test your mirror-folding skills — but the combination of beauty and challenge is quintessentially Italian.

Ruta 40 is the longest road in Argentina at 3,227 miles, running from the Bolivian border to Tierra del Fuego along the spine of the Andes. The section through Patagonia — from Bariloche south to El Calafate — is the driving experience of a lifetime: vast, empty steppe with snow-capped peaks in every direction, no traffic, no speed cameras, and roads that stretch to the horizon. Some sections are still unpaved gravel, adding an expedition quality that paved roads can't replicate. It's not about corners or speed — it's about the overwhelming scale of landscape and the freedom of the open road.

The Stelvio Pass climbs to 9,045 feet via 48 hairpin turns on the north side alone — each one numbered on stone markers as you ascend. Built in 1820-1825 by the Austrian Empire, it's the highest paved pass in the Eastern Alps and was voted the greatest driving road in the world by Top Gear. The switchbacks are impossibly tight, the gradients are brutal, and the views across the Ortler Alps are breathtaking. The road is typically open June through October, and every car enthusiast should drive it at least once before they die.

Built by dictator Nicolae Ceausescu as a military strategic route across the Carpathian Mountains, the Transfagarasan is 56 miles of tunnels, viaducts, and switchbacks climbing to 6,699 feet through the Fagaras Mountains. Jeremy Clarkson called it "the best road in the world" on Top Gear in 2009. The northern descent features a continuous series of sweeping curves alongside Balea Lake that are among the most photogenic in Europe. It's only open four months a year (late June through October), making each drive feel like a limited-edition experience.

Highway 1 from Monterey to Morro Bay through Big Sur is 90 miles of coastal road clinging to cliffs 1,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean. The Bixby Creek Bridge, built in 1932, is the most photographed bridge in California. The road twists through redwood forests, past McWay Falls (which drops directly onto the beach), and along stretches where the only thing between your tires and the ocean is a prayer. It's not the fastest road or the twistiest, but the combination of scenery, drama, and driving engagement is unmatched in North America.

The Furka Pass connects the cantons of Uri and Valais at 7,992 feet with a series of perfectly engineered sweeping curves through Alpine meadows and past the Rhone Glacier. James Bond drove it in Goldfinger (1964) in a silver Aston Martin DB5, cementing its place in automotive mythology. The road surface is immaculate — Swiss engineering at its finest — and the elevation changes offer constant visual drama. Combined with the Grimsel and Susten passes, it forms the "Swiss Alps Triangle," one of the greatest single-day driving loops in the world.

The "Troll's Ladder" is an 11-hairpin road carved into a near-vertical mountainside in western Norway, with a gradient of 9% and two lanes barely wide enough for a single bus. Stigfossen waterfall drops 1,050 feet beside the road, spraying mist across the pavement at the tightest turns. The viewing platform at the top cantilevers over the edge, offering a vertigo-inducing view of the road snaking below. Open only from late May to October, Trollstigen is engineering defiance — a road that has no business existing, built because Norwegians decided a mountain wasn't going to stop them.

The Great Ocean Road stretches 151 miles along Victoria's southwestern coast, built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 as a memorial to their fallen comrades. It's the world's largest war memorial and one of the most scenic coastal drives on Earth. The Twelve Apostles limestone stacks, the rainforest canopy of the Otway Ranges, and the surf breaks of Bells Beach create a constantly changing backdrop. The driving is engaging without being terrifying — sweeping coastal curves interspersed with tighter inland sections through eucalyptus forests.

The Col de Turini is the spiritual heart of the Monte Carlo Rally — the stage where championships are won and lost. At 5,272 feet, the pass connects Sospel to La Bollene-Vesubie through dense forest with dozens of tight, technical hairpins that reward precision over speed. The road surface changes from smooth tarmac to rough patches without warning, and the tight tree-lined sections feel like driving through a tunnel at speed. Rally legends from Walter Rohrl to Sebastien Loeb have made their names here. Drive it at night with your headlights on full beam for the authentic rally experience.

The SS163 Amalfitana winds 25 miles along the cliffsides between Sorrento and Salerno, threading through pastel-colored villages perched impossibly on vertical rock faces above the Tyrrhenian Sea. The road is barely two lanes wide, carved directly into the limestone cliffs by hand in the mid-19th century. Tight tunnels open suddenly to panoramic Mediterranean views. Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello punctuate the drive with espresso stops that feel like movie sets. The driving is intense — oncoming buses will test your mirror-folding skills — but the combination of beauty and challenge is quintessentially Italian.

Ruta 40 is the longest road in Argentina at 3,227 miles, running from the Bolivian border to Tierra del Fuego along the spine of the Andes. The section through Patagonia — from Bariloche south to El Calafate — is the driving experience of a lifetime: vast, empty steppe with snow-capped peaks in every direction, no traffic, no speed cameras, and roads that stretch to the horizon. Some sections are still unpaved gravel, adding an expedition quality that paved roads can't replicate. It's not about corners or speed — it's about the overwhelming scale of landscape and the freedom of the open road.