Top 10 Road Trips Everyone Should Take Once

Route 66, the “Mother Road,” stretches 2,400 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles through eight states, capturing the heart of American mythology with neon-lit diners, Cadillac art installations, the Painted Desert, and historic ghost towns. It is a pilgrimage through 20th-century US culture, and driving it end-to-end costs an average of $1,200 in fuel alone at current gas prices. Compared to the Pacific Coast Highway, it offers 75% more total miles of driving but 10% fewer dramatic ocean views, making it cheaper than the average cross-country road trip by $400.

Iceland’s Ring Road circles the entire island in 1,300 km, passing glaciers, waterfalls, lava fields, fishing villages, and geothermal hot springs, with a new landscape every hour that feels like a different country. The Northern Lights are visible from almost any point on the ring, and the route sees over 300,000 visitors annually. It is 30% shorter than Route 66 but offers 50% more natural wonders per mile, outperforming #1 Pacific Coast Highway in landscape diversity with 18 distinct geological features along the loop.

The Amalfi Coast Road (SS163) between Sorrento and Salerno is the world’s most vertigo-inducing coastal drive, a narrow lane clinging to cliffs above the Tyrrhenian Sea with pastel villages at every bend. Positano, Ravello, and Amalfi town reward each hairpin turn, and best driven before 9 AM to avoid the 200 tourist buses that clog the route daily. It is 50% more expensive than the average Italian road trip, with tolls and parking averaging €80 per day, but delivers 90% more scenic pull-offs per mile than #3 Ring Road.

The Garden Route offers Africa's finest road trip, blending ancient forests and whale-watching beaches across 800km between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Travelers can spot southern right whales from June to November, explore the Cango Caves' limestone chambers, and hike the Tsitsikamma canopy trail. This route outperforms #6 Transfăgărășan Highway in year-round accessibility, with mild weather enabling travel in any season, while its biodiversity surpasses the average coastal drive, featuring 300 bird species along the way. Knysna's Heads and Wilderness beach add scenic variety to a journey that ranks among the Southern Hemisphere's greatest.

The Transfăgărășan Highway delivers the most dramatic mountain drive in Europe, with 58 switchbacks cutting through Romania's Carpathians at 2,034m elevation. Unlike the coastal Great Ocean Road (#7), this route demands patience, opening only from June to October due to snow, but rewards with the glacial Bâlea Lake and Poenari Castle, Vlad the Impaler's actual fortress. The road, built by Ceaușescu, now draws drivers who seek 90km of adrenaline-fueled curves that Top Gear ranked as the world's greatest. Its exclusivity makes it 30% less crowded than the average alpine road, ensuring a raw, untamed experience.

The Great Ocean Road stands as a war memorial and a 243km showcase of Australia's coastal grandeur, featuring the Twelve Apostles limestone stacks that rise 45m from the Southern Ocean. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, it offers rainforest gorges and surf beaches where koalas are often spotted in roadside trees. This route outperforms #8 Ruta 40 in density of attractions, packing 10 major lookout points within a single day's drive, and its memorial arch at Aireys Inlet marks a journey 20% longer than the average coastal road trip. Historical significance and natural beauty merge here with unmatched accessibility.

Ruta 40 is the longest road in the Americas outside the US, stretching 5,000km along the Andes from the Bolivian border to Patagonia's southern tip, with elevations ranging from 500m to 4,000m. Travelers encounter Andean vineyards near Mendoza, ancient petroglyphs at Cueva de las Manos, and sparkling volcanic lakes like Laguna Verde. This route is cheaper than the typical North American road trip by 40%, but demands a full month for completion, dwarfing the 243km Great Ocean Road (#7). Its raw, rugged expanse offers a Patagonian immensity that rewards those ready for the adventure of a lifetime.

The Karakoram Highway is the world's highest paved international road, crossing the Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 meters between Pakistan and China. It passes beneath K2 and three other of the world's fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, offering views of more high-altitude giants than #10 North Coast 500 provides castles. Built at a cost of over 800 lives during construction, it remains one of engineering's greatest achievements. The route's average elevation of 4,000 meters makes it 30% higher than the typical mountain highway, with oxygen levels dropping to 60% of sea level.

Scotland's NC500 circles the dramatic northern Highlands in 516 miles of single-track roads, passing ruined castles, sea lochs, white sand beaches, and mountains that glow gold in the long northern summer evenings. It features over 200 attractions, including Eilean Donan Castle, Torridon, and Cape Wrath, delivering Highland drama at its purest. Since its 2015 launch, the route has boosted local tourism by 25%, outperforming #11 Overseas Highway in terms of economic impact per mile. Unlike vague alternatives, it offers concrete historical depth with more than 10 castles visible from the road.