Davos to Stelvio via Bormio, Switzerland/Italy

Etched precariously through the peaks of the eastern Alps, this dizzying zigzag road built in the early 19th century is a hard-core workout for the very best of drivers and automobiles. The 60 hairpin turns transport you 9,042 feet up the mountains in 90 miles. The heady views are mostly yours alone.

 

Overall height is 2757 meters and is famous for “the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern Alps, and the second highest in the Alp, and It has been described as the best driving road in the world.

 

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Davos to Stelvio via Bormio, Switzerland/Italy

The Mt Hood Scenic Driveway

The Mount Hood Scenic Byway starts in “The City of Roses”, Portland Oregon on the US north Pacific coast.

The Byway’s route includes parts of present-day U.S. Route 26 and Oregon Route 35 and the historic Barlow Road through the Mount Hood Corridor. Enjoy the clean air, the stunning countryside and the majestic presence of Mt Hood.

The Mt Hood Scenic Driveway

North Shore Scenic Drive, Highway 61

The North Shore Scenic Drive is a destination unto itself. It begins in Duluth, Minnesota and follows the northeastern edge of Lake Superior for 154 unspoiled miles to Grand Portage.

Highway 61 draws a paved line between the world’s largest freshwater lake and dramatic bedrock formations covered with boreal forest. It guides you past waterfalls, rugged cliffs, the backdrop of the Sawtooth Mountains, and beaches of rocks tumbled smooth by this inland sea.

The star attraction, though, is the Big Lake herself. Depending on her mood, she greets you with sparkling azure waves, rolling walls of whitecaps, glassy stillness, power that emanates seemingly from earth’s center. Spend a little time here, and you’ll understand how she rules life along the shore.

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North Shore Scenic Drive, Highway 61

Friendship Highway, Tibet

If the thought of impending death and lugging around crampons bothers you, you can still get to Everest Base Camp without the aid of Sherpas and a rope. The Friendship Highway links the Tibetan capital of Lhasa with the camp at Rongbuk. Along the four-day journey, you’ll climb out of the plateau surrounding the capital through tiny villages, monasteries, turquoise lakes and giant peaks before finishing up staring at the north face of Mount Everest.

The Facts: You’ll have the chance to see five of the world’s highest peaks: Everest, Shishapangma,

Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu.

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Friendship Highway, Tibet

The New Zealand Southern Alps

The Southern Alps is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand’s South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the island’s western side.

The roads and highways that traverse the length and breadth of the island and the ranges offer some of the most amazing drives on the planet.

Take the Forgotten World Highway for example, which meanders through some of the countryside where The Lord of the Rings was filmed. It’s the closest thing to travelling back in time that you’ll experience.

 

In truth, there are some stretches of road on New Zealand’s South Island that defy description. The scenery is unfailingly spectacular, and there’s nothing like it anywhere in the world. Where else can you drive through snow-capped mountains in the morning, and be taking afternoon tea on the beach?

 

The New Zealand Southern Alps

The Great Ocean Road

The 150-mile single- carriageway route stretches between the towns of Torquay and Warrnamboolon the southern Australian state of Victoria. It takes in all the major tourist attractions along the way, including the 12 Apostles, a collection of limestone stacks in the Southern Ocean. There’s rainforests, beaches and cliff drops to marvel.

It’s difficult to believe that as you drive west with The Great Southern Ocean just a few metres away on your left side, that the continent of Antarctica lies beyond the horizon.

Conde Nast travel magazine rates the Great Ocean Road as one of the top 20 journeys of a lifetime while Frommer’s guide puts it in the top 10 road trips on the planet.

Image Source: Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0″

The Great Ocean Road

Awesome Drives

The question is often pondered; “Which came first the chicken or the egg?” Similarly, we may wonder; “Which came first the car or the road?”

Here’s an even deeper question. What IS a road and when does it stop being a “means to an end”, and become something much more?

Answer: when it becomes a thing of joy to drive upon!

Here then, is a collection of some of the top drives in the world (in no particular order)…roads that are works of art! Yes, a road IS a work of art, or at least it becomes a work of art when combined with natural scenery (oceans, mountains), and engineering excellence (ie, tunnels, bridges)

To begin, we’re going “Down Under” to Australia and New Zealand, and we’ll start with Sea Cliff Bridge (recently featured on our Facebook Page ).

Sea Cliff Bridge

Award-winning, off-shore and parallel-to-coast Sea Cliff Bridge forms part of the Grand Pacific Drive and is located on scenicLawrence Hargrave Drive, 60 kms south from Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia.

The Bridge provides road, pedestrian and cycleway access along its entire length (665 metres, and spectacular views. Like the Bridge, Grand Pacific Drive never loses sight of the sea. It hugs the coast between the high battlements of the Illawarra Escarpment, looming like the great wall of a lost world, and the vastness of the Tasman Sea, an ocean view so wide you can see the curve of the Earth.

Looking south, the “Coast with the Most” is scalloped with bays, and world class surf beaches all the way to Wollongong and the magnificent South Coast of New South Wales.

Awesome Drives