Guide
The best coastal drives in the world
A great coast road gives you two views for the price of one: the sea on one side, the land falling into it on the other. These are the finest coastal drives in our catalogue, the cliff roads and shoreline sweeps worth crossing a country for, each hand-picked and mapped from its real geometry.
Bealach na Bà7 mi · 18 min · 626 m summitView the roadbook ›
Distance
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1
7 mi18 min
Bealach na Bà
A coast road in the truest sense: it starts at the tide of Loch Kishorn, climbs its alpine hairpins to 626 m, and delivers you back to the sea at Applecross with Skye and the Hebrides filling the horizon the whole way down. The salt is in the air at both ends and the panorama in between is the finest sea view any British road offers. Single-track with passing places, 1-in-5 at the steepest, and weather straight off the Atlantic that can close it in snow; earn it slowly, then have the seafood at the inn with the tide in front of you. The greatest coastal arrival in these islands.
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2
39 mi1 h 19 minCauseway Coastal Route
Forty miles of Northern Ireland doing its best work: the A2 threading between the sea and the nine Glens of Antrim, harbours and headlands taking turns, castles on the cliffs, and the Giant’s Causeway waiting at the far end. As pure coast-following goes nothing else in Britain or Ireland sustains it this long. It is a touring road, honest and gentle, so give it the day it deserves: cyclists and coaches share the season, the North Channel sends its weather across undiluted, and every village deserves the stop. Finish on the basalt columns at golden hour and try to argue the world list placement. You will not.
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3
27 mi57 minOrientale Sarda
Ask drivers for the best road on earth and this is the name that comes up most. The SS125 south of Dorgali loops through the limestone passes of the Supramonte above the Gulf of Orosei, fifty kilometres of near-perfect asphalt, short straights feeding continuous blind bends, topping out at Ghenna 'e Silana above Gorropu, Italy’s deepest gorge, and it is very often completely empty. The sea is a blue presence far below rather than a shoulder companion, which is the only reason it sits this far down a coastal list. Watch for livestock and rockfall after rain, fuel up beforehand, and drive it in spring or autumn when the light is long and the coaches are elsewhere.
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4
14 mi31 minGeiranger Eagle Road
Eleven hairpins above one of the world’s great fjords.
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5
7 mi13 minAtlantic Ocean Road
A causeway of bridges leaping between Atlantic skerries.
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6
7 mi17 minConor Pass
The R560 crosses from Dingle to Cloghane in 7.3 miles, a narrow mountain road that tops out at 456 m with passing places for oncoming cars.
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7
25 mi50 minIzu Skyline
40.6 km ridge toll road down the Izu Peninsula spine with Mt Fuji and twin-bay views.
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8
20 mi36 minSouth Coast at Vík
Paved Ring Road run past waterfalls to black beaches.
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9
3 mi7 minSa Calobra
Mallorca’s coiled serpent, a road that ties itself in a knot.
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10
43 mi1 h 29 minRoad to Hana
620 curves and 59 bridges through Maui’s rainforest coast.
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11
23 mi47 minPacific Coast Highway, Big Sur
Highway 1 runs 23.4 miles south along the California coast from Carmel to Big Sur, crossing the Bixby Bridge on the way.
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12
8 mi17 minHakone Turnpike
Japan’s 'Nurburgring': private toll climb to the Daikanzan Mt Fuji vista.
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13
28 mi58 minGreat Ocean Road
The famous 45 km between Lorne and Apollo Bay, built by returned WWI soldiers and squeezed between the Otways and the surf.
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14
62 mi2 h 4 minSea-to-Sky Highway
Out of Horseshoe Bay with Howe Sound filling the window, then up past the Stawamus Chief and Shannon Falls into the Coast Mountains to Whistler.
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15
72 mi2 h 25 minRing of Kerry
The N70 does the heavy lifting on the Ring of Kerry, threading between mountain and Atlantic around the Iveragh peninsula through Cahersiveen, Waterville and Sneem.
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16
13 mi27 minSlea Head Drive
The R559 loops the western tip of the Dingle Peninsula past beehive huts and golden strands, narrow enough that meeting a tour coach is the day’s main event.
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17
6 mi13 minChapman's Peak Drive
Nine kilometres carved into the near-vertical face of Chapman’s Peak, the Atlantic straight below and 114 bends between Hout Bay and Noordhoek.
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18
61 mi2 h 8 minCabot Trail
Completed in 1932 and named for John Cabot, it climbs from Cheticamp over French Mountain at 455 m, switchbacks down MacKenzie Mountain and drops over Cape Smokey to Ingonish.
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19
13 mi32 minKotor Serpentine
Sea-level hairpin wall climbing high above the Bay of Kotor.
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20
72 mi2 h 18 minMilford Road
Some 119 km from Te Anau through the glacier-carved Eglinton Valley, into the single-lane Homer Tunnel and down a 1-in-10 plunge to the fiord beneath Mitre Peak.
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21
115 mi2 h 35 minSeward Highway
Anchorage to Seward between glacier cliffs and a tidal arm.
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22
7 mi20 minTarga Florio, Collesano Descent
The closing miles of the world’s oldest road race, Collesano to the sea.
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23
108 mi2 h 50 minOverseas Highway
42 bridges and a hundred miles of open water to Key West.
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24
23 mi51 minAmalfi Coast
The cliff-hugging Amalfitana above the Tyrrhenian Sea.
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25
16 mi33 minSt Ives to St Just
The road across the end of England. From St Ives to St Just the B3306 runs the granite shelf of Penwith between moorland and Atlantic, threading ancient field walls that were old when the Romans arrived, engine houses on the skyline, the sea always a field away. It is narrow, twisting and slow, with blind bends and farm traffic setting the pace, which is correct: this is a landscape to move through at the speed of looking. Out of season, in low winter light, it is one of the most atmospheric drives in Britain. Stop at Zennor, walk to a cove, carry on to the last town before America.
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26
18 mi35 minJurassic Coast Road
The great grandstand of the Dorset coast. The B3157 rides the high ground between Weymouth and Bridport with the whole eighteen-mile sweep of Chesil Beach laid out below, the Fleet lagoon behind it, and the Channel beyond, one of the finest sustained sea views from any English road. The road itself undulates and dips through villages of golden stone, with proper gradients at Abbotsbury and summer traffic that believes in stopping. Drive it westbound in the afternoon so the light works the shingle, and pull in at the marked viewpoints; the temptation to stare is genuinely dangerous at the wheel here.
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27
12 mi27 minPorlock Hill
The hill is the headline: 1-in-4 hairpins hauling the A39 off the Somerset coast and onto Exmoor, one of the steepest main-road climbs in England, with the toll road through the woods as the graceful alternative for the unsure. But the whole run earns the entry, coast on one shoulder, moor on the other, Porlock bay shrinking below as you climb. Low gear up, lower gear down, and mind the brakes; the descent has ended more clutches and brake sets than any road in the West Country. Short, historic and genuinely steep, it is the Exmoor coast at its most theatrical.
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28
36 mi1 h 12 minOban to Lochgilphead
The quiet masterpiece of the Argyll coast. South of Oban the A816 winds past sea lochs and island views into Kilmartin Glen, one of the richest prehistoric landscapes in Europe, standing stones and burial cairns scattered within yards of the tarmac. The road is narrow and undulating with blind summits and logging traffic, so the pace stays honest, and the rewards keep coming for thirty-six miles: Luing and Scarba offshore, forest, machair, history. It is never crowded, which among the roads on this list makes it almost unique. Take the Kilmartin museum stop; the road is better when you know what you are driving through.
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29
26 mi49 minAppin Coast
The gentle one, and sometimes the gentle one is the day’s best decision. The A828 follows the Appin shore between Ballachulish and Connel with Castle Stalker posing on its tidal island, the hills of Morvern across the water, and the loch doing something different with the light every mile. It flows rather than fights, narrowing at the old bridges, carrying its share of tourist traffic in season. Driven as the connector between Glencoe and the Oban coast it turns a transfer into a pleasure; driven for itself, slowly, it is the west Highlands with the difficulty turned down and the beauty left at full volume.
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30
19 mi38 minTywyn Coast Road
The Mawddach estuary is the star: the A493 leaves Dolgellau along its southern shore, mountains reflected in the tidal flats, then turns down the Cardigan Bay coast to Tywyn beneath the seaward slopes of Cadair Idris. Estuary, mountain and open sea in nineteen miles, with the narrow shoreline stretches and small towns keeping the pace honest. Time the estuary leg for low tide light and it is one of the most quietly beautiful drives in Wales. Loop back over the A487 through Corris and you have circled Cadair Idris entirely, which is the correct way to spend a Welsh afternoon.
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