Guide
The world’s most hair-raising hairpin roads
A hairpin is the purest test of a road and a driver: full lock, a held breath, then the next one. These are the most hairpin-dense drives in our catalogue, ranked by the number of true hairpin bends, counted directly from each road's geometry rather than guessed.
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1
75hairpins
Stelvio Pass
The cathedral of mountain passes, 48 stacked hairpins to a 2,757 m sky.
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2
50hairpins
Coll de Sóller (Ma-11A)
The old pass road over the Tramuntana into Sóller, a dense ladder of hairpins now bypassed by a tunnel and left almost to itself.
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3
44hairpins
Col de la Lombarde
A relentlessly twisting border climb above the Isola 2000 ski resort, famous for its near-continuous ladder of hairpins.
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4
38hairpins
Col de Braus
A celebrated ladder of stacked hairpins in the Maritime Alps behind the Riviera, long a fixture of the Monte Carlo Rally.
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5
36hairpins
Passo Giau
A wild, hairpin-stacked Dolomites pass above Cortina.
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6
36hairpins
Vršič Pass
Fifty cobbled hairpins over the Julian Alps.
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7
36hairpins
Langada Pass
Taygetus crossing through the Langada gorge
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8
33hairpins
Passo delle Erbe (Würzjoch)
Quiet high Dolomites pass under the Sass de Putia north face
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9
33hairpins
Passo di Croce Domini
Narrow high pass linking three Brescian valleys in the Adamello foothills
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10
32hairpins
San Bernardino Pass
An old Alpine crossing beside its motorway tunnel.
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11
32hairpins
Tsugaru Iwaki Skyline
A private toll road up Mount Iwaki with 69 hairpins stacked into a beech-forest climb, one of the most relentlessly switchbacked roads in the world.
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12
31hairpins
Col de la Bonette
One of the highest paved roads in the Alps.
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13
30hairpins
Col de la Madeleine
A long, relentless Tarentaise–Maurienne climb.
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14
30hairpins
Nockalm Road
Carinthian toll road over the rounded Nock mountains.
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15
28hairpins
Grossglockner High Alpine Road
Austria's grand toll road, sweeping past glaciers to 2,500 m.
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16
28hairpins
Col d'Izoard
A legendary Tour de France climb through the Casse Déserte.
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17
28hairpins
Passo Falzarego
A grand Dolomites pass on the Great Dolomites Road.
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18
28hairpins
Colle del Nivolet
A breathtaking dead-end climb to a string of high lakes.
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19
28hairpins
Umbrail Pass
Switzerland's highest paved pass road, hairpins up to the Stelvio
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20
26hairpins
Port de Pailhères
High Ariège Pyrenees pass with stacked hairpins above Ax-les-Thermes
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21
26hairpins
Irohazaka (Iroha-zaka)
Legendary Nikko touge: 48 hairpins climbing 600m to Lake Chuzenji
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22
25hairpins
Silvretta High Alpine Road
A graceful toll road of stacked hairpins to the Bielerhöhe.
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23
24hairpins
Passo Pordoi
Flowing Dolomite hairpins on the legendary Great Dolomites Road.
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24
24hairpins
Cormet de Roselend
A sublime road past a turquoise mountain lake.
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25
24hairpins
Passo dello Spluga
A vertiginous old trading pass of stacked stone hairpins.
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26
24hairpins
Timmelsjoch
A high toll pass on the Italy–Austria border, 2,474 m.
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27
24hairpins
Gotthard Pass (Tremola)
Switzerland's most famous cobbled pass, 24 granite-sett hairpins up to the Gotthard summit.
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28
23hairpins
Alto de Velefique
Andalusia's answer to the Stelvio, a dense ladder of hairpins out of the desert onto a 1791m sierra summit.
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29
22hairpins
Col de Turini
The Monte Carlo Rally's fabled night stage above the Côte d'Azur.
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30
22hairpins
Passo Rolle
A forested Dolomites pass beneath the Pale di San Martino.
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