Detour favourite California 33 has been crowned Road of the Year 2024 by Hagerty in its first annual award highlighting the best routes for drivers in the USA.

Aaron Robinson, Editor-at-Large for the classic car insurer and media brand explains: “A few rules were necessarily applied to help winnow down the endless possibilities. First, the road had to be no more than a one-day round trip from a major urban center, the thinking being that anyone should be able to access the route easily as a day excursion and while perhaps visiting this urban center for work or vacation (we may change our mind on this point in future selections). Also, the pavement had to be in good condition. Plus, it had to have some dining amenities, and we leaned toward roads with outlets to other roads, such that they could be run in one direction rather than merely to a turnaround point.”

Meeting those criteria and more is Route 33 that runs 170 miles from Ojai to Coalinga. “This road has everything: technical challenges, gob-smacking vistas, relatively light traffic, generally hospitable weather, a very tourist-friendly walking town as its jumping-off point, and the option of returning to the same bed in LA from which you arose that morning,” says Robinson.

Along the way you’ll find more than 100 turns and a memorial to James Dean who crashed his ‘Little Bastard’ Porsche in 1955 in a largely deserted drive. “Big-sky views at the turnouts supply grand vistas over the mottled green and brown hills and sandy valleys that form the arid landscape, the single road sluicing through it the only real evidence of human hands.”

We couldn’t agree more with the choice of California 33 and look forward to seeing what the driving enthusiasts at Hagerty come up with in 2025.