10 Must-Drive Mountain Roads
It’s high time to head out on a high-altitude, high-octane driving adventure. To sweep through the switchbacks and climb to heights that will take your breath away.
If you’re an advocate of alpine automotive adventures then you’re in the right place, as Detour has a multitude of mountain pass guides available.
Here’s ten of the best to get you started.
Pikes Peak, Colorado, USA
Driving the road for the famous Pikes Peak International Hillclimb is definitely a bucket list item. It’s conscripted from the public for the race one week each year for the course that runs 12 miles up into the clouds at the top of Pikes Peak, at 14,115 feet (4,300 metres) above sea level. That’s when the myriad of racers in everything from ordinary street cars to the most exotic specials attack the hill trying their hardest to beat the ten-minute mark. The best do, but most do not.
Col Tizi N’Tichka, Atlas Mountains, Morocco
The N9, or Col Tizi N’Tichka takes you over the High Atlas range to Ouarzazate, treating drivers to 120 miles of unforgettable motoring. The name translates to ‘difficult path’ and, although it’s well paved and maintained that doesn’t make it easy. Climbing to a mighty 2,200 metres the views are either epic or non-existent as the road can get completely engulfed in cloud.
Col de l’Iseran, France
The run to the ski resort at Val D’Isère takes you over the Alps’ highest pass. Driving up might just be more fun than skiing down.
It’s hard to gauge just what direction you’re actually travelling in thanks to the number of times the route loops around and back on itself as it climbs to a peak of 2,700 metres. Sometimes it’s almost claustrophobic as you’re penned in by the mountains on both sides, while at others the vistas appear almost endless.
Trollstigen, Norway
Carved right out of the mountainside itself, this road is a breathtaking drive, with genuinely awe-inspiring views through the mountains.
No less than 11 hairpin bends will elevate you to the dizzying 852m peak, at which point you’re still dwarfed by the surrounding mountains which reach double that height. Each corner has its own name, often one that comes from the construction worker who oversaw its building back in the 1930s.
Kaunertal Glacier Road, Austria
The Kaunertal Glacier Road was once a pilgrimage route. Taking true believers from Kalternbrunn to Melagg in the Southern Tyrol the road was arduous, and tested not just faith but endurance.
Today the Kaunertal Glacier road remains a journey to take not out of necessity but out of belief. Belief in the pure joy of driving.
Bealach na Bà, Scotland
You know you’re about to experience something special when you see a road sign that reads: “Not advised for learner drivers, very large vehicles or caravans.”
The Applecross Pass – or Bealach na Bà – was once a drovers’ road, worn out of the mountainside by cattle, not cut by machines for other machines. As such it’s narrow, windy and steep. Very steep. In fact, with inclines of one in five, it’s the steepest in the UK.
TRANSFĂGĂRĂȘAN Highway, Romania
The road is only open from June to October when it becomes one of Romania’s most popular tourist attractions. So to avoid the coaches, cars, cyclists and motorcyclists, you need to make an early start.
If you do you will be rewarded with one of Europe’s best drives, a road that’s strangely sympathetic with nature, yet at times brutally at odds with it. Over almost 60 miles you will follow valley floors, scythe up mountainsides and blast through concrete tunnels.
Julier Pass, Switzerland
As you hustle through the hairpins of the Julier Pass, spare a thought for the snowplough drivers who have to manhandle their machines from switchback to switchback to keep the road open 365 days a year.
In winter months the route is a monochrome meander through the mountains, in the summer a sea of lush green pastures and slopes topped with ever-present ice caps, but whenever you choose to journey, the Julier Pass is a joy.
Futa Pass, Italy
On its 1,000 mile route from Brescia to Rome and back there was one stretch of road that competitors in the Mille Miglia would fear the most. And it was for that very reason that, in 1955, Stirling Moss was determined to assert his dominance over the Apennines between Tuscany and Emilia Romagna.
In his report for Motorsport, co-driver Denis Jenkinson wrote: “Moss had really got the bit between his teeth… and I knew that one of his greatest ambitions was to do the section Florence-Bologna in under one hour. This road crosses the heart of the Apennines, by way of the Futa Pass and the Raticosa Pass, and though only just over 60 miles in length it is like a Prescott Hill-Climb all the way.”
Jebel Hafeet, United Arab Emirates
If you - and your car - can handle the heat then this is one the best drivers’ roads on the planet. Originally built to serve a summer palace and subsequently a fancy Mercure Grand hotel, few have any reason to visit, except for the thrill of the drive.
The road has two lanes for the ascent and one for the descent, all seemingly surfaced by the same asphalters that laid the Yas Marina Grand Prix circuit. This road is smooth. From base to summit is barely seven miles but with around 60 direction changes from fast kinks to cambered hairpins it could well be the ten-minute drive of your life. it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
It’s high time to head out on a high-altitude, high-octane driving adventure. To sweep through the switchbacks and climb to heights that will take your breath away.