Miguel de Cervantes’ hero defined the term quixotic for his fantastical adventures. A road trip from Madrid to Ciudad Réal is very real, but no less fantastic.

High in the Pyrenees mountains, on the Col du Portillon, there’s a brief moment where your front wheels will be in Spain, while the rears remain in France.

Griff Gough-Walters drove a tiny Hyundai i10 2,500 miles from London to North Africa in four days, and then a month later, did the return journey in three. 

According to a new index a road trip to Spain should be on your bucket list for 2024.

It’s not even on sale yet, but two brothers have already driven the all-electric MG across 11 countries.

Spain’s Natural Park of the High Pyrenees has banned all internal combustion-powered “motorcycles, quads, ATVs, and non-electric buggies all year round for noise protection reasons.”

It’s the year-round sun and sand that attract most visitors to the Canary Islands, but in 2012 Dom, Brian, Letty and the gang took a typically explosive trip to film Fast & Furious 6.

Age and experience does beat youth and exuberance discovered Nik Berg on a motorcycle ride to Barcelona.

Imagine if all your favourite features were found on one single stretch of road. Twists, turns, climbs and falls, forests, tunnels, bridges and vistas to make you brake to standstill and grab your camera. It’s the smash hits of road trips: an incredible compilation album.

Designed by industrialist, racer and Ascari cars owner Klass Zwart as his personal playground, this circuit in southern Spain is the original race resort.

Autòdrom Terramar is one of the best preserved and most spectacular early racing circuits in the world – and it’s only minutes from the beach in Sitges.

Mountain passes, coast roads, volcanoes and desert drives. Say hola to five of the best Detours in Spain.

The meandrous curves on this circular route will lead you through the fairytale-esque surroundings of Lake Vyrnwy, and the lost village of Llanwddyn that lies beneath its shimmering waters, says Charlotte Vowden.

Spain’s Costa Brava hides one short stretch of sensational old-school road. It’s a glorious sequence of hairy corners, dizzy drops and amazing but distracting views of the Mediterranean hundreds of feet below.

Shimmering heat haze, mesmerising mirages and an endless vanishing point are just some of the distractions of desert driving. Could you handle these hot, lonely drives?

Endless views to the horizon, the smell of salt spray in the air and asphalt that twists and turns with the coastline. There’s nothing quite like an ocean drive. Here are ten of Detour’s favourite seaside sojourns.

You don’t have to leave Europe for a tortuous, undulating desert drive. Southern Spain’s barren beauty is the setting of the Puerto de Velefique, a sensational mountain road with a bewildering array of corners, climbing through the parched landscape.

Jens Sverdrup, Chief Commercial officer for hypercar maker Czinger Vehicles, likes to travel solo. That’s why a motorcycle ride through Spain is his Favourite Detour.

Few holidaymakers ever get beyond the rather beautiful beaches, but keen drivers should make tracks to Tenerife’s extraordinary interior.

Designed in sympathy with the surroundings in the 1930s the road to the Cap de Formentor lighthouse on the northern tip of the island and Carretera de Sa Calobra just to the south west are must-drives on any trip to Majorca.