Best Coastal Drives in the World: 7 Unforgettable Routes
The best coastal drives in the world turn the journey itself into the destination - a full tank, a rolling playlist, and an ocean out the passenger window for hours on end. There's nothing quite like rounding a headland and having a new bay open up in front of you, or pulling into a fishing village at golden hour because you felt like it. These are the roads where the detours are the whole point, where the lookout you stopped at "just for five minutes" eats an afternoon. Here are seven legendary coastal routes worth building an entire trip around.
Great Ocean Road, Australia
Stretching 243km along Victoria's southwest coast, the Great Ocean Road is the drive most people picture when they imagine a road trip beside the sea. The headline act is the Twelve Apostles - limestone stacks rising out of the Southern Ocean, best seen at sunrise before the tour buses arrive from Melbourne. Break the drive at Lorne for fish and chips on the beach, walk the rainforest boardwalk at Maits Rest, and detour into the Otways to spot wild koalas along Kennett River. The best time to visit is November to March for warm, long days, though winter brings dramatic swells and whale sightings off Warrnambool. Give it three days minimum - doing it as a day trip is the most common mistake travellers make.
Pacific Coast Highway, Big Sur, California
California's Highway 1 through Big Sur is the definitive American coastal drive: 145km of cliff-edge asphalt between Carmel and San Simeon with almost no cell service and no reason to want any. Bixby Creek Bridge is the must-see photo stop, but the quieter pleasures are better - the purple sand at Pfeiffer Beach, the waterfall dropping straight onto the sand at McWay Falls, and the elephant seal colony at Piedras Blancas. Drive it north to south so you're on the ocean side of the road for the pullouts. Check road conditions before you go, as landslides regularly close sections, and book accommodation early because there is very little of it.
Amalfi Coast, Italy
The SS163 Amalfitana clings to the cliffs between Sorrento and Salerno, and it is gloriously, terrifyingly narrow - a road of blind corners, honking buses, and views that make you forget both. Positano tumbles down the hillside in pastel layers, Ravello sits high above with the finest gardens in southern Italy, and Amalfi town still feels like the maritime republic it once was. Stop for lemon granita, order the scialatielli ai frutti di mare, and buy a bottle of limoncello from someone's grandmother. If driving sounds stressful, park up and take the SITA bus or the ferry between towns instead. Visit in May or September to dodge the August crush.
Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland
At 2,500km, the Wild Atlantic Way is one of the longest defined coastal routes on earth, running the entire western edge of Ireland from Donegal down to Cork. Most travellers pick a section: the Cliffs of Moher and the lunar limestone of the Burren in Clare, the Ring of Kerry with its mountain passes and Skellig views, or the wilder, emptier headlands of Connemara. Pull into small towns for live trad music and a slow pint, and take the ferry out to the Aran Islands if the weather cooperates. Bring layers - you'll get four seasons before lunch, and the moodiest weather makes the best photographs.
Atlantic Ocean Road, Norway
Short but unforgettable, Norway's Atlanterhavsveien runs just 8km across a chain of small islands and skerries near Molde, linked by eight bridges. The star is Storseisundet Bridge, which curves so sharply upward it looks from certain angles like the road simply ends in the sky. Storms here are a spectacle rather than a setback - locals deliberately drive it in autumn gales to watch waves break over the tarmac. Stop at the fishing spots along the route, walk the Askevågen viewing platform, and continue on to the Trollstigen hairpins if you have another day. Late summer gives you long light; October and November deliver the drama.
Garden Route, South Africa
The Garden Route runs roughly 300km between Mossel Bay and Storms River along South Africa's Western and Eastern Cape, and it packs an absurd amount of variety into a short drive. You get the indigenous forests and Knysna Heads lagoon, the sandstone caves at Cango, ostrich country around Oudtshoorn, and the bungee jump at Bloukrans Bridge if you're that way inclined. Whale watching in Hermanus, just before the route proper, is world-class between June and November when southern right whales calve close to shore. Add Tsitsikamma National Park for the suspension bridge over the river mouth, and eat oysters in Knysna.
Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia, Canada
Canada's finest coastal drive loops 298km around northern Cape Breton Island, climbing over highland plateaus before dropping back to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Skyline Trail hike is the essential stop - a boardwalk along a headland where moose graze and pilot whales surface offshore. Along the way you'll pass through Acadian and Gaelic communities where fiddle music spills out of community halls most evenings in summer. Come in early October for what may be the best fall foliage in North America, when the maples turn the whole highland interior red and gold. Drive it counter-clockwise for ocean-side views and easier pullouts.
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