Five of the world’s most extraordinary roads

Dusty, rocky landscapes meet the locals and the intrepid types that journey along the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan.

The 1,300 kilometre long highway is also one of the world’s highest, reaching a peak of 4,714 metres – high enough to take you halfway up Mount Everest.

It connects Pakistan to China and although the landscapes on this route are a little more monotone than others on this list, there is more than enough colour to be found in the locals along the way who are tending to flocks and working roadside stalls. Not to mention the lorries covered in bright, epic art.

If you’re bold enough to make this journey you’re probably bold enough to take on the Hussani Hanging Bridge: a truly-hectic 200-metre bridge of precariously low-detail suspended above the Hunza River.

Are you a waver? A finger lifter? Single or double honk?

These are the critical decisions you must be prepared for on the rare occasion you pass another driver on the Nullarbor (Eyre Highway), one of the world’s longest straight roads, in Australia’s south-west.

The word Nullarbor means ‘no trees’ in Latin and they’re not kidding around – when get lost drove the 1,664 kilometre stretch in 2021 we saw no trees, no animals, and not a single sign of life, save for the excitement of each service station spaced a few hundred kilometres apart. This really is the outback.

There’s a golf hole at each of these, giving you the opportunity to play the Nullabor Links: the world’s longest round of golf at 1,365 kilometres long.

Carretera de los Yungas, in the west of Bolivia, is much better known by a different name: Death Road. Not the sort of title that inspires confidence.

This infamous, albeit perilous, 60 kilometre stretch connecting La Paz with the Yungas region weaves through fog and around 600-metre-high cliffs, and has frequently been referred to as the world’s most dangerous road.

Parts of the two-way road are just three metres wide. To put that into perspective, the width of one Toyota Camry is 1.85 metres…yep, let that one sink in.

Still, the road has been drawing cycling, motorcycling and longboarding maniacs from around the world for a years, all wanting to say they’ve conquered the world’s most dangerous road.

Northern Lights roadtrip, anyone?

There’s no need for streetlights when you’ve got Aurora Borealis up above to light the way.

Every corner you turn on Iceland’s Ring Road feels like it could be the front cover image of an Icelandic tourism campaign, such is the frequency of unique natural wonders that exist here.

The Ring Road is a 1,322 kilometre circulation of the entire country, and the perfect route to take if you’re pining to get to all of the extraordinary spots in this extraordinary country.

Japan is reopening to the world, although one section that won’t be open just yet is the Japanese Snow Corridor, a seasonal road which snakes through towering 20-metre-high walls of snow.

Heavy snowfall blocks the road in winter, and the corridor only re-opens in spring (March to May).

It sits along the 90 kilometre road aptly named Tateyama Kurobe Alpine – ‘The Roof of Japan’ – not a bad way to take a break from the slopes.