If all goes to plan, by the time you read this I will have returned to the US from my two week trip to Europe. I will have landed in Los Angeles and my friend Jason and I will have picked up our rental car, from the “American Muscle” category. Our destination? Lots of places – Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Goldfield, Bodie, and the Salton Sea. It promises to be an amazing road trip. Prior to this, however, the best drive I ever took was also in California.
I mentioned this in my review of the third-generation Cadillac CTS but it was an absolute thrill driving along Mulholland Drive in the CTS. It handled with poise and alacrity, the beautifully-crafted paddle shifters fell easily to hand, and there was plenty of power to play with. It was luxurious, too, the CTS’ ride smoothing out the sometimes jagged pavement and the neat automatic high-beam headlights flicking off whenever another car approached. The only downside was a sometimes coarse engine note when I really revved it.
The closest I’ve ever come to having that much fun in a car was taking my old Calais out on the winding mountain roads of Mount Glorious and Mount Nebo. I don’t miss that car but I do miss the fun chucking it through the twisties that day.
Thinking of scenery instead of overall driving excitement, so far nothing has topped the Pacific Coast Highway in California and the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Neither road really lets you let loose though because of either police presence, restrictive speed limits or the sheer number of tourists. Sometimes, though, a road is just meant for cruising and taking in gorgeous scenery. Therefore, the Great Ocean Road wasn’t that much more fun in a big, honkin’ V8 Caprice than it was in a sensible Hyundai i30.
What was the greatest drive you’ve ever been on?
PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), in a rented top down convertible, was always a visual and sensual treat for me.
A friend and I went up the PCH in the fall of ’81, and it was a great trip until the CHP had barricades up, there was a boulder on the road and they were trying to figure out how to get rid of it. We were somewhere around Santa Cruz, I think. We had to bypass the boulder and then we got back on and stayed on it to San Jose, and then we went into SF and ate at a fantastic Chinese restaurant that was crazy expensive, even compared to a couple of really high priced ones I had been to in Chicago and NYC. We went back to Vegas(Where we started from) a totally different way, and my car (’79 Trans Am with extensive mods) made it almost the entire trip without an issue until near Santa Clarita, when my car’s rear brake line blew right up near the master cylinder, and spewed brake fluid all over the exhaust and started a small fire. I was almost in front of a gas station when some old woman yelled at us about the fire (We knew the brakes were messed up already) and I dropped it into first and hit the emergency brake when we got into the gas station lot and the owner ran out with an extinguisher. All I can remember about the repair was a new brake line was in stock at the Pontiac dealer and they got a huge price for it, and the old mechanic got it fixed really fast, and then took it for a test drive. When he came back he was giggling and said, “Kid, this car is just crazy! I’ve never driven anything with a throttle hit like that before!”. The owner of the station asked if he could drive it too, and I let him and he came back and just shook his head and laughed. That car either scared people, or they thought it was like an amusement park ride and loved the crazy snap your neck take offs it did.
The bad brake line looked like it had been defective from day one and just finally died from the pressure on and off it for 28K miles.It was the only problem I ever had with the brakes in any way.
The Cabot trail around Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia..We were driving our first Mustang Convertible a base model 08 6cyl Auto.
Absolutely beautiful drive. The PCH is on my bucket list.
The greatest drive I took must have been in my father’s Mercedes 190 D 2.0 (70hp) which I took from Germany all the way to the North of Scotland. I had a friend from Missouri with me and I particularly recall the thrilling Scottish highways in the highlands. We were poor college students at the time so in order to save on the expensive Royal gas we tried to never slow down in turns (also, with the weak Diesel in the mountains it could sometimes be miles until you’d get a chance to recover your speed).
The following year my friend returned the favor and I flew from Frankfurt to St Louis. From there, we took another friend’s Chrysler New Yorker and drive for forty hours straight all the way to California. I remember I took the wheel crossing Kansas. The interstate during those 8 hours it took me to cross Kansas had exactly one small hill from which I could see forever and one small bend. I seized the occasion to accelerate the Chrysler to 120 mph when my friend awoke from the wind noises and explained a thing or two about American highway police to me….
Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour in 2006 in my 1968 Coronet R/T
Started in Florida all the way up the east coast to New Jersey with 5000+ other hot rods, musclecars and classics
+1 on Power Tour. Maybe not the best road trip, but certainly in the top-3. It was 2011 and we did it in my 1965 Galaxie with my dad. Started in FL and went up through Memphis. It was HOT and of course the car has no AC, but we still talk about how fun that was.
1n 1989, my best friend and I graduated college in SoCal. As had been our plan for the previous 18 months, we packed up our touring motorcyles, and LEFT. Three rules: No interstates, no fast food, no DESTINATION. We literally took whatever road looked interesting. We had our camping stuff packed tight. I was on a 1982 Honda GL500 Sliverwing, he on a 1983 Yamaha Venture.
We ended up going up US1 to San Francisco, then east to the Gold Country above Sacramento, then east to route 395…north to the Oregon border…camping all the way.
At Klamath Falls, we headed west again to Ashland, Medford, then north to Eugene and Portland. We crossed into WA and headed East. IN Yakima, we spent three days at a motel (our first nights NOT camping) so my buddy could soothe his extreme poison oak he contacted while searching for firewood along the Columbia river.
We then followed the Lewis and Clark Trail across Idaho and Montana..deviating to Yellowstone for a few nights. Out of money, we spent two weeks camping in Missoula…I worked (for cash) at at Cadillac dealer washing cars. With filled wallet, continued on down the road….
Once we hit North Dakata, we decided to forget about the “no interstates” rule…and rode I94 across the whole state one very hot and humid summer day. Arriving in the Oasis known as Fargo late that summer afternoon.
We camped on the shore of many a lake in northern Minnesota before crossing into Wisconsin at Superior. Our ride south along the Mississippi River was epic. Crossing over to Madison, then on to Milwaukee…and we were tired!
We were unable to find a place to camp legally in Milwaukee, so we rented a room for the week at the seedy, very run-down Ambassador Hotel. Not until many years later did we learn that Jeffrey Dalmer had committed one of his many grizzly murders in that very hotel prior to our arrival, and that while we were there…he was living just a few blocks away.
We decided to visit the vaunted Harley-Davidson factory on Juneau Ave in Milwaukee. Arriving for a tour there on Japanese motorcycles might be considered rude, but perhaps 3500 miles worth of dead bugs on our windshields, and California license plates counted for something. Great tour…at a time when the Evolution engine was empowering a strong HD revival. It was great being able to walk on the production floor with the line workers. They even let us watch the heat-treating of the transmission gears, and how the blanks were machined into gears.
My buddy decided he was done exploring, and wanted to head home. I didn’t. I got a job in Milwaukee driving a tow truck and rented an apartment at Farwell x Brady on the East Side. He flew home, shipped the motorcycle.
This was, by far, the greatest “drive” I have ever taken. I heartily recommend taking an aimless roadtrip if your life ever gives you the opportunity.
The Hana Highway (routes 36/360) on Maui, Hawaii, from Kahului to Hana, in a Chrysler Sebring convertible top down, with Lily on our honeymoon. The twistiest, most spectacularly beautiful road ever. 59 bridges, 620 curves countless waterfalls and ocean views. First built in the sixteenth century.
The NZ south island hwy 7 over the Lewis pass and on up to Nelson is a nice drive twisty mountain passes and the road follows rivers when it flattens out, great fun in a good handling car, I drove it a few times last year in various Holdens, the again this year in my car thats when the fun started,
Of course the thermal explorer hwy on our North island is a great drive but since I do it every day with a eight wheel DAF towing a four axle trailer its all become quite automatic but it is a challenging road for the car driver who doesnt know it well, Lots of sharp bends and steep climbs 80kms of it actually.
There have been several.
By Bicycle:
Age 17: St. Catharines Ontario to Ottawa and return.
Age 18: Again St. Catharines Ontario to Wasaga Beach then down through Lindsey, Peterborough, Belleville and back along the lakeshore through Toronto.
By Car: ages are approximate
Age 22: Hamilton Ontario to the west coast and Vancouver Island. 1969 510 Wagon.
Age 23: Hamilton Ontario to the east coast. Through Quebec to hit all the maritime provinces, Cabot Trail and some of Newfoundland. It was raining too hard to we turned back. I don’t know how the newfies put up with that. 1969 Datsun 510 wagon.
Age 28: Hamilton Ontario to Mexico City and return. Spent a month down there “running the gauntlet” that is their traffic. Had to learn to drive properly again after returning. Anyone who has been will understand. 1975 Datsun 710 2dr sedan.
No more epic road trips since then only a couple of fly-ins with rentals for day tripping. Amsterdam was awesome. East coast again. Calgary and area. San Diego. Memorable but not as awesome as not having a plan and just going where the road takes you and the freedom to just disappear for a while. Hard to do when life ends up on a fixed schedule.
If I could have a do-over it would be the bicyle road tripping by far. There’s more time to see things because you exist in your surroundings and experience everything. Nothing else compares. I still have the bike. It’s got a lot of miles on it.
Hana was super nice and I wrote about it here. Mulholland is amazing.
Best however was driving the Kohala Peninsula across the Kohala mountains from Waimea to Hawi on a perfectly clear day in a red Corvette convertible.
Empty road, incredible long distant views, blue oceans – how could it get better? A school of whales surfacing below my view.
In a new red Corvette. I had to pinch myself to remember that I was the one getting paid to do it.
ONE of the greatest ones was here in Michigan, on SR119 from Harbor Springs to Cross Village.
+1 awesome area–I grew up on Traverse, so it is extra special to me–we were up there this summer with my dad’s Camaro convertible and did nearly all of M22
Although had a few nice trips in very powerful competent cars I feel my favourite involves something lower power and with very good scenery.
East to West Scotland and back with camping excursions in a ford transit.
Almost any journey across Wales.
France to Switzerland to Italy and back to France in a rental Renault Twingo. Across the mountains with bugger a power, including deep snow and temporary roads carved out of the cliffside while a tunnel was out of action.
Never quite the same with an actual bad far though, Italy to Austria, then Croatia and back to Italy (through Slovenia each time) could have been good fun too, of less dramatic than the Alps. Unfortunately the hire car was a fiat 500x, have never known a tiny tiny car feel so large and unweidly on small roads, or one with so many windows that is made of pure blindspot, or any modern car so utterly guttless, I think the Alps would have left it for dead
There have been a few very good ones; it’s hard to define one as the greatest.
Yellowstone National Park in 1998 in a new Chrysler Sebring convertible. It was my honeymoon and touring the park with no top (on the car!) was an order of magnitude richer than having toured the park three years prior in a Dodge Dynasty.
Agreed on the Pacific Coast Highway. I went from San Francisco north an indeterminate distance; this was in 1993.
The two trips I made in my 1963 Galaxie; taking a 50+ year old car on any trip makes even a boring highway memorable, but I was lucky enough to take some good ones on the trip it made to Mississippi in 2015 and back from Nashville in 2016.
As for close to home drives, there is a road with delightful hills and curves, and curves on hills. It’s Missouri Route 8 from St. James to Potosi, a rural route that is a blast to drive as it allows you to find new areas of handling in any car.
I drove from Chicago to Portland, OR solo back in the early 2000s. Equal parts terrifying, exhausting, and amazing.
The drive back was more terrifying because I saw the mountains I had gone up and down in the night on the way there.
First, allow me to be pedantic for a minute and clarify that the term Pacific Coast Highway, aka PCH , so well known from TV shows set in Los Angeles, only applies to the portion of California State Route 1 from Orange County south of LA, to Ventura County just north of LA. Most of the twisty scenic, cliff-hugging stretches of CA1 south of Monterey, or north of San Francisco, have other local names or are just called Highway 1. If you ask for directions to the PCH at San Francisco airport for example, you’d be met by a blank stare. Or a wise guy like me would tell you to go out to Hwy 1 and drive 300 miles south.
Second, good luck William getting your American muscle machine to Bodie. We took our Prius out there once, and the road is fairly well graded, but several miles are unpaved and slow going with brief rocky stretches.
OK, best drives ever. Well, I don’t consider riding a motorcycle or bicycle to be a drive (pedantic again), but I’ve been lucky to drive many great roads in Europe, the UK, the US and Canada (I live just one block off the above-mentioned Highway 1). But probably my best 4 wheeled road trip was from California up through the Canadian Rockies, over to Vancouver and back down through Washington and Oregon, 1977. In my Chevy Vega. Because, it’s the journey, not the car. Or something like that.
A couple of friends and I, on our motorcycles, had non stop GR8 rides when we went down to SE KY. ALL of the backroads are curves, curves and more curves plus beautiful scenery. Definitely the best rides of my life, followed closely by riding with another friend out in the Portland, OR area. DFO
My dad was happiest behind the wheel of a Mercedes doing 80+ mph. We did a LOT of big road trips. That was when we didn’t go to Europe, visit family, and pick up a car. Then the entire summer was a big road trip. Paul will recognize a few of these. In so special order:
1. Brenner Pass south to SS44> San Leonhard Pass > St. Matin’s Pass> Meran, Italy. STUNNING scenery, can’t believe we drove this twice in a manual with no power steering- it’s an endurance run at that. There’s one small Gasthaus facing Meran with one of the most stunning views. Stop overnight- there’s nothing else for 3/4 days drive.
2. Grand St. Gotthard… don’t use the tunnel.
3. I-84 from Portland to Pendleton. You’ll never see anything like the Columbia Gorge.
4. US 101 from Olympia to Port Angeles. Ferry it north to Victoria B.C., then pick your favorite islands to visit.
Hana Coast, Hawaii.
In a Rent-A-Wreck Chevy Spectrum.
“We used to drive from Lafayette to Baton Rouge,
In a yellow El Camino, listening to Howlin’ Wolf…….”
—– Lucinda Williams, “Lake Charles.”
Album, “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road.”
https://youtu.be/5dglHW7rOwk
I love road trips! One of my all time favorites occurred just afteri graduated high school. My grandparents were driving from Ohio to Utah and Colorado and invited me to join them. We took their 10 year old VW Beetle 1600, which was a nice handling road car but a bit cramped for three adults and their luggage. We spent a lot of time on secondary highways, including crossing the Rockies in Colorado on Highway 50 and driving unmarked back roads around Gunnison and Pueblo that my grandfather remembered from 40+ years earlier . We attended my grandmother’s 50th high school reunion in Pueblo, CO, and drove up Pike’s Peak, and visited Gunnison, Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City. I learned to respect my grandmother’s theory that any restaurant with clean windows was likely to be decent.
When we drove through St. Louis on the way back, they were experiencing record heat. It was pretty miserable in the Beetle that day. My hands were so sweaty that I had to hold the steering wheel by the spokes and I kept a towel on my lap to dry them on. That bit of suffering didn’t really dampen my spirits or those of my resilient grandparents. I wouldn’t care to go back to that level of creature comforts now, but sometimes wonder if we aren’t missing out on something in our modern, powerful, air conditioned cars.
Great question!
I mean, my drives along Mullholland Highway and Pacific Coast Highway in my BMW 435 convertible rental and along Angeles Crest Highway in my Audi TT convertible rental were both pretty breathtaking.
My drive from Fussen, Germany to Munich, along B17 and A96 was also breathtaking, for the natural beauty.
I am going back to Germany, Italy, and Austria in just over a month, so that should be pretty amazing too.
Do you have a general itinerary yet?
Yes! Arriving in Munich Nov. 6, spending three nights there -> 3 nights in Berchtesgaden with day trips to Salzburg by car and Vienna by train -> 2 nights in Venice -> 1 night in Garmisch-Partenkirchen via stopping in Sölden on the way, then heading back to Munich Nov. 15 for an afternoon flight home.
Driven Highway 1 through the Big Sur, the Road to Hana in Maui, Skyline Drive in Virginia, the Dalton Highway in Alaska and assorted roads through Yosemite, Yellowstone and Monument Valley. All were awesome in their own way. But the champ is the Amalfi Coast Drive between Sorrento and Amalfi in Italy. Didn’t do the driving on that one and was glad I didn’t. Have had calmer rides on the coasters at Cedar Point.
+1 on both Skyline Drive (VA) and going to Yosemite (CA). Two of my favorites over the years.
Near Bar Harbor, ME is another one. I took my ’88 5.0L T-Bird up the switchback one night to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. Lots of fun pushing it going uphill through the curves at night when no one was on the road. My goal was astronomical observation at the summit (parking lot, anyway).
I took it easy coming back down the mountain with gravity not in my favor (from a safety perspective).
Running with the aggressive drivers on the Merritt Parkway through Connecticut is another adventure. Keep right unless passing! You will get run over if you’re not maintaining at least 80-mph. Beautiful bridges cross this road, and very nice scenery (when you can even glance at the scenery and bridges at speed).
And lastly, the sunrise over the refineries on the Jersey Turnpike is a must drive if you like to go fast. Stay on the right with the trucks though… Although counterintuitive, the drivers over on the “cars only” side, do not respect the “slower traffic keep right rule”, whereas over on the right with the trucks is great. They stay in the right two lanes and you’ve got the left to yourself. But even if you’re going 90, be kind to that Porsche coming up behind you doing triple digits and move over for him. ;o) – I call the Jersey Turnpike the “East Coast Autobahn”. And from what I remember, folks know how to drive on this stretch at speed properly.
Best trip in the USA: flying from Milwaukee to LA, and driving back in my friends’ hooptie Malibu. We broke down in every state we passed through, the car lost 2 quarts of trans fluid and drank 20 gallons of gas every 175-200 miles, and the steering wheel would come off in my hand if I didn’t tighten the nut down every half hour or so. Oh, and it didn’t have wipers, and the windshield seal was long gone, so rain was challenging… but we loved every minute of our trip. At one point we went past the Ford Proving Ground, and raced what turned out to be the upcoming SN-95 Mustang (our speedo registered over 120, and the Stang left us in the dust) We got to see the one part of the USA I hadn’t been to before, I got a crash course in car repair on the side of the road with minimal tools, I got to reconnect with a good friend. And we had such a good time, we did it all over again the next year! (in a much more reliable, but less interesting vehicle)
Outside the USA:
I got hired to photograph a wedding in northern Scotland. When that was done, we rented a car in Inverness (a Vauxhall Astra) We originally we’re supposed to get a Peugeot of some sort, but I had so much photo gear, our luggage didn’t actually fit in the Pug, so they got us the Astra. It was kind of funny that once they heard I was an American, they had to keep asking me if I knew it wasn’t an automatic, can you drive a stick, are you sure you can drive this, etc. (I or my parents had never owned a car with an aut before this, so I did OK) We had to be in London by a certain date to get our flight home, but had no itinerary otherwise, so we just kind of headed south. I saw an absolutely gorgeous country, we stayed in a few B&B’s, got completely lost walking around Glencoe area, got even more lost trying to use the car in Edinburgh (only the first night, we learned real quick to leave the car parked after that!) We had such a good time in Edinburgh that we stayed long enough that we had to get a flight to London, to make our flight home. I VOWED I’d be back right away, but that was 18 years ago now, and I just haven’t managed to be able to. I took something like 70 rolls of film while on the trip, but they are all film-i haven’t managed to digitize them yet, either…
Oh, the car we had was fun to drive, it was kinda-sorta like the Cavalier we get back home, but was much more fun to drive on the winding roads we were on. I wondered if the locals felt the same about the Vauxhall as we do about the Cavs, but I can tell you I’d take the Astra in a heartbeat over what we had.
I found the actual picture! It only took a week of searching, too…
Hightway 33 from Los Banos in Central California down to Ventura Beach north of LA. Its incredibly varied, taking you through the state’s “other” industries: agriculture, cattle, oil, mining, wine and horses. Not as majestic as the PCH, for sure, but the southern spur from Taft down through the Los Padres National Forrest and its 5000ft elevations and into Ojai is spectacular as well as challenging. There were few tourists, fewer cops…and not a single motorhome!
lots of prisons as well 🙂
If you want to take a really fun route from San Jose to LA, take 101 to 25 to 198 to 33, then 150 and 126 to 5. Incredible scenery, awesome roads, no traffic (and no gas stations) for near-100 mile stretches. The real California.
North York Moors National Park. UK.
Greatest drive? Easy: The Trans-Canada Highway, from end to end. Took us 2 summers and 10 weeks to do it. It’s an immense country (So. Many. Trees.), and is only appreciated when you cross it on the ground.
And of that, my favourite parts? The side trip to Gros Morne National Park. The Cabot Trail. All of PEI. The south shore of the St Laurence approaching Quebec. The endless hills and rocks around the north shore of Lake Superior. The sudden, intense flatness of the Red River valley. Eagle Pass. The Fraser Canyon. Active Pass through the Gulf islands (ok, not really a road, but it’s still lovely).
Timmelsjoch pass in Austria in an MGB Roadster without the top on, of course.
Col de Puy Morens in Andorra, a small state between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains with a 150 HP Hanomag Henschel truck, a truck and trailer could not take this pass, this was just a cargo truck.
A pass near Interlaken in Switserland with my good old Peugeot 404 Saloon, a real French mountain lion with an extremely useful and long third gear.
Lake district UK in a small but very nippy FIAT 850 Special saloon, the 903 cc engine and the handling of that small car on those narrow roads was epic.
The old road between Barcelona and Sitges (Spain) , over the edge of the mountains and caught between the mountains and the beautiful Mediterranean Sea.
Again the Hanomag – Henschel truck blowing away black smoke bursting Pegaso and Ebro trucks.
I guess circumnavigating Australia should be one, certainly a long drive if not a great one.
The Blue Ridge Parkway from Charlottesville to Galax ( basically the Virginia half) The sunrise is amazing.
Pacific Coast Highway from Pismo Beach to Monterey, even in a not-too-great Fiesta sedan automatic that’s somehow had all the fun of the original engineered out of. Endless curves, hairpins, cliffs, bridges, breathtaking views. Just took longer than we thought, because the last third was driven in the dark – this was November. We did make it to San Francisco later in the evening.
Also up there is a roadtrip through the Charlevoix region of Québec in a brand new Dodge Journey R/T – close enough to the big sleds of old for this young European. Rolling hills and forests, steep cliffs, fjords, and somehow a lot of Mazda 3s and Kia Fortes(?), but only in the towns. All of this in effectively a rolling living room, it didn’t matter it handled poorly on billiard-smooth roads.
Here in Europe:
* a drive down the Málaga – Granada motorway in southern Spain, a very twisty and crowded road even in winter in a heavily used Ford C-Max;
* my first run on the Autoroute du Soleil in my mum’s 01 Renault Laguna. Great motorway car, if unreliable;
* driving all the way up to Serfaus in Austria in heavy snow in my dad’s Toyota Verso – ugly but practical, annoying clutch but great hydraulic steering;
* shuttling pax of a summer school I organised through the Eifel hills in my 850 estate in the depth of the night;
are among the more memorable ones.
Glenmaggie to Licola in Victoria, in a (then) nearly new Mitsubishi Magna (the locally developed and widened version off the international Galant of the mid-late ’80’s). These cars were very well regarded when new, and mine was the speedy manual and had quality aftermarket dampers. It was a fine machine, a legitimate competitor to the Audi 100CD – four times the price – which it resembled, at least up to about 120km/h. (In case any Aussie chimes in, yes I know all the Magnas fell apart dreadfully later on!). The road, totally empty when I drove it late one summer, follows the Macalister River, varying constantly from down low to high above it, curving endlessly up a river valley into the base of the Victorian Alps. The views are quite stunning. My car had the manual steering, which was light at speed, but I remember actually getting tired arms from the endless turns, all taken flat chat ofcourse. Wonderful.
Funny you mention Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious (near Brisbane, capital of QLD, Aus) William. I had an absolute ball on those skinny roads 20+ years ago, in a brand-spanking Mitsubishi Lancer. I remember we nearly fell out of the car laughing at just how much understeer a car could produce. What an utter shitbox. Certainly not fast, but Blues Brothers screeching good fun!
Two trips to Cornwall, England in 2008 and 2016. Things got more interesting further from London and closer to rural life in the countryside. A bit of a challenge driving on the wrong side of the road a week at a time on each trip, but I didn’t hit anyone or anything.
Scotland in the autumn is on my bucket list.
Gosh, there’s been a lot.
Ontario to British Columbia by motorcycle. Both epic and epically bad.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/born-to-be-wild-at-least-once-our-cross-canadian-motorcycle-trip/
Driving to Lahaina on Maui in our rented Wrangler Unlimited with the roof off, Mrs DougD reading the tourist book and saying “Hey it says here there are whales around this time of year” and as we turn to look at the ocean a humpback breaches right on cue.
Bucket list item, hoping to drive a Mustang convertible to Myrtle Beach via the Blue Ridge Parkway with my Dad, to play a round of golf. There is still time….
I will add another PCH vote. We have driven that route from LA to San Diego and it was beautiful. Going north from LA is something we would love to do. The car was not so special – once in a rented white Taurus and again in a rented Sedona minivan.
The Naches Trace made for a beautiful drive on a sunny late afternoon in early November in our Ford Club Wagon.
Finally a springtime drive from St. Augustine to Daytona Beach in a top-down convertible on Florida highway A1A was beautiful and memorable.
+1 St Augustine to Daytona on A1A. Did this plus more of it for our honeymoon in my 1965 Galaxie. The perfect cruiser for a long straight road with a view…
In ’93 my wife and I went 1600 miles from Indiana to Cody Wyoming. We had an ’82 Malibu wagon that I had bought from the parts store where I worked. It had a zillion miles on it and heavy duty springs that were so hard it barely gave at all over bumps. In Iowa we got pulled over for a brake light out, which of course wasn’t out and we weren’t braking anyway. Just pulled over for being a POS looking car from Indiana. But no ticket. Everywhere we stopped to eat I had a BLT so I could say I did it. Once we were in Wyoming the scenery was great and majestic. There were supposed to be several gas stops before and on the first real mountain but we got there at dark and it was extremely foggy and we couldn’t see where the stations were. We were on an incline for about 30 miles or so as the car started to run out of gas. All the way up it we could hear it sucking air, then gas, then air and so on. On the downhill run, it had to put I into “2” and let it engine brake so I could make it to the bottom while honking the whole time in case of deer. So we made it to the bottom, still not out of gas and there was a gas station right there. We lowered the rear seat and slept on blankets. It was August and hot so the windows were down except for the back doors, because it is of course it’s an ’82 Malibu. We slept there until the station opened. We were severely eaten by mosquitoes and slept right through it. Once we filled up it was a fun trip. We jumped off 30 foot high cliffs into the Shoshone River in Cody. It was very cold and refreshing since it was in the 90’s out. We also swam in Yellowstone Park in a lake that was white rock on the bottom and absolutely clear. We drank it as we swam. God country stuff. Beautiful place and driving through was fun. Buffalo and deer and horses right next to you on the roads. We saw wild horses in the distance on the trip home. On my first day back home going to work the driveshaft separated from the axle with a lot of drama. Just fell out! I had noticed the vibration hallway home but didn’t know it was so serious. A guy I knew bought it from me and that was that. Good times.
When I was a freshman in college, I had to read “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. A great American novel. We had to read selected chapters; I read it cover to cover. Since then I always wanted to drive across America like the Joads….
11 years later, I was pondering my future in the waning days of my medical residency in Madison, Wisconsin, and I get a call: “how’d you like to spend a year in my lab at UCSF (San Francisco)?” from a professor at the medical school. A couple of micro seconds to process, I naturally said “yes”. And so I was looking at doing the dream. I had already driven up and down I-85/I-95 several times (boring) and I-80/I-94 from PHL to Madison (twice, not particularly memorable either), but this–this!–was that trip. I was still driving my ’82 Toyota SR-5 (I4/5 sp) longbed with a camper top, so first I drove an 18 ft truck from Madison to Boston (I had a fellowship there to start in one year) which I did in 19 hours straight to offload the furniture and all other things I wasn’t taking to SF into storage, flew back and then loaded up the truck. It was so full that in the cab I could not see the mirror to my right. And I left early in the morning in mid July 1990, down US 151 to catch I-80 in Iowa, and then Go West, Young Man. first it was the Great Plains–flat and expansive. Then the rolling hills of Nebraska which was almost 700 miles to traverse; I remember how grassy the western part of the state was, and no trees. Going into the night during Wyoming and starting into the Rockies at night. The stars–the stars were beautiful, better than any planetarium I went to as a kid. So bright, and so far. I thought I was seeing into forever. I lived most of my life in the suburban east with haze and light pollution, I never saw the stars like this. The mountain roads at night seems scary, because where there wasn’t stars it was pitch black. No lights, few exits, and only the guard rails really reflected any light. Rarely even saw another car. Utah was okay, and I never knew Salt Lake City was so big. And into the night on the straightest road I ever was on, the Salt Flats of Bonneville. In the night, trailing some distant taillights that never got bigger or smaller. And coming onto West Wendover was like some neon oasis. Daybreak was around Reno, NV. And then the forests of the Sierra Nevada and then the Central Valley.
I did 2075 miles in 44 hours. I was more dead than alive when I reached my faux Aunt Billie’s place in the East Bay of Costa Contra county. I was in California.
I had flown across the US a couple of times, but I had never seen America before. This was only a snapshot of what I could see from I-80. There was a whole lot of America I never really knew or experienced.
Almost a year latter I mailed most of my stuff ahead and drove from SF to Boston with multiple stops, so it took maybe a week. It wasn’t as thrilling or as adventurous as my first drive to California.
Probably the most scenic drive that took almost a week was with my girlfriend at the time, Betsy. This was the summer of 1992. We drove from Boston up to Mt. Cadillac in Maine, staying exclusively on US 1 along the Maine coastline. She made all the arrangements and we stayed at 3 different bed and breakfast places along the way. The seafood was cheap and plentiful along the way. Beautiful country.
Five years ago my employer sent me to our Austrian office for a couple of weeks for training. This wasn’t my first trip to Europe, but it was the first one where I had access to a vehicle.
A few of us wanted to head to Vienna for the weekend, and the company gave us the use of one of their company cars. In this case, it was a diesel VW Sharan. Not the most exciting vehicle, but one that we obviously don’t have in Canada. It was also my first experience with stop/start technology. I was the only one in our group to have the foresight to get an international license, so I was the sole driver.
I took it out into the countryside around Graz the night before, just to get used to it. Driving through the narrow roads and old villages was amazing.
The drive took us from Graz to Vienna and back on the Austrian Autobahn. Now this wasn’t a sports car in any sense of the word, but it was able to keep up with the relatively quick autobahn traffic. I had that poor diesel van up to 165 km/h, but was still being passed by more powerful cars.
It was most memorable for the beautiful scenery and experience of driving on a different continent. I also experienced the worst rainstorm I have ever had to drive through on our way back on the A2 south of Vienna. I learned quickly why rear fog lights are mandated in Europe.
Most of my road trips for the past 20 years have been by bicycle, but my favourites are similar. The Pacific Coast Highway, almost anywhere from Leggett CA to Los Angeles, has to be near the top of the list. The Pacific Ocean glittering in slightly hazy sunshine is unforgettable. The Great Ocean & Great Alpine Roads in Australia are also stunning. I’d add Washington Hwy 20, from Kettle Falls to Sedro Woolley, and any number of two-lane meanderings in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
A memorable Jeep trip would be my #1 – but you did say road trip.
I heartily endorse the other choices, but will nominate something different. Try Utah State 12 end to end.
I tried the road for a visit to my youngest son who was working Bryce Cyn. at the time. Truly an amazing drive. It should be on the bucket list of anyone who likes road tripping.
As a salesman, I’ve driven a lot of roads. This remains one of my favorites. The experience is well worth a detour to reach it.
In 1976, my older brother and I spent the entire summer traveling throughout Mexico and the US in my well-used ’65 Mustang convertible (200 six and 3-on-floor stick). Before the trip, we took out the rear seat to make more room, chained two spare tires to the rear metal bulkhead in the passenger compartment, installed helper springs, and filled the back of the car and the trunk to the gunwales with luggage, a steamer trunk, coolers, and camping gear. There was no set itinerary, but we started in central Florida and the ultimate goal was Belize. Camping out was the plan unless we could cadge free meals and lodging from relatives. Southern Mexico got too funky for us so we abandoned Belize after Veracruz and slowly worked our way up the west coast Mexican beaches instead. Potable water availability was still quite spotty in Mexico so we carried good water in a 5-gallon “Agua Electropura” glass carboy which I still have. The Bicentennial Fourth of July was spent on the beach in Mazatlan drinking tequila and watching a great homemade fireworks show that the locals put on. After re-entering the US in Nogales and bumming around NV and CA for a while, we zigzagged back east to TN before the final leg homeward to FL. The Mustang was a champ – it didn’t let us down once over the entire trip. We still regard it as a voyage of a lifetime.
Probably the highlight drive was from Mississauga to Fredericton N.B. Did it one long day. Loved driving through Quebec and all the small villages each with their church and steeple, etc.
A most memorable drive was from Tucson to Phoenix, in a rainy sandstorm also termed a “Haboob”. You could not see more than a foot or two in front of the car, so you just kept moving, ever so slowly. You dare not stop as the driver behind would not see you until it was too late. You dare not pull over either as other drivers might follow your taillights. My white rental car, as white as the screen you are reading this on, was totally brown by the time I rolled in to Phoenix, hours later.
A drive I took from Prague to Brno was great. Passing all kinds of great and historic castles, touring a few of them, it was awesome. See pic below. I later asked why there were no speed limit signs, and was informed there was a “general understanding” that you drove with traffic flow. That was about 135 km/h so it was a pretty good pace.
I drove from London to Yeovil England several times, enjoyed each one from the transition from M5 to A303, then to smaller village roads. Passing Stonehenge, local pubs, and stopping in to these on the way was great.
My bucket list includes driving through the Catskill Mountains again through upstate New York, and also the Cabot Trail (never been)
There a re several……
Yes, like many, the PCH north and south of San Francisco, Phoenix to Sedona and around (on expenses from work ;-)!) was another.
Highway 5 in New Zeland’s north island was great too, as was going to 90 mile Beach.
In Europe, from Mulhouse to Salzburg across and under the Alps in glorious weather in a Renault 19, from Coburg in central Germany to Zeebrugge on the Belgian coast was a fun day in its way, from Zeebrugge into the former East Germany shortly after the wall had come down was an experience, Mount Ventoux in a Fiat 500 Twin Air was a good afternoon, taking an Alfa 156 to 237kmh on a German autobahn (drive it like you’ve hired it!) and numerous trips around the mountains of Provence.
But, there’s always Buttertubs Pass in Yorkshire…
One I’ve no urge to repeat is crossing Mumbai in rush hour in a Premier Padmini taxi with no aircon, and having to pay the driver’s on the spot traffic fine (no paperwork…….)
A selected itinerary of genuine curbside classic motoring:
Syracuse, NY to the White Mountains of NH in early January for a midwinter hike up Mt. Adams in my 1953 Chevy 2-door sedan with three others on board. This was right after a 3 foot snowfall had blanketed Northern New England. There was no traffic. One day we cooked lunch over a fire in the middle of the road; the only flat spot we could find. Slept one night in a jail (they left the door open).
NY to Medford, OR in my 1961 Econoline Pickup truck, via Banff and Lake Louise. There were long stretches in Northern Ontario where I encountered only one other car coming in the opposite direction for fifty miles or more.
Eugene, OR to NY in my 1959 Volkswagen Pickup truck
NY to Eugene, OR in my 1961 Morris Minor 1000.
VT to the border of Guatemala in my 1966 Valiant Signet 200 hardtop. (and back)
VT to Vera Cruz Mexico in my 1977 Toyota Liftback.(and back).
Gothenburg Sweden to central Norway and return in my 1967 Volvo 122S SW
From London, a circular tour of the UK, including SW England, in a rented Vauxhall Viva. Memorable meetup with a classic Mogie three-wheeler convention in Somerset.
And many others (and no real problems in any of them).
Now I have to steel my nerve for the semi annual 1500 mile drive from VT to Fl and back in my 30 year old Toyota camper truck. Interstates most of the way. Terrified of being run over by today’s crazed, distracted and muscle-powered drivers.
1990 – just finished my masters but had little money to celebrate so took a little 5 day road trip to Denver; slept in the bed of my truck and one morning decided to venture to the Badlands and Devils Tower. Not quite dawn as I’m tooling through the Rockies when Carmen McRae’s Monk album was played on NPR. A perfect moment in a perfectly carefree point in life. That album is incredible.
The Cabot Trail here on Cape Breton is breathtaking.
A little over two years ago my father, father-in-law, and I bought a Crown Vic in Vancouver, drive it home to Cape Breton on the other side of the country, and had a great time.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/road-trip/cc-roadtrip-east…anff-a-long-haul/
Want to do it again, and the PCH in a convertible.
Another vote for PCH (a dozen times), but the best was a a solitary trip along the Natchez Trace on a beautiful day in mid-week, the only car on the road, in a BMW 750. Years later, I can still remember the sunset over a beautiful lake.
Our oldest daughter graduated form college in 1994 and immediately married her high school sweetheart. He decided that he wanted to try getting into show business and they moved to California. In November 1997 she called my wife at work to say that she wanted to come home as she was tired of supporting him when he wouldn’t even try to find a job. My wife offered to pay for air fare for the trip, but daughter said she just couldn’t leave her furniture. My wife asked me if I was OK with going out and getting her and her things. Of course I jumped at the chance since I had always wanted to drive to the west coast. I had been there before but had always flown and rented a car. This was on a Friday. Before we left we decided not to waste time getting there. My wife asked, “What if we call her when we are on the way and she changes her mind?” I told her that then we would have a nice weekend drive to Texas. We left Southern Indiana at 6:30 AM on Saturday in my ’95 Ranger short bed pickup and arrived at her place just east of LA at 9:00 AM LA time on Monday. We then rented a U-Haul trailer and loaded the pickup bed and trailer full of stuff and headed back East by Noon. I was glad I opted for the V6 and manual transmission when it came to pulling that load through the mountains. We took a little more time driving back and even drove several sections of Route 66. Before we left I had never towed with the truck . The U-Haul guys installed the hitch ball and wiring for me. We were about 50 miles from home when we pulled into a gas station and a pickup load of oil field workers informed me that we were about to lose the trailer. The nut on the bottom of the hitch ball had worked it’s way to the bottom. Even though I had tools they were nice enough to fix it for me. We arrived home at 3:00 PM on Thursday. A couple of months later , soon to be ex son in law moved back to Indiana. They never got back together but she later met a great guy on a blind date and they have been married for several years.
Gutsy first vacation with my eventual wife of 20 years, despite the drive…
1) Drove the entire length of Skyline Dr/Blue Ridge Parkway/Great Smokey Mtn to Fontana Dam. Best part is in the Great Smokeys. In a ’77 Fiat Spyder, which won its class at the FIAT freak-out that year-1999?. Did the diamondback, but not as enjoyable a drive as the SD/BRP/GSM run. Had to break hard twice around a bend to avoid bears in the road. Key is to drive it on a Tuesday to avoid slow RV’s.
Other memorable drives:
-Narrow roads on the Ring of Kerry, Ireland, with every other car having a smashed mirror, driver had fun, passengers freaked out with my dad and sis
-Suburban highway cluster in my Father-in-law’s car in Tokyo. Passing on the right. Not understanding half the signs…
-looping the circle surrounding the ArcD’Triumph (sp) in Paris
-driving cross country with kids last summer DC-Columbus-Kansas City-Denver-Moab-Badlands-Wisconsin Dells-Chicago-Cleveland-Pittsburgh
-trans Canada highway Tadussac-QC-Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto-Detroit
-driving in Boston
Whatever you do, AVOID DRIVING IN ISTANBUL!
Once again, I very late to the discussion, but I’ve been lucky to have been on some incredible roads. As a country counter as well, road trips to obscure places combine two great passions. Taking an all day drive from Lake Como to Liechtenstein and back was probably the best. Andorra was also amazing, best to enter from France and enjoy the valley unfolding before you. You can’t really drive far up into San Marino, but you can certainly tell why it’s been able to remain independent since 301AD. For variety, Lesotho is incredible and about four hours from Johannesburg. The whole country is a mountain range that you can see for miles in advance. Driving from Maputo, Mozambique to Swaziland (or eSwatini if you keep up with the news from there) was a mini safari. There really were signs saying we were leaving human controlled land and entering animal territory.
Someday I’d love to drive from Proudhoe Bay, AK to Ushuaia ARG, preferably in a Studebaker. I’m thinking it would need to be a 1963-66 Daytona Wagonaire, and yes I’d pack plenty of fuel pumps.
For those driving California Highway 1, or 101 through Washington and Oregon, please do it southbound for best results.