Whether ambling across the bucolic countryside or winding toward exhilarating mountain vistas, we delight in experiencing a destination from behind the wheel. Here, our editor-in-chief recounts a few of his most memorable drives.
Via Concord, Deerfield, Manchester and Woodstock
A drive through New England, staying at traditional inns, is one of the classic American road trips. Although the fall leaves provide the classic incentive for such a journey, I’ve traveled through Vermont during the hazy days of summer, when the landscape is almost as lovely. I always like to pay my respects to the ghosts of Emerson and Thoreau in Concord at the outset. Deerfield, home of the famous boys’ academy, is so unspoiled that it seems to occupy a time warp. A stop in Manchester gives me the opportunity to drop into the Orvis store and cast a fly on the Batten Kill. And not for nothing was Woodstock dubbed “the prettiest small town in America.”
Via Burford, Bourton on the Water, Moreton in Marsh and Chipping Camden
The Cotswolds contain some the prettiest villages in England, tiny hamlets of golden stone dating to the Middle Ages, tucked into folds in the hills. The main roads and principal towns tend to be crowded at weekends and in high season, so I prefer to buy the 1 Inch: 1 Mile Ordnance Survey maps and to head off down the winding country lanes. The principal towns, Chipping Campden and Cirencester, are delightful, but for me a drive through the Cotswolds is all about finding a tiny exquisite church, or a quiet country pub.
Via Beacon, Poughkeepsie and Rhinecliff
The Hudson Valley has changed beyond recognition in recent years. Not long ago, much of it was a scene of post-industrial gloom. Now former factories have been turned into stylish boutique hotels; Beacon is home to the Dia Art Foundation; locavore restaurants are thriving; and the wineries go from strength to strength. (North of Hudson, the Harvest Spirits Farm Distillery even makes a superb apple vodka.) One of the great pleasures of this trip is that the Hudson itself is never far away, and at a bend in the road you are suddenly confronted by the great river’s calm and stately flow.
Via Fort William, Kyle of Lochalsh, Torridon and Gair Loch
The Western Highlands of Scotland contain the most dramatic scenery in the British Isles, the result of glacial erosion during the last Ice Age, which left deep valleys and hills that rise precipitously from the sea. Most travelers agree that there is some magical quality to the coastal light that casts a numinous glow on the landscape. The roads themselves are well-maintained and only crowded in July and August. But in the far north, some are still single-track, with passing places.
Via Corvara, San Cassiano and Selva (Val Gardena, Dolomites)
Some of Europe’s most spectacular mountain scenery is not in the high Alps, but the Dolomites, a secondary range that separates northeastern Italy from Austria. Here, immense granite spires rise to 11,000 feet, and resemble a vast natural cathedral. Cortina is a gracious old ski resort, while San Cassiano is a delightful mountain village with some exceptionally fine restaurants. Very often I have passed this way, before joining the main highway in Bolzano and heading north across the Brenner Pass to Innsbruck.
Via Gallipoli, Canakkale, Edremit and Pergamum
Rather than merely crossing a bridge over the Bosporus, there is another way to drive from Europe to Asia. Leaving Istanbul, I have sometimes headed southwest through the pretty rural landscape of Thrace, along the western shore of the Sea of Marmara, to Gallipoli, scene of epic battles during World War I. From there, a ferry crosses the Dardanelles to the town of Canakkale on the Asian shore. More than once I have continued my journey south, via the great classical ruins of Pergamum and Ephesus, to the picturesque coastal town of Bodrum.
Through the Alentejo via Évora and Beja
The grand rolling landscape of the Alentejo, south of Lisbon, is dotted with castles and other architectural reminders of when this was disputed territory between the Christians and the Moors. The wonderful old city of Évora was an important garrison town ever earlier, at the time of the Roman Empire. On the leisurely drive south to the Mediterranean coast, the roads are often deserted. Nowadays one can dine extremely well, and the local wines are achieving an international reputation.
Via Saint Remy de Provence, Saint Maximim La Sainte Baume, La Celle and Tourtour
This itinerary through Provence takes you along quieter roads, in order to visit some lesser-known towns and villages. When touring in Europe it is always a temptation to let the GPS plan your journey, but this is invariably a mistake. I like to settle down with a map in advance, in order to plan a picturesque and relaxing route along minor roads. The point of travel in rural Europe is to discover a charming little village, with a family-run restaurant that the guidebooks have neglected to mention. In the South of France, I force myself to slow down in order to spend time gazing across the lavender fields.
Across the Peruvian Andes
By some estimates, Peru’s 10,725-foot Colca Canyon is the deepest in the world. The drive from the southern city of Arequipa takes around four hours, not including a mandatory interlude at the Cruz del Condor viewpoint, in order to spot the huge Andean condors that ascend on the thermals each morning. Along the way, it is possible to see vicuña and, sometimes, flamingos. The views of Misti, a perfectly symmetrical 19,101-foot volcano, would alone make the trip worthwhile.
Via Mossel Bay, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay (Garden Route, South Africa)
The Garden Route extends for 420 miles from Hermanus, the whale-watching capital of South Africa, to the city of Port Elizabeth. The terrain along the coast of the Indian Ocean is covered with a low evergreen shrub called fynbos, which shelters a variety of spectacular flowers. The most eye-catching section of the drive begins just east of Plettenberg Bay, where suddenly the landscape becomes one of forests, rocky peaks, gorges and sheer cliffs. Known as Tsitsikamma, the area is part of the Garden Route National Park, which contains some of the finest hiking routes in South Africa. South African roads are generally well-maintained and well-signed, so it is possible to drive the Garden Route in only a little more than seven hours. I prefer to take four or five days, however, stopping at the attractive small towns along the way.
Across the Atlas Mountains via the Tizi-n-Test Pass
It takes little more than three hours to drive across the Atlas mountains from Marrakesh to Taroudant, but the road over the Tizi-n-Test pass is one of the most spectacular in the world—an endless series of hairpin bends that unwind down from the high mountains to the Souss Pain and the edge of the Sahara. The road was blasted out of the mountains by the French from 1926–1932 in an effort to control the remote southern region of the country. Although the engineering is impressive and the scenery is unforgettable, this is not a trip for the faint-hearted as the drop-offs can be alarming.
Tel Aviv, Acre, Galilee, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Masada, Mitzpe Ramon and Tel Aviv
Israel naturally lends itself to a two-week circular drive, during which it is possible to see virtually the entire country. Heading up the Mediterranean coast you come to the city of Haifa and then the lovely old Crusader port of Acre. The Sea of Galilee sits amid green hills that ascend through vineyards to the Golan Heights and ultimately the 9,232-foot summit of Mount Hermon. From Jerusalem, you descend into the dramatic Lawrence of Arabia landscape of the Judaean Desert and proceed along the western shore of the Dead Sea to Masada where, in A.D. 73, its defenders committed mass suicide rather than being captured by the Roman 10th legion. Scenically, the highlight of this itinerary is the extraordinary Ramon Crater, a 25-mile-wide dent in the surface of the Negev Desert that looks like the result of a meteor impact, but which was actually caused by subterranean erosion of soft rock.
This article is an excerpt from the July, August, September edition of the Traveler magazine. Click here to access the full issue.
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