From perilous mountain passes and hard-going highways to remote and rough off-the-beaten-track roads, strong nerves and superb driving skills are a must if you want to take on these tough trails.
Click through the gallery to see some incredible images of the world's scariest driving and cycling routes, suitable for the most daring adventurers...
You'll get dizzy just looking at the Three Level Zigzag road, allegedly the most zig-zagging road in the world. Set in India's Sikkim state within the lower Himalayan mountains, the curvy road has a staggering amount of hairpin turns and sheer drops along the way too. It goes from the village of Dzuluk and climbs up the mountain to Thambi View Point, reaching an altitude of 11,200 feet (3,413m).
Made famous by the TV show Ice Road Truckers, the James W. Dalton Highway in the wilds of northern Alaska is one of the USA’s deadliest roads. Over its 414-mile (666km) stretch, the long and lonely gravel road presents a gruelling drive with numerous perils in store for those who brave it: fog, snow, potholes, bears, thundering trucks among them. Be sure to go prepared as the highway has the longest stretch of un-serviced road on the North American continent – 240 miles (386km).
An old hand-carved mining route, Skippers Canyon Road offers those behind the wheel stunning scenery and scary driving. The 14.2 mile (23km) gravel road near Queenstown on New Zealand's South Island was built between 1883 and 1890 to give mining companies access to the upper Shotover River, which the road overhangs in places. It’s narrow, bendy and peppered with sheer drops. Unsurprisingly, rental cars are not usually insured to take on this daredevil drive, so go with a pro.
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Remote, majestic and really tricky to get to, the Tusheti region is located on the northern slopes of the Great Caucasus Mountains. The only way to get there is by taking on the treacherous Abano Pass, a narrow, steep, winding and unpaved mountain route leading from Pshaveli up to the village of Omalo. As well as facing oncoming traffic, your drive could be hampered by mist and the odd waterfall flowing across the track. If you want to tackle this high-altitude drive, be sure to visit from late May to early October as it’s closed for the rest of the year.
There’s a good reason North Yungas Road is commonly known as Death Road. Before a newer and safer road was built between La Paz and Coroico, there were hundreds of deaths here a year. Bolivia’s most formidable route is notorious for its many and inherent dangers: it’s extremely narrow, has steep curves and overhanging rocks. There are no guardrails to protect against the steep cliffside plunges, and landslides and tumbling rocks are commonplace. The road is now also a hotspot for groups of cyclists.
Ominously known as the Road of Bones, the Kolyma Highway connects the isolated town of Magadan on the Pacific Coast with Yakutsk (one of the coldest cities on Earth) in far-east Russia. Construction began in 1932, but its moniker remembers the thousands of Gulag prisoners who died finishing the road in the frigid tundra during Stalin’s era in the 1950s. The highway goes through some of Siberia’s harshest but most incredible scenery and is a punishing journey year-round. Although winter brings extreme weather, the road is more dangerous in summer due to rain and mud.
Don’t look down is the mantra to repeat as you navigate some of the most hair-raising sections of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, which wriggles for 1,367 miles (2,200km) from Chengdu to Lhasa. This precarious path is one of the world’s highest roads but also one of the most incredible. It passes through snow-capped peaks, vast forested valleys, rushing rivers, glacial lakes and ancient monasteries. Expect plenty of sharp turns, sheer drops and adverse weather conditions if you drive in winter.
You need to be serious about skiing to take on the winding mountain road that takes you up to Portillo, a ski resort high in the Chilean Andes. Tackling the road's series of seemingly endless switchbacks is the only way up into the steep mountain. As well as motion sickness, heavy traffic (it’s also the main highway from Santiago to Mendoza in Argentina) and bad weather can add to the road’s challenges.
Striking through the stunning Kimberley Plateau in Western Australia, the 410-mile (660km) Gibb River Road is a tough but beguiling drive. A combination of unsealed and corrugated surfaces, vision-obscuring red dust and a series of floodways, creeks and river crossings make this remote road a no-go for non-experienced drivers. During the wet season, it's impassable. Not to mention the searing heat, vast distances between facilities and crocodiles. Pictured is the Pentecost River crossing.
It might be less than a mile long but driving along the terrifying Guoliang Tunnel will feel like one of the longest drives in your life. The rocky tunnel was carved into China's Taihang Mountains by 13 villagers in the 1970s who wanted a link to the rest of the northwestern Henan Province of China. Previously there had only been steep, narrow and dangerous stairs from Guoliang. Uneven and twisty, the tunnel has various 'windows' where you can peer down the mountain...if you dare.
Snaking its way up into the heart of the Hohe Tauern National Park in Austria over 36 bends, the Grossglockner High Alpine Road is one of Europe’s greatest driving roads for motorists that love a challenge. As well as contending with steep gradients, serpentine twists and dizzying heights, the road can become very busy with drivers, especially at the height of summer. It’s closed to traffic from November until May due to heavy snowfall.
When it comes to dramatic landscapes, Norway has it covered. It’s also got dramatic drives nailed too. Trollstigen is a beauty of a road, sending drivers around 11 hairpin bends as it climbs up to the summit of Stigrøra (2,756 feet/840m above sea level). The road passes through the mountain in sections and across the Stigfossen waterfall over a stone bridge. Be sure to visit the viewpoints at the top to gaze down the mountain and see what you’ve achieved. Due to adverse weather, the road is closed in late autumn and winter.
You won’t want to find yourself on this terrifying bridge in Maryland during bad weather. Stretching 4.3 miles (7km) across Chesapeake Bay, on stormy days cars are buffeted by strong winds as they make their way across the choppy water. Add to that poor visibility and the reassuring sight of land is often obscured. Some people are so scared of driving across Chesapeake Bay Bridge that there are dedicated taxi services to ferry people across in their own cars.
When it comes to challenging road trips, it’s hard to beat a journey along the Karakoram Highway. The long-distance road connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range. With high elevations, tight bends, precipitous drops and a risk of landslides, plus flooding and heavy snowfalls to boot, you’re in for one white-knuckle ride. But the scenery is out of this world.
If that’s not quite tough enough for you, take a detour along the Fairy Meadows Road, or Nanga Parbat Pass, which goes off the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region. The steep, gravelly and extremely narrow mountain 'road' leads up to the village of Tato at the base of Nanga Parbat mountain. There are no barriers so one wrong move could be disastrous.
This spectacular road in Tianmen Mountain National Park is as beautiful as it is deadly. Snaking around Tianmen Mountain (Heaven Gate Mountain) for seven miles (11.2km), it boasts 99 nerve-wracking bends as well as plenty of precipitous drops. Unsurprisingly, driving up the hair-raising track, which is also called Tian Men Shan Big Gate road, in China's Hunan Province, has become a big tourist draw.