Driving roads you can actually drive in winter — while the Alps are shut
The Stelvio, the Grossglockner and the big Swiss passes shut for the winter, typically from late autumn until late spring. The roads below do not. They are the ones worth building a winter week around, described honestly — including the ones that are only warm at the bottom.
Every autumn the same thing happens. The high alpine passes close one by one as the snow arrives — the Stelvio, the Grossglockner, the Furka, the Susten — and they stay closed until late spring. For anyone who drives for the sake of driving, that is five or six months with the best roads in Europe behind a barrier.
The answer is latitude and altitude. There are famous roads in places where January is a perfectly good driving month: the Canaries, the Balearics, southern Spain, Sicily, the American south-west, the Western Cape and eastern Australia. This is a tour of the ones worth a flight, with the honest caveats — because several of them start in shirt-sleeve weather and finish somewhere that can have snow on it.
Tenerife
The best winter driving island in Europe, with a coast that stays in the low twenties through January and a 3,700-metre volcano in the middle that does not. The contrast is the point: you can leave the beach and be above the clouds in under an hour.
A narrow mountain road that climbs out of Santiago del Teide, crests a ridge, and drops into the Masca gorge in a sequence of tight hairpins before climbing back out and descending again toward the north coast. The scenery is vertical and the road is cut into it, with knife-edge sections where the ground falls away on both sides.
It is a slow road and a popular one. Coaches and hire cars arrive in numbers from mid-morning, the hairpins are too tight to pass on, and the viewpoints fill. Driven at eight in the morning it is one of the best short roads anywhere. Driven at midday it is a queue with a view. Do not expect to make time on it in either case.
The TF-24 is the Carretera Dorsal: it runs along the island's spine from La Esperanza through pine forest, climbing steadily and smoothly with the sea on both sides, until it breaks out above the treeline at El Portillo on the edge of the Las Cañadas caldera at over 2,000 metres. It is wide, well surfaced, flowing and often nearly empty, and it is the best drive on the island.
The TF-21 climbs to the same point from La Orotava in the north, crosses the caldera past the cable-car base, and descends to Vilaflor in the south — a route through a volcanic landscape that looks like nowhere else in Europe.
The caveat matters. At 2,000-plus metres it is cold in winter even when the coast is warm, and these roads can and do close in snow and ice. A closure can last days. Check before you set off, carry a proper jacket, and treat the summit roads as a bonus rather than a certainty in December and January.
Mallorca
Out of season Mallorca is a different island: quiet, mild, with the Serra de Tramuntana to itself until the cycling teams arrive in February. The tops can occasionally see snow, but the roads rarely close for long.
The spine road of the mountains, running the length of the range from Andratx to Pollença through Estellencs, Banyalbufar, Deià and Sóller and up over the high ground past the reservoirs. It is almost entirely bends, mostly well sighted, with the sea below for long stretches and the stone walls very close to the edge of the tarmac.
In winter it is wonderful. In summer it is slow with coaches and in spring it is thick with cyclists, who have every right to be there and will be in the middle of the lane on the climbs. Budget a full day for the whole thing; the two or three hours the distance suggests is not realistic with stops.
The famous one. From the Ma-10 near the Coll dels Reis the road descends roughly 800 metres to the sea in about a dozen kilometres of continuous hairpins, including the Nus de sa Corbata — the "tie knot" — where it loops 270 degrees and passes under itself. The engineering is the attraction as much as the driving.
Two honest points. It is a dead end, so every car that goes down comes back up, and the road is too narrow to pass a coach on a hairpin. From late morning onward it is a crawl in both directions. Go first thing, drive down before the coaches arrive, and come back up while they are still descending.
A road to the end of the island: it climbs out of Port de Pollença to the Mirador des Colomer, drops through pine woods to Formentor beach, then threads along the cliffs and through a tunnel to the lighthouse on the last headland. The last section is narrow, exposed and spectacular.
Seasonal access restrictions apply on this road — check before you go. In winter it is generally the quiet, open version, which is the one to see.
Andalucía
The Costa del Sol is one of the best-connected winter-sun destinations in Europe and the mountains behind it have real roads. Ronda sits at about 740 metres, which means cold mornings, fog and occasional snow on the high ground even when the coast is warm.
The road everyone drives from the coast. It climbs from sea level at San Pedro to over 1,100 metres through the Sierra Bermeja and the Sierra de las Nieves, wide and well surfaced with long sightlines on the upper half, then rolls across high ground into Ronda. It is a quick road by Spanish mountain standards and an easy one to enjoy.
Its popularity is also its problem. It carries a lot of hire cars at a lot of different speeds, and the long open corners tempt overtaking that the road does not always support. Weekday mornings are best.
The quieter alternative, running south-west from Ronda along the rim of the Genal valley through the white villages — Atajate, Benadalid, Algatocín — to Gaucín, from where the A-405 drops toward the coast near Gibraltar. Narrower and more intimate than the A-397, with constant bends, big drops to one side and far less traffic.
Link the two into a loop from the coast — up the A-397, along the A-369, down the A-405 — and you have the best day's driving in southern Spain.
Across the border in Portugal, the N266 climbs from the Algarve coast through Monchique into the Serra de Monchique, with the side road to Fóia, the highest point in the Algarve. It is short, green and shaded, and completely different in character from the Spanish roads an hour east.
Sicily
From Nicolosi the SP92 climbs the south flank of Mount Etna through old lava flows to the cable-car base at Rifugio Sapienza, around 1,900 metres. The road is wide and fast lower down and tightens into hairpins as the vegetation gives way to black volcanic grit. On the north side the Mareneve road from Linguaglossa toward Piano Provenzana does the same job through pine forest.
Be honest with yourself about what this is. Etna is a working volcano and the upper mountain has ski lifts, which tells you what the top is like in January. The lower slopes and the coast are the winter-sun part; the summit road can carry snow, and volcanic activity or ash can close roads at short notice. Check before you drive up, and do not plan the whole trip around it.
Arizona and California
The American south-west is the other great winter destination for drivers, with the same caveat as Tenerife: the desert floor is mild and the mountains above it are not.
From the red rocks of Sedona at around 1,300 metres the road follows Oak Creek north through a narrowing canyon, then climbs the Mogollon Rim in a set of tight switchbacks to the plateau at over 2,000 metres and runs on to Flagstaff. The canyon section is slow and scenic; the switchbacks at the top are the driving.
Sedona in winter is pleasant. Flagstaff in winter is a ski town, and the switchbacks can carry snow and ice when the canyon floor is dry. Drive it from the bottom up and turn back if the top looks wrong.
The name says it. From the resorts of Palm Desert the road climbs almost immediately into the Santa Rosa Mountains in a long series of well-engineered switchbacks, with the whole Coachella Valley spread out below, then levels onto a high plateau of pine and oak toward Mountain Center. From there CA 243 continues up to Idyllwild for anyone who wants more.
The climb from the desert floor is roughly 1,200 metres and the temperature drops to match. Winter storms can bring snow and chain requirements to the upper section while it is 20 degrees at the bottom. The road is popular with cyclists and motorcyclists at weekends, and the lower switchbacks are patrolled.
The southern hemisphere, where it is actually summer
If you are willing to fly further, December to February is high summer south of the equator and the roads come with no altitude caveat at all — only a long-haul flight and the other side of the road.
A coast road in the Chapman's Peak mould but far less crowded: from Gordon's Bay the R44 is cut into the mountainside above False Bay, running south-east to Rooi-Els and on toward Betty's Bay and Kleinmond with the sea directly below and the Hottentots Holland mountains directly above. It is smooth, flowing and very fast-looking, with viewpoints every few hundred metres.
It is a public road with ordinary traffic and ordinary speed limits, and wildlife — including baboons around Rooi-Els — uses it too. Drive on the left, and treat it as a run to be savoured rather than attacked. It links well into a Cape Peninsula and Overberg day with Chapman's Peak Drive and the Franschhoek Pass.
One of Australia's great motorcycle roads. From Wauchope near the coast the Oxley climbs the eastern escarpment of the Great Dividing Range through rainforest and tall eucalyptus in a sustained sequence of bends that goes on for the better part of an hour, then eases onto the tablelands toward Walcha. The climb is the famous part and it is genuinely long.
The honest notes: speed limits were lowered along parts of the route some years ago and it is actively policed; wildlife, especially kangaroos, is a real hazard at dawn and dusk; and summer in New South Wales means heat and afternoon storms. It is a long way from anywhere to drive a road, but as a destination road it delivers.
Hire cars, licences and the small print
Almost everyone drives these roads in a hire car, which brings its own rules. None of this is exciting and all of it has ruined somebody's trip.
- Read the exclusions. Hire agreements commonly exclude unsurfaced roads, ferry crossings and sometimes specific roads or regions. Damage incurred somewhere the contract excludes may not be covered, however good the insurance looks on the booking page.
- The excess is the real cost. Standard cover on a hire car often leaves a large excess for damage, and mountain roads with stone walls are where that excess gets spent. Decide in advance whether to buy it down.
- Photograph the car at pickup. Every panel, every wheel, the windscreen. It takes two minutes and settles every argument.
- Check licence requirements for the destination. Rules on international permits and licence formats vary by country and change; check the current position for where you are going before you travel rather than assuming.
- Altitude roads have winter rules. On high roads in Spain, Italy and the United States, chains or winter tyres can be required when signed. A hire car from a coastal airport will not have them.
- Which side of the road. South Africa and Australia drive on the left; Spain, Italy and the United States on the right. The first roundabout is where people get it wrong, and the first hairpin is where it matters.
- Fuel policy. Full-to-full is the honest one. Anything else is a way of charging you for petrol at a rate you did not choose.
The short version
- Tenerife for the best mix: Masca early, Teide if the road is open.
- Mallorca for the Ma-10 and Sa Calobra with nobody else on them.
- Andalucía for a fast road and a quiet one that make a loop from the coast.
- Sicily for Etna, with a plan B if the mountain says no.
- Arizona and California for desert at the bottom and switchbacks at the top — and a jacket in the boot.
- The Cape and New South Wales if you want real summer and do not mind the flight.
- Whatever you choose, read the hire agreement before the road, not after it.
For how to turn any of these into a day that ends where it started, the guide to planning a loop covers the method.
Drive these in ApexRoute
ApexRoute 1.7.0, rolling out now, adds a sixth Famous Roads pack: Winter Sun. It carries ten of the roads above — the Masca Road, the La Esperanza road to Teide, the Cap de Formentor road, Ronda to San Pedro de Alcántara, the Serra de Monchique, Mount Etna's SP92, Oak Creek Canyon, the Palms to Pines Highway, Clarence Drive and the Oxley Highway from Wauchope to Walcha — with the Masca Road free to try. Sa Calobra and the Ma-10 are already in the Europe pack. Once the update reaches you the road book goes from 50 roads in five packs to 60 in six, and opening any of them sets it up as a route you can generate a loop around.
ApexRoute is free to start, needs no account, and carries no ads or trackers — apexroute.froggyeye.com.