Hit the Road

Sometimes, a journey is your destination. Road trips offer immersive insights into a region seldom provided by traditional “static” holidays. Here are five of the best.

AMALFI COAST, ITALY

A UNESCO World Heritage Site along Italy’s Sorrento Peninsula, the Amalfi Coast is a scenic and cultural marvel, with medieval towns terraced into lush mountains overlooking the turquoise Tyrrhenian Sea. Begin in charming Salerno and weave through romantic Ravello, touristy Amalfi (including its ninth-century cathedral and escapist Vallone dei Mulini hiking) and the cliff-hugging villages of Praiano and Positano. Roads here are narrow and winding, so beware the distraction of staggering views.

PIRATE ROUTE, JAMAICA

This 380-mile circumnavigation provides evocative echoes of Jamaica’s pirate past. Once dubbed “the wickedest city on earth,” today’s Port Royal makes a sleepy start to this swashbuckling trek, its maritime heyday evidenced by countless sunken ships from a 1692 earthquake.

Quake refugees founded next stop Kingston, Jamaica’s sprawling capital. Head west to Negril, where notorious English pirate Calico Jack was captured, then east to Ocho Rios, a former haunt of prolific privateer Henry Morgan.

GOLDEN RING, RUSSIA

In the 1960s, a circular tourist route east of Moscow was christened the “Golden Ring.” Beginning and ending in Moscow’s frantic traffic, this 420-mile loop offers culture (including distinctive onion-domed churches), history (centuries-old monasteries and fortresses) and a window into provincial Russia rarely witnessed by visitors.

Allow time for Russia’s 12th-century capital, Vladimir; quaint (though increasingly commercialized) Suzdal; the riverside Ipatiev Monastery, near historic Kostroma; and traditional architecture in ancient Rostov.

CARRETERA AUSTRAL, CHILE

Although Carretera Austral means “southern highway,” Chile’s 770-mile Route 7 is in fact only partially paved and requires both a high-clearance vehicle and steady nerves. The oft bone-jarring ride is rewarded, thanks to an almost literal north-south trajectory, with ever-changing Patagonian topographies, from rolling pampas to luxuriant forests, and natural features including glaciers, fjords, huge lakes and rushing rivers. Start up north at Puerto Montt, or enter from Argentina in the south at Villa O’Higgins.

SOUTH ISLAND CIRCUIT, NEW ZEALAND

Mellow, dramatic and largely unspoiled, New Zealand’s south island is a road trippers’ playground. Kick off your clockwise lap at largest city Christchurch, heading south on Highway 1. Approaching the college town of Dunedin, look out for 65-million-year-old spherical Moeraki Boulders along the shoreline. Cut inland at Shag Point, then north toward the otherworldly Milford Sound, where cruises abound. The twisting drive through Fiordland National Park’s glacier-cut fjords and giddying snow-flecked peaks will never leave you.

–PAUL ROGERS
Tribune Content Solutions Writer