Best worldwide road trips 2026: drives beyond Europe

The routes here ask more of you than a European drive: longer flights to reach the start, bigger distances between fuel stops, and in one case a road where the ferries are not optional. In exchange you get landscape at a scale Europe cannot offer.

Four routes, ordered by how much commitment they need.

Great Ocean Road, Australia

Three to five days. 243 km from Torquay to Allansford.

The easiest entry on this list and still one of the world's best coastal drives. Usually done from Melbourne, ending at Warrnambool or looping back inland.

The distance is short enough that people try it in a day, which is the standard mistake: the point is the stops. Surf beaches on the eastern end, rainforest and koalas through the Otways, then the limestone coast with the Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge.

Scenic year-round. Summer for beach weather, winter for dramatic seas and whales off Warrnambool between roughly June and September. A standard car is fine throughout.

Icefields Parkway, Canada

One to three days. Around 290 km from Banff to Jasper.

Highway 93 through the Canadian Rockies, past lakes, glaciers and canyons. It can be driven in three hours, and doing so entirely misses the point: six to eight hours with viewpoints and short walks is more realistic, and two days lets you take it properly.

Mid-June to September is the season. Outside it, services along the parkway close and conditions get serious.

One practical detail worth planning around: Saskatchewan River Crossing is the only fuel on the parkway, and it closes for the winter. Fill up in Banff or Lake Louise.

Route 66 through Oklahoma

Three to four days. Around 430 km of drivable road.

Oklahoma has more drivable Route 66 than any other state, running from Quapaw near the Kansas line to Texola on the Texas border, through Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Roadside Americana is the appeal: diners, neon, the Blue Whale of Catoosa, POPS soda ranch, and museums that take the highway seriously.

Route 66 turns 100 in 2026, and Oklahoma is running centennial events through the year, so expect more going on than usual and book accommodation earlier than you otherwise would.

Spring and autumn are the comfortable seasons. Spring is also tornado season, peaking in May, which is worth knowing rather than worrying about. Summer heat regularly passes 35°C.

Chile's Carretera Austral

Seven to fourteen days. Around 1,240 km.

The serious one. A road through Patagonian fjords, temperate rainforest and glaciers, built to link communities that had no land connection at all. Highlights include the hanging glacier at Queulat and the Marble Caves at Puerto Río Tranquilo.

November to March is the window, when services are open and the road is at its best. Seven days covers the highlights between Puerto Varas and Cochrane; ten to fourteen lets you travel at the pace the region deserves.

Two things to plan properly. Ferries are part of the road, not an alternative to it, and the key crossings fill up in summer. And a high-clearance vehicle is a real recommendation here rather than a nicety, particularly after rain.

Side by side

• Great Ocean Road: 3 to 5 days, scenic year-round, standard car.
• Icefields Parkway: 1 to 3 days, mid-June to September, standard car.
• Route 66 in Oklahoma: 3 to 4 days, spring or autumn, standard car.
• Carretera Austral: 7 to 14 days, November to March, high clearance or 4x4.

Fuel, distance and services

The habit that matters on all four is filling up when you can rather than when you need to. On the Icefields Parkway and the Carretera Austral this is not advice, it is the difference between a good day and a bad one.

The same applies to accommodation. Small towns on these routes have few rooms, and in season they go early.

Planning the legs

Give the planner your daily driving limit as a starting point, then check the overnight stops against fuel and accommodation yourself. On the Carretera Austral, confirm the ferry segments separately - they dictate where several days have to end. You can start planning a route or see how the planner works first.

Where to go next

There is also a Patagonia loop across Chile and Argentina, which pairs with the Carretera Austral.

For shorter drives closer to home, see Best Europe road trips 2026. If you would rather fly and walk, see Best city trips 2026.