When you’re talking about the best roads to ride, you’ll never get everyone to agree. Some prefer the best paved roads, others the most panoramic, others still the most solitary and unspoiled. In our selection here, we highlight the most spectacular panoramic roads in Europe, the ones we think a motorcycle rider should ride at least once in their life. Some you probably already know. Others could be the starting point for organizing a vacation.
How could we fail to start from the ultra-Italian Stelvio Pass? At 2,757 meters, it’s Italy’s highest pass, as well as the second highest in Europe (after Col de l’Iseran, in France). That’s why it’s closed for most of the year (usually November through May) due to snow. Built in record time in the early 1800s (it was used to connect the Val Venosta with Milan), the Stelvio Pass has remained essentially unchanged all these years.
It connects Bormio (Valtellina) with the Val Venosta and has no fewer than eighty-eight hairpin bends, forty-eight of which on the South Tyrolean side and forty on the Lombard side. And that’s where the arguments start – which side is best? we think… neither beats the other. If you do one side, it’s worth heading down to take the other one too. It just depends where you’re coming from. If you take it on in high season or at any rate at ‘normal’ times of day, expect some traffic, especially due to local couriers. But in any case, the view at the top is simply breathtaking.
If you love bends and roads immersed nature, then at least once in your life you have to ride the road from Marbella, in the province of Málaga (Spain), to Ronda. It starts from the sea and goes up, climbing gently to the characteristic city of Ronda, a location beloved of writers and poets (Ernest Hemingway described it this way: “That is where you should go if you ever go to Spain on a honeymoon or if you ever bolt with anyone.”)
In addition to the incredible views of the Sierra de Las Nieves National Park, local motorcycle riders love it especially because of its gentle, easy to handle curves and above all the incredibly well maintained asphalt. It’s a road that you’ll want to take again and again, to escape the heat of Marbella or, conversely, to get to the beaches after a day’s riding.
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For some motorcycle riders, the Transfăgărășan in Romania is simply the most beautiful road in the world. Try searching for it on Google Maps: in the Street View images, at any point on the road (more than 100 km long) you’ll find more than one photo of a motorcycle. Particularly contorted and wound in on itself, it crosses the Carpathian Mountains and was built between 1970 and 1974 for military purposes by dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu (the road is also nicknamed “Ceaușescu’s folly” because of the incredible efforts of the workers).
Despite not being particularly close to Italy’s borders, every year thousands of riders leave the country just to take this road and admire these magical locations. You can take it both ways. Assuming that you start in the north, the first place you come across is Cârțișoara, a little village with a population of 1,200 in Transylvania. Also worth noting is the beautiful Lake Bàlea, a precious gem nestled in the mountains. If you’re looking for a road to steal your soul away, this is the road for you.
Not far from Italy’s borders is one of the most beautiful, panoramic and well-known roads in the whole world – the Route Napoléon, the road that Napoleon Bonaparte took in 1815 to reach Grenoble starting from Cannes, avoiding passing through the Rhône Valley (full of cities loyal to the king) and thus regaining the nation’s crown. It is one of the most popular motorcycle touring itineraries in all of Europe, for various reasons. On the one hand, it’s an infinite series of round curves, with an almost perfect surface. On the other hand, there are alpine landscapes made up of gorges, hills and plateaus. That’s without mentioning that at a certain point you find yourself in the Verdon Gorge, the canyon of the Verdon River with its typical green-turquoise color (the name probably comes straight from its color – in Provençal verdon means light green), simply spectacular.
The tourist attractions are practically endless, like its curves. If you’ve never been, make up for it as soon as you can!
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The Grossglockner is another of those roads that, at least once in your life, you have to ride by motorcycle. It’s a mountain in the Central Eastern Alps, the highest in Austria, with an altitude of 3,798 meters. The road stands out not only because of its nature and incredible landscapes, but also because it’s an authentic journey through history. There are documents demonstrating that the Alps in this area had already been crossed more than 5,500 years ago. Over the years, in any case, the roadway has been expanded and repaired a number of times. And this is also one of the reasons why it is so attractive for motorcycle riders, namely the perfect road surface, which is constantly protected in part through tolls (you have to pay €33 at the booth to ride it by motorcycle).
Today, the Grossglockner road is a masterpiece of road engineering that still retains its original charm. With 36 hairpin bends, it crosses the High Tauern Alpine chain, in the heart of the national park of the same name. Every year about 900,000 visitors from all over the world pass along its 48 kilometers. The road is open between May and November.
These are our pick for the 5 most spectacular panoramic roads in all of Europe, the ones a motorcycle rider should ride at least once in their life. Of course, this is our selection, which you may or may not share, but we’re sure that if you love riding you’ll love every single meter your ride on these roads.
