Of course I couldn't possible mention every must see, coastal road around the world on this one page, but here are ten of which I can personally vouch for.
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| Iceland's Ring Road |
The BR101 is a 4,828 kilometer long highway
located along Brazil’s east coast linking the city of Touros in the north with
the city of Sao Jose de Norte in the south.
The highway, which is the longest in the country and
known locally as the Translitoranea also forms part of the much larger
Pan American Highway.
The highway passes through the twelve Brazilian states
of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba,
Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo,
Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, calling at each of the twelve
state’s capital cities along the way.
This vast highway, which passes through the UNESCO
World Heritage Site and World Biosphere Reserve known as the Discovery Coast
Atlantic Forest Reserve, passes through miles of tropical, sub tropical and
mangrove forests full of rare species of flora and fauna.
The highway is served with seven toll booths located
at the towns of Pedro Canario, Sierra, Mimosa, St Mathew, Linhares, Guarapari
and Itapemirim.
The highway is also served by the five kilometer long,
Rio Niteroi Bridge, which spans the scenic Guanabar Bay, linking the
city of Rio de Janeiro with it’s
southern suburb of Niteroi.
The D400 Highway is a 2,057 kilometer long highway situated along the Taurus Mountains of southern
Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
The highway links the small coastal town of Datca,
located on the Datca Peninsula of western Turkey, with the city of Essendere in
eastern Turkey near it’s border with Iran.
This very scenic and often scary mountain road makes
it’s way along several narrow bends, sheer drops and tight corners as it passes
through Turkey’s famous coastal resorts of Icmeler, Marmaris,
Dalaman, Fethiye, Kalakan, Kas, Alanya and Finike, the cities of Antalya, Mersin, Tarsus, Adana, Gaziantep, Shanlurfa,
Mardin and Hakkari and hundreds of traditional Turkish mountain villages as it makes it's way along the high sided mountain passes of these sometimes barren, sometimes pine clad, coastal cliffs.
Route 1 also
known as the Icelandic Ring Road, is a 1,339 kilometer long ring road
which encompasses the entire coastline of the island of Iceland.
The route is renowned for it’s remote lunar like
landscape, surrounding volcanoes, vast glacial plains, breath taking
waterfalls, rocky peninsulas and dramatic ocean vistas.
The highway, which is part paved and part gravel
surface, is served by three mountain tunnels and several types of bridges,
including the country’s two longest causeway bridges, and passes through
several of Iceland’s coastal towns and cities, including it’s capital,
Reykjavik.
Highway 99
also known as the Sea to Sky Highway and the Whistler Highway, is
a 134 kilometer long scenic highway which links the border town of Surrey with
the village of Cache Creek in British Columbia, Canada.
The road travels north along the coast of the Howe Sound,
alongside Horseshoe Bay through to the city of Vancouver, which is accessed by
way of the 1.8 kilometer long suspension bridge over the Burrard Narrows
waterway known as the Lion’s Gate Bridge, and then on through to the town of
Pemberton before terminating at the village of Cache Creek.
MA 105 is located
along the Sierra Almijara Mountains of Spain’s Mediterranean coast located
between the costal town of Nerja and the mountain village of Frigiliana.
This six kilometer long mountain road, which attains
an ultimate elevation of 300 meters above sea level, will take you through
terraces of vineyards, olive groves and avocado fields before terminating in
the picturesque cobbled streets of the white washed mountain village of
Frigiliana.
The MA 105 also links with the MA111 and the MA112
roads, which reach an ultimate elevation of 638 meters above sea level, and
link the white washed villages of Algorroda, Competa and La Morona, both of
which are also mountain roads with stunning Mediterranean Sea views.
N 340 Is a 1,248
kilometer long highway located along most of Spain’s Mediterranean coast
linking the city of Barcelona on Spain’s north east coast with the city of
Cadiz on it’s south west coast.
The road passes through the coastal cities of
Tarragona, Castelion, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia, Almeria and Malaga, the
ancient towns of Alcoy, Elche and Lorca and the renowned coastal resorts
of Torremolinos, Fuengirola, Motril,
Nerja, Marbella, Puerto Banus and Estepona.
This ancient road, which follows the route of the
former Roman road known as the Via Augustus, also links with Spain’s Autopista
AP7 and Autovia A7 highways at certain points along it’s route.
Strada Statale 163 is a forty
kilometer long coastal road which links the Italian Riviera resorts of Sorrento
and Amalfi along the Sorrentine Peninsula, an area of land which separates
the Bay of Naples from the Bay of Salerno located in the Tyrrenian Sea.
This winding mountain pass, which was
originally carved into the coastal cliffs of the Lattari Mountains by the
Romans over a thousand years ago, also passes through the picturesque mountain
towns of Salerno and Positano.
Trans- African Highway 1 (TAH 1) is an 8,636
kilometer long coastal highway located between Africa’s largest city Cairo in
Egypt and the city of Dakar in Senegal.
The road follows the Mediterranean coast
of North Africa through the five nations of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and
Morocco and the four Atlantic Ocean coast nations of Morocco, Western Sahara,
Mauritania and Senegal, passing through the major cities of Tripoli, Tunis,
Algiers, Rabat, Nouadhibou and Nouakchott along the way.
Unfortunately the border betweeen Algeria and Morocco
is now closed therefore this route can not now be travelled in it’s
entirity.
State Route A1A, this 529 kilometer
long highway follows the entire east coast of the state of Florida in the
U.S.A, passing through twelve counties between Key West in the south of the
state and Fernandina Beach on the border with the state of Georgia in the north
of the state.
The route passes through some of the state’s most
famous locations, such as Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Palm Beach,
Daytona Beach, Jacksonville and Key West.
The road is also spanned by eleven bridges and
causeways, including an unusual historic auto ferry which spans the St John’s
River in Jacksonville and two large causeways which span the vast Intracoastal
Waterway in Fort Lauderdale.
Other points of interest along the route include the
vast Port Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center at Merrit Island, the Jonathan
Dickinson State Park, the Anastasia State Park, the Canaveral National Seashore
and the historic town of St Augustine.
U.S Route 36, also known
as the Hana Highway, is a 109
kilometer long, scenic coastal road which has been entered onto the United
States’ National Register of Historic Places.
Situated between the villages of Hana and Kahului
along the north coast of the island of Maui in the state of Hawaii, the highway
is renowned for it’s six hundred narrow bends and fifty rickety bridges as it
makes it’s way precariously through lush tropical rainforests passing several
waterfalls, black sand beaches and the former sugar plantations of Pa’ia and
Kipahulu.  |
| The Taurus Mountains, Turkey |
For the ultimate in coastal roads, visit my page - State Route 1 California.
FIND HOTELS ALONG THESE SCENIC COASTAL ROADS
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