Australia

Australia's Great Ocean Road remains the country's signature drive, a run along the Victorian coast that mixes surf beach straights with damp, green switchbacks through the Otway rainforest before finishing among the limestone stacks of the Twelve Apostles. Few roads in the world change character so completely within a single day's driving.

Inland, the Great Alpine Road climbs into Victoria's high country, a longer and less crowded alternative with genuine mountain scenery, while Thunderbolts Way in New South Wales threads granite outcrops and eucalypt forest on a route named for a colonial era bushranger. Tasmania, though not covered here, adds a further chapter of tight, quiet roads for anyone extending the trip south.

Distances between highlights are considerable by European standards, so an Australian driving trip rewards a realistic itinerary with fewer stops covered more thoroughly rather than an attempt to see everything.