Road trips built around the time you have

Time is the real constraint, not distance. Every plan here starts from the number of days you can actually take, then works out how far to move each day and which roads are worth the fuel.

Single track roads, sea lochs and passes that feel far bigger than their altitude suggests.

The Lakes, the Peaks, the Dales and the Moors, all reachable from most of the country in a morning.

Short, intense mountain roads with almost no dual carriageway to get in the way.

Atlantic coast peninsulas and mountain gaps, driven slowly because the surfaces demand it.

The densest concentration of great driving roads anywhere, and the reason most touring drivers own a car at all.

Dolomite passes in the north, Tuscan ridges in the middle, cliff roads in the south.

Route Napoleon, the Vercors balconies, the Verdon rim and the highest paved pass in Europe.

Perfect surfaces, immaculate signage and three of the greatest passes in the world within an hour of each other.

Empty mountain roads, warm tarmac and fuel prices that make a long trip cheaper than it looks.

Fjord ferries, hairpin descents and roads engineered as national tourist routes rather than as transport.

Scale first, corners second, with a handful of mountain roads that hold their own anywhere.

Red rock byways, alpine passes above 3,500 metres and coast highway all inside one loop.