The UK’s best road trips, from the North Coast 500 to the Atlantic Highway

Going on a road trip these days isn’t all about opening yourself up to the freedom of the highway. It’s equally about doing things differently: from choosing flexibility to minimising your holiday carbon footprint and reducing emissions by opting not to fly. Especially if you’re going electric.

And make no mistake: the UK might not have the checklist desert-scapes and nostalgia-adorned highways of the US, or the wide open spaces and wonders of Australia, but it’s uniformly thrilling for road trip itineraries. The Highlands instils a sense of adventure, while Yorkshire is terrific at any time of year – and nobody bats an eyelid in Devon or Cornwall when a top-down coupe rolls into town.

Here are our favourite road trips that, in effect, double as a guide to exploring some of the most beautiful parts of the UK.

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The North Coast 500, Highlands

The precursor to so many newfangled UK road trips, the North Coast 500 overwrites any Route 66 image with mighty glens, mountains and moorlands, beating rains and coastal splendour. The 516-mile super-loop from Inverness through Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross and Cromarty is now overly popular from May to September, but it still holds its own in winter or spring for its bumper-to-bumper sights. Highlights abound, but include Dunrobin Castle, Smoo Cave in Durness, and a hike up sugarloaf-like Suilven. northcoast500.com

Best hotel

The Torridon is a fantasy Brigadoon castle hemmed in by dragon-scale mountains and a monstrous sea loch. Inside, the story is of sumptuous rooms, a whisky bar, a Michelin-worthy restaurant, and all the tartan trim you could wish for.