The best road trips in Europe

From mountain passes to coastal views, vineyard tours to historical wonders, let us inspire your next driving holiday in Europe. 

Why go on a road trip through Europe?

What could be better than enjoying the freedom of the open road and embarking on a scenic drive in Europe? While everyone will have their own favourite locations and landscapes, we’ve picked some of the best official routes in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. From food and drink to history and culture and beautiful countryside, these routes usually have a theme, but the only theme that really matters on a road trip is: ‘where to next?’ 

The best road trips in Europe

The beauty of travelling with LeShuttle means you can pack everything you need in your car, with no luggage limits, and take up to 9 people on the same ticket. Get our tips on how to plan the perfect family road trip.

France

There are 51 Grand Cru vineyards on the Alsace wine route alone!

The Alsace wine route

Discover beautiful towns, historic vineyards and stunning landscapes on this classic drive through the Alsace wine growing region. From the Vosges mountains in the south, where vineyards cling to the steep slopes, to the half-timbered villages of the Colmar region, you’ll find a part of France brimming with history as well as wonderful wine. The route runs for 170 km, and wherever you decide to stop, make sure you include plenty of wine tastings and tours. Riesling and Gewürztraminer are the main grape varieties. The southern part of the route is full of picture-perfect Alsatian villages like Riquewihr and Eguisheim, frequently found in lists of ‘France’s most beautiful places’. 

The lavender route

Provence turns purple in July and August when the lavender blooms! There is not one ‘lavender route’ but many ways to appreciate this annual natural carpet of colour in the south of France. You could start and finish at the ancient city of Avignon, meandering through hilltop towns like Gordes and Sault, considered the lavender capital of Provence. Or work your way further east via the lavender fields of Valensole and Dignes-les-Bains, and on towards the Gorges of Verdon and the sublime limestone valleys around Grasse. Wherever you drive, progress is likely to be leisurely, with numerous stops for photos and to smell the perfumed air. 

The Loire Valley castle route

Château de Chenonceau is one of the highlights of the Loire Valley

The Loire is renowned for its vineyards and its châteaux, and a three or four day road trip through the Loire valley will take in stunning castle after castle. Driving from Orléans to Chinon, your route will take in some of the most magnificent examples of French architecture, including Château de Chambord, Blois and Chenonceau.  Chambord was commissioned by the French King Francois I, and includes a staircase designed by Leonardo da Vinci and over 5,000 hectares of grounds. Chenonceau, near Amboise, has a fairytale setting over the river Cher and sumptuous gardens. You can take a boat trip or even a balloon ride for amazing views of the castle.

The Route des Corniches

Classic movie fans will adore driving Les Trois Corniches, the three parallel roads that hug the coast between Nice and Monaco, giving spectacular views over the sun-drenched Côte d’Azur. The scene in To Catch a Thief where Grace Kelly drives her convertible high above the Mediterranean, was filmed on the Grande Corniche, the highest of the three roads. The Corniche Inférieure is the lowest, taking you closest to the coast and the glorious beaches of the area, including Villefranche-sur-Mer. It may be the middle of the roads, but there is nothing humdrum about Moyenne Corniche, arguably the most beautiful of them all, with the Èze viaduct the undisputed highlight. 

The great thing about Les Trois Corniches is that you don’t need to choose your favourite – just drive them all! 

Belgium

The spectacular setting of Dinant, Wallonia 

The eastern Flanders loop

Take the road less travelled in Belgium, and see the country at its quirky and historical best. Starting out in Leuven, famed for its beautiful medieval cathedral and numerous breweries, you’ll head east to Hasselt, the home of Flemish gin. Along the way you’ll drive through quaint historic towns like Tienen, Wilderen and Tongeren, see a transparent metallic chapel, visit an open air museum that recreates bygone rural Belgian life, and cycle through water – or that is how it seems – at Bokrijk. You’re never far from an iconic brewery (Hoegaarden, Stella Artois), barnstorming basilica or lauded Michelin restaurant on this peaceful 130 mile loop. 

The caves and castle route

This part of Wallonia is renowned for its multitude of castles, both ruined and well preserved, and for its underground cave network. The limestone in this area has eroded through time, creating huge cave systems. Beginning in the city of Namur, among the highlights of this road trip is the dramatic clifftop citadel of Dinant, the Caves of Han-sur-Lesse and the moated chateau at Jehay. Make sure you wander the cobblestones of Durbuy, ‘Belgium’s smallest city’ (just 11,000 people live there), and you’ll certainly be reaching for the camera to capture those castles jutting evocatively from thickly wooded Ardennes hillsides. 

The Belgian beer route

There are many beer routes in Belgium, just as there are a huge number of different beers brewed in this hop-loving nation – a tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages. You’re never far from a brewery, monastery or town that has given its name to a well-known beer, like Chimay, Rochefort or Westmalle. One of the most popular beer routes is focused on the Flanders town of Poperinge, taking in its Hop Museum (Poperinge and the surrounding area grows 80% of the hops used in Belgian beer), three breweries, three hop farms and numerous bars and restaurants. Many beer lovers prefer to do this route on bicycle rather than car – for rather obvious reasons, given that Belgian ale is known for its strength! 

The Netherlands

The astonishing technicolour tulip fields of the Flower Route

The Flower Route 

The Netherlands Flower Route is one of the most colourful drives you can do in Europe, when the fields burst into blooming life for just a few short weeks every spring. Rows and rows of tulips, daffodils, crocuses and other flowers create lollypop-type landscapes on the 40km drive from Haarlem to Naaldwijk. Along the rainbow way you’ll stop off at Lisse for the Keukenhof Tulip Festival, which grows 800 different varieties of the signature Dutch bulb; take the A44 highway to Leiden, home to a Botanical Garden that dates back to 1594, and finish the ‘Bloemen Route’ at Naaldwijk, site of one of the world’s largest flower auctions.

The Dutch cheese route

The provinces of North and South Holland are also known for their blooming good cheese, as well as their tulips, and if you want to do your very own dairy drive, a good place to start is at Gouda. The cheese market has been held in the market square for over 600 years, and it still takes place during the summer months in front of the Goudse Waag (the weighing house). Then go north to Alkmaar, where you’ll see members of the Cheese Carrier’s Guild showing off their cheese-lifting skills at the weekly market. Your cheese tour ends, where else, in the city of Edam, with its cobblestones and canals and village feel. 

The Hanseatic League route

The Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities in Northern Europe that co-operated loosely during the Middle Ages, helping to keep trade flowing freely through the Baltic and North Sea. In many ways a precursor of the European Union, the network stretched from Bergen in the north to Tallinn in the east and as far south as Kraków. In the Netherlands you can follow the course of the river Ijssel north and visit Dutch Hanseatic towns like Deventer, Zwolle and Kampen, each blessed with many historic buildings from the Hanseatic era. Some are little more than large villages today, like picturesque Hattem, nestled in a bed of the river near Zwolle. 

Germany

Neuschwanstein castle, marking the dramatic end of the Romantic Road

The Romantic Road

The Romantic Road (Romantische Straße) is a 220 mile (355km) route in southern Germany that takes in some of the country’s most picturesque scenery, historic towns and enchanting castles. It was devised by the German Tourist Board in the 1950s to encourage post-war visitors, and mostly runs through Bavaria. It can be driven either way, but many people prefer to start in the north, from Würzburg, and end in the Alpine foothills. Highlights include the fairytale walled town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, as featured in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the showstopping spectacle of the imposing and fantastical Neuschwanstein castle. 

The German Fairy Tale Route

The Fairy Tale Route (Deutsche Märchen Straße) takes its inspiration from the life and works of the Brothers Grimm, the fairy tale fathers of Germany. It runs for 370 miles from the Grimms’ birthplace in Hanau, near Frankfurt, to the port city of Bremen, where their fairy tale ‘The Town Musicians of Bremen’ was set. You’ll visit places associated with Wilhelm and Jacob’s life and which captured their imagination, from the ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ house in Alsfeld to Sababurg Castle in the Reinhardswald National Park, said to have been the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle. 

The Castle Road

We’ve saved the longest till last! The Castle Road is another themed route in Germany created in the 1950s, but there is nothing artificial about it. Covering 600 miles from Mannheim in Baden-Württemberg across Bavaria as far as Prague in the Czech Republic, it’s a castle-lover’s dream. From hilltop citadels to crumbling romantic ruins, moated masterpieces to Baroque palaces, the picturesque piles come one after another. It’s not just castles either – you’ll stop in historic cities like Heidelberg and Nuremberg, embrace the local traditions and culture of the places you pass through and discover the fascinating stories, myths and legends associated with the castles. 

Embark on a Europe road trip from the UK with LeShuttle

These are just a few of our ideas for European road trip routes. You could easily combine several of these within a single holiday, or plan your own. Part of the excitement of a road trip is in the planning – working out where you are going to stay, and what you’re going to see. The journey from Folkestone to Calais is just 35 minutes, meaning that you won’t have to wait long to get your road trip in Europe underway!