Europe

Until you get onto the road.

American roads are generally modern, built exclusively for cars and are therefore straight and wide. Often carving their way through the landscape. Long distances can be covered in short periods of time.

European roads are often old, built where horse tracks would have been previously. Some roads aren't much wider than a horse track either. They tend to wind and weave their way around landscapes instead of through.

70 miles may be a 1h drive for most Americans, to Europeans that distance could take twice as long.

Here's an example of an A road in northern Scotland which is part of the NC500 route. An A road is deemed one step down from a motorway (or highway in America). Notice the coach in the distance. You don't want to meet that coach on a corner while going at speed.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/D85dqddYvT9g2S1r6

Hehe, I think your right, from the page you can choose where to start your own trip and these "Road Trips" are the one highlight of the trip, the short ones are "a day for 50 km" roads - Stelvio is 46 km with 48 hairpins on one side, Grossglockner 48 km and you'll still stop every few bends.

Most Europeans string them into a longer trip: the Route des Grandes Alpes is ~700 km (435 mi) over 17 passes, the North Coast 500 is 516 miles, the Wild Atlantic Way 2,500 km (1,550 mi), and Iceland's Ring Road 1,322 km. And getting there is half of it: from Amsterdam to Stelvio is already ~900 km (560 mi) before the first hairpin.

Yes thats why its amber ("with a bypass") rather than red on the map.

The sign at the Tornapress end says the road isnt advised for learner drivers, very large vehicles or caravans after the first mile, and the official NC500 site tells anything bigger than a VW T5-size camper to take the low road via Shieldaig instead (same for the B869 Drumbeg road). Not banned, just a bad idea and the low road is lovely too.

You have a good point, and I have been on the other side of it too. The map only shows what's legally allowed "yes" doesnt mean it is a good idea, and on the narrow passes its often better to leave the caravan in the valley and do the pass as a day trip.

If you do tow over one, the decent thing is to pull into the next lay by whenever a queue builds behind you. Locals on their way to work or family didnt choose to be part of someone's holiday that understandable. I will add that to the caravan notes for the mountain routes!

Agreed, and it seems to be spreading. In the Picos de Europa the road up to the Covadonga lakes is closed to private cars on set dates (most of June to mid-October) and a shuttle bus takes you up instead, and South Tyrol has been testing access limits on the Passo Gardena with possible measures from summer 2027.

The Amalfi rule is a bit odd in one way though: the plate days apply only 10:00–18:00, so the early birds still get the road to themselves.

Fair question!

Every fare and rule comes from the road authority's or operator's own page,each row on the page links to its source. I used tools to collect and compare them, and I re-checked the three figures in this post against the sources today: Grossglockner's €46.50 / €36.50 is on grossglockner.at, and the Geiranger–Hellesylt fares are Fjord1's 2026 price list (NOK 810 car, NOK 2,000 for 10–14 m, NOK 650 motorcycle, converted to euros).

Fuel is calculated, not looked up: the EU's weekly pump prices for each country on the route times a typical consumption. If you spot anything off, tell me and I'll fix it, database is on the copilot.travel site that holds quite a lot of information.