The best road trips in England

Hiring a car and driving through gorgeous English landscapes, visiting quaint villages and epic castles is a highlight of a trip to England no matter the season.

Any hit list of best places to visit in England includes major stops like London, Liverpool and Bath as well as national parks and coastal regions. The cities and towns are all easy enough to reach by train or bus, but to properly connect the dots and have the freedom to explore the varied landscapes and local culture beyond major hubs, you’re going to want your own car. 

To help you plan the best road-tripping experience in England, here are our favorite driving routes through cities and countryside, along coasts and into national parks.

1. The Cotswolds 

Best drive through the English countryside 

Start/finish: Bath – Stratford-upon-Avon
Approximate distance: 180km (112 miles)

From the less-traveled, superbly pretty villages of the southwestern Cotswolds to the impossibly beautiful gold-colored streets of the classic northern Cotswolds, this trip threads through the core of one of England's most desirable regions.

Glimpse Georgian grandeur in Bath, marvel at Painswick's stunning rococo garden, and unearth Roman history at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester. You'll want to stop in picturesque Bibury to admire the gorgeous cluster of riverside cottages, and perhaps hike up to Broadway Tower for views over the rolling hills, before strolling Chipping Campden's honey-hued lanes. Wrap up in dramatic Tudor style at Stratford-upon-Avon, home of the illustrious Bard, William Shakespeare.

Detour: Roughly 1.6km (1 mile) apart and 5.6km (3.5 miles) southwest of Stow-on-the-Wold, the picture-postcard villages of Upper and Lower Slaughter have managed to maintain their unhurried medieval charm. Their names have nothing to do with abattoirs; they come from the Old English sloughtre, meaning slough or muddy place.

2. The historic south

Best road trip for English history and culture

Start/finish: London – Oxford
Approximate distance: 520km (323 miles)  

England's rich heritage runs like a glittering seam through this remarkable multiday road trip heading south from London. Romantic Leeds Castle in Kent is worth a full day’s visit, before stopping overnight at the historic city of Canterbury with its World Heritage–listed Gothic cathedral. 

Enjoy some time in the quaint medieval settlement of Rye in East Sussex, with its delightful cobbled alleyways and stories of smugglers and then head west along the coast. Brighton is a lively coastal city with superb nightlife where you could easily spend a day or two. Next on the route is Portsmouth, where you can learn all about the city's nautical heritage at the historic docks. Linger in the beautiful New Forest national park, home to free-roaming ponies, deer and donkeys and stop at Salisbury to marvel at the majestic medieval spire of its cathedral (detour to Winchester for another beautiful cathedral). North of here are the fascinating archaeological sites at Stonehenge and Avebury. Swing by the historic university town of Oxford before ending with a visit at UNESCO-listed Blenheim Palace, an incredible baroque stately home, that was the birthplace of Winston Churchill.

Planning tip: To extend this route, link up with the Cotswolds’ road trip by continuing from Blenheim to Stratford-upon-Avon (51km/32 miles) and following that route in reverse.

3. Highlights of Devon and Cornwall

Best coastal drive

Start/finish: Exmoor to Dartmoor 
Approximate distance: 500km (310 miles)

You could spend months exploring the landscapes and coastal nooks and crannies of England’s southwest. Begin in Exmoor in Devon, a favorite with hikers, horseback riding and kayakers. The North Devon coast is a World Surfing Reserve – find iconic breaks at Croyde and Woolacombe. Follow the A39 south into Cornwall, where Tintagel Castle is a must-visit. This clifftop castle ruin is packed with Arthurian legend, with beautiful craggy paths that lead down to the Merlin’s Cave under the headland. Continue southwest stopping at Newquay for more top surfing and the lovely harbor town of St Ives, which is home to world-class contemporary art collections at Tate St Ives. Just north of Land’s End is stunning Sennen Cove, one of Cornwall’s best beaches.

On the south coast, walk the unforgettable cobbled causeway to the island monastery of St Michael's Mount and visit a trio of space-age biomes at the Eden Project. End your odyssey several weeks later in Dartmoor, a wild open moorland with atmospheric mists that roll in as if from nowhere.

4. The Jurassic Coast, Dorset

Best road trip for families

Start/finish: Poole – Lyme Regis
Approximate distance: 145km (90 miles)

One of the west’s best drives, this route rolls up chalk ridges, through thatched villages and along sea-fringed roads. Prepare for the pick of Dorset’s sights and sea-view sunsets as you keep heading west. 

Fall in love with the romantic hilltop ruins of Corfe Castle and take a ride on the heritage steam railway that trundles down to the coastal town of Swanage. Once you’re back on the road, head for picturesque Lulworth Cove before following the South West Coast Path for approximately 1.6km (1 mile) to the stunning Durdle Door arch. 

Stop in Weymouth for time on the beach and a perfect fish and chip meal in the harbor. The sheltered waters of Portland Island to the south is a popular place for paddleboarding and the island is home to the art-packed Tout Quarry Sculpture Park and Nature Reserve. Pause on your drive alongside the 29km (18-mile) pebbly stretch of Chesil Beach and its nearby lagoon ecosystem for bird-watching.

Detour: The beaches in the small village of Charmouth and the larger town of Lyme Regis are well-known fossil hunting spots – stop by the friendly Charmouth Heritage Centre for help identifying any of your finds.

5. Lakes, Dales and Moors

Best road trip through national parks

Start/finish: Keswick – Robin Hood’s Bay
Approximate distance: 355km (220 miles)

The Lake District has been a national park since 1951 and is studded by England's highest hills (fells), including the highest of all, Scafell Pike. Keswick is a good base: from there hike through the classic Lakeland valleys of Borrowdale and Buttermere, admiring the wild landscapes and England's highest mountain in Wasdale. Learn about a few of the literary luminaries who have fallen in love with this region by visiting Wordsworth House in Grasmere and the World of Beatrix Potter in Windermere. Hardknott Pass is the district's steepest road pass. At a 30% gradient in some places, with precious few passing places on the narrow, single-file road, it's absolutely not for the faint-hearted or nervous drivers.

From there, your next stop is in the Yorkshire Dales, one of England's best hiking and cycling areas. The whole national park has been designated as a Dark Sky Reserve, so allow a couple of nights for stargazing. The Ribblehead Viaduct, crossed by the scenic Settle to Carlisle train,  is a popular spot with photographers particularly if a steam train is passing.

Head further east to enter the North York Moors National Park, a world of windswept heather moorland, wandering sheep, lonely stone crosses and ancient footpaths. Stop in Malton, a Yorkshire food haven, and then the bustling fishing harbor of Whitby, with its Gothic abbey and links to Bram Stoker's Dracula. End your road trip in Robin Hood's Bay, one of the prettiest spots on the Yorkshire coast.

6. Historic Northumbria

Best road trip for medieval history

Start/finish: Newcastle – Berwick-upon-Tweed
Approximate distance: 137km (85 miles)

This drive along northeast England's stirring coastline from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Berwick-upon-Tweed on the Scottish border runs through the historic medieval kingdom of Northumbria, passing long, desolate beaches, wind-battered castles and magical islands.

Start in Newcastle, renowned for its culture and nightlife. Stop by the iconic Angel of the North sculpture a few miles south of the city before taking the road north to nearby Tynemouth, where you'll find one of the best surf spots in England at a Blue Flag beach, overlooked by the ruins of a Benedictine priory.

Once you hit the open road the pace drops down several gears – wild and remote, this area is sparsely populated. Along the way you'll encounter incredible birdlife in Amble, where you can visit a puffin colony, and fresh-as-it-gets seafood hauled in at traditional fishing ports. Alnwick is a lovely historic town with an impressive 14th-century castle that starred as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies, and Bamburgh has the region's most dramatic clifftop castle with its 11th-century keep.

Further north, the road takes you by Holy Island, or Lindisfarne, a tiny otherworldly spot linked to the mainland by a narrow causeway at low tide. Visit Lindisfarne Castle, built in 1550 and converted in the early 20th-century into a private holiday home, now displaying historic and contemporary art.

Planning tip: You could end this drive with a walk along the Elizabethan-era walls that surround the historic town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Tips for driving in England

Roads in England are generally well maintained and major service stations along motorways (highways) sell fuel plus anything else you might need on your journey. Traffic and parking, however, are the bugbear of many journeys.

Motorways and main A-roads deliver you quickly from one end of the country to another. Lesser A-roads, B-roads and minor roads are much more scenic – ideal for car or motorcycle touring. If you or your children get travel sick, you've been warned: some of these roads, particularly in the countryside, are twisty.

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