Best Driving Roads in England: Top Scenic Routes & Drives

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England gets an unfair reputation in the global driving press. The roads are too narrow, runs the argument. Too many speed cameras. Too much traffic. The great drives are all in Scotland, or Wales, or the Alps.

This is, as anyone who has actually driven the right roads in England will tell you, completely wrong.

The A686 from Hexham to Penrith cuts through the North Pennines with the kind of flowing sweep that makes automotive journalists run out of adjectives. The B3135 through Cheddar Gorge threads between limestone cliffs so dramatically vertical that calling it a "B-road" feels genuinely inadequate. The B3306 along the Cornish coast between St Ives and St Just offers thirteen miles of bends, coastline, and light that makes the car irrelevant and essential simultaneously. The Buttertubs Pass through the Yorkshire Dales is a narrow, dramatic mountain road that has no particular interest in being polite about the gradient.

England's driving roads are genuinely world-class. They're just world-class in a specifically English way — compact, varied, and requiring a different kind of attention than the great mountain passes of continental Europe. Here's the guide to the best of them.

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How to Use This Guide

Each route has three elements: the road itself (the specific A or B number and section), the car that suits it best, and what to expect. These aren't driving instructions — they're recommendations for planning a supercar or luxury car hire weekend around routes that actually reward what the car can do.

The best driving roads in England reward smoothness and rhythm. They're not circuits. Speed limits apply, often at levels that prevent you from using full performance. What they offer is engagement — the kind that comes from a correctly-weighted corner, a camber that surprises you, a crest that reveals something extraordinary on the other side.

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The Peak District: England's Most Famous Driving Roads

Snake Pass (A57) — Glossop to Ladybower

The Snake Pass is mentioned in almost every "best driving roads in England" list ever compiled, which creates an expectation problem: roads with reputations often disappoint. The Snake Pass doesn't.

The A57 from Glossop over the Pennines to Ladybower Reservoir combines blind crests, tight bends, sweeping moorland views, and a sequence of corners that require genuine technique to get right. It's not fast — the road surface is uneven in places, sheep occasionally have opinions about right of way, and the enforcement is significant. What it is, driven smoothly and with full attention, is deeply satisfying.

Best car: Porsche 911 Turbo S (the AWD manages the surface variation without drama) or Aston Martin Vantage (for the mechanical connection the road demands). Avoid low-slung supercars with wide tracks on damp days.

Nearest hire base: Leeds (30 minutes east), Manchester (40 minutes west), Sheffield (25 minutes southeast).

The Cat and Fiddle (A537) — Macclesfield to Buxton

The Cat and Fiddle was once called the second most dangerous road in Britain, which is both a warning and a recommendation depending on your perspective. The road has been heavily enforced since that designation, which means the enjoyment now comes from clean, smooth driving through exposed moorland rather than anything involving velocity.

It's worth it. The road surface is excellent, the corners are genuinely interesting, and the Cheshire plain visible to the west from the high points is one of England's great underappreciated views.

Best car: BMW M5 or Porsche 911 Carrera — cars that reward technique over raw power.

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The Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors

Buttertubs Pass (Hawes to Muker)

The road from Hawes to Muker via the Buttertubs Pass is one of the most genuinely dramatic road sequences in England. The "Buttertubs" are limestone potholes directly beside the road at the summit — visible from the driver's seat — with a steep drop on the other side that makes the word "dramatic" seem inadequate. Narrow, steep gradients, genuinely tight hairpins.

This is not a road for wide supercars or nervous drivers. It is, for a capable driver in the right car, one of the most memorable drives in the country.

Best car: Porsche 911 (any variant — the width is manageable, the handling rewards the difficulty), or Aston Martin Vantage for the complete British moorland aesthetic.

The A686 — Hexham to Penrith (North Pennines)

Top Gear named this as one of England's finest driving roads, and the assessment holds. The A686 from Hexham across the North Pennines to Penrith flows through Gilderdale Forest and high moorland with a quality of corners and surface that's genuinely rare on public roads. It's not dramatic in the way the Snake Pass is dramatic. It's flowing, rhythmic, and deeply rewarding at road-legal speeds.

The views across the Eden Valley from the higher sections are among the best in northern England. And the road is, compared with the Peak District equivalents, significantly quieter.

Best car: Bentley Continental GT (this is the definitive grand touring road — the GT's composure and power delivery suit its rhythm perfectly) or Ferrari F8 for a more engaged experience.

Best of the Moors — A169/A170 (North York Moors)

The North York Moors offer something the Yorkshire Dales and Peak District don't quite replicate: the combination of high, open moorland with sudden coastal access. The A169 from Pickering north across the moors, combined with the A170 along the southern edge, creates a loop that passes through spectacular heather moorland, drops into the Vale of Pickering, and can be extended to the coast at Whitby or Scarborough for the full Yorkshire contrast.

Best car: Range Rover SVR — practically and aesthetically perfect for this territory. Alternatively, Porsche 911 Carrera for pure driving quality.

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The Lake District: England's Most Visited Driving Country

Kendal to Keswick (A591) — The Accessible Lake District Classic

The most frequently recommended Lake District drive for first-timers, and the most forgiving. The A591 from Kendal through Windermere, Ambleside, and Grasmere to Keswick is classic English lake scenery — the road stays close to the water through Grasmere and Rydal, climbs through Dunmail Raise, and finishes with the approach to Derwentwater and Keswick in a mountain valley context that's genuinely cinematic.

Traffic can be heavy in summer. Come on a clear October morning and it's transformative.

Best car: Aston Martin DB11 (grand tourer in classic English countryside — perfect match) or Mercedes-AMG S63 for those who want the scenic tour with rear-seat comfort.

B5289 — Derwentwater South Shore to Honister Pass

Top Gear specifically recommends this combination: the A66 from Penrith to Keswick, then the B5289 along the southern shore of Derwentwater toward the Honister Pass. It's shorter than the main A591 route but more technically interesting — the road narrows, the surface varies, and Honister Pass itself is one of the genuine mountain-road experiences available in England.

Best car: Porsche 911 Turbo S — the AWD is welcome on the Honister section in anything other than optimal conditions.

Hardknott and Wrynose Passes

For the genuinely committed driver: Hardknott Pass is England's steepest road (gradients of 1-in-3 in places) and one of the most technically challenging sequences in the country. It's not long. But it requires more concentration per mile than almost any other road in England, and the views — looking back over Eskdale from the summit — justify every moment of that concentration.

This is a dry-weather-only, experienced-driver-only road. In a well-set-up sports car, cleared early on a dry summer morning, it's extraordinary. In a wide, low supercar, it's potentially disastrous.

Best car: Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 (the road-appropriate size, the technique-rewarding character) or, paradoxically, a Range Rover SVR for those who want the views without the driving stress.

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England's Coastal Roads: A Different Kind of Excellent

B3306 — St Ives to St Just, Cornwall

Thirteen miles of the most visually extraordinary coastal driving in England. The B3306 runs along the western tip of Cornwall between the Atlantic and the moorland interior, passing through tiny villages, past standing stones, with the sea visible for most of the route. The corners are tight and constant. The sight lines are short. The views are exceptional.

This road is not about performance — it's about presence. Being in a beautiful car, on a beautiful road, at the right time of day. A Ferrari Portofino Spider with the roof down, on a clear July evening, between St Ives and Land's End.

Best car: Ferrari Portofino Spider (open-top, Italian, perfectly framed by the Cornish coast) or Bentley Continental GT Convertible.

A39 — The Atlantic Highway (Somerset and Devon)

The A39 from Minehead through Exmoor and across North Devon toward Bude is marketed as the "Atlantic Highway" and earns the name. The road combines moorland (Exmoor at its best), coast (the Bristol Channel visible to the north, then the Atlantic), and the characteristic Devon landscape of steep-sided valleys and farmland that appears suddenly around every corner.

The Exmoor sections — particularly between Porlock and Lynmouth — are among the most dramatic in southern England. The Porlock Hill alternative road is genuinely steep and not recommended for low-clearance supercars.

Best car: Aston Martin Vantage Roadster (British, sporting, at home on an Exmoor road in a way that Italian supercars aren't quite) or Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet.

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The Cotswolds and Southern England: Scenic Over Dramatic

Cheltenham to Stratford-upon-Avon (B4077 and surrounding roads)

The Cotswolds don't offer the challenge of the northern routes. What they offer is consistency — every mile is beautiful, the roads are well-surfaced, the villages are genuinely extraordinary, and you can drive for two hours without seeing the same combination of honey-stone, dry-stone wall, and open field twice.

The B4077 between Stow-on-the-Wold and Cheltenham is the most frequently cited Cotswolds driving road — genuinely flowing, well-sighted, and with a surface quality that lets you feel everything a good chassis is doing.

Best car: Bentley Continental GT (the grand tourer in the quintessential English grand touring landscape) or Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet in summer.

Cheddar Gorge (B3135)

Already mentioned in the Bristol guide and deserves a standalone entry here. The B3135 through Cheddar Gorge is repeatedly voted one of the top UK drives, and it earns its position. The road threading between cliffs that rise 450 feet directly from the tarmac is a genuinely dramatic experience in any car. In a Lamborghini Huracán, the exhaust note bouncing off the limestone walls at 8am before the tourist coaches arrive is something genuinely extraordinary.

Best car: Lamborghini Huracán (the sound in the gorge is unmatchable) or Ferrari (for photographs against the cliff backdrop).

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Quick Reference: England's Best Driving Roads by Category

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England's roads have never needed defending to those who know them. The discovery, for anyone coming to them for the first time in something with genuine performance credentials, is that the reputation for narrow, traffic-hampered driving is accurate about some roads and completely wrong about the ones that matter.

The A686 on a clear morning. The Snake Pass at dawn before the day walkers arrive. The B3306 in the last hour before sunset. These roads reward the effort of finding the right car and the right moment.

Ready to plan your next English driving route with the perfect car? Autofusion lets you compare luxury and exotic car hire across hundreds of rental partners nationwide — so you can find the right car for the right road, wherever you're starting from. Browse car hire for England's best driving roads with Autofusion today.