Here's the second part of my pick of the world's most jawdropping drives from roads we've travelled in the last few years (read part 1 here). I've categorized these great drives by region and country, as some destinations are gifted with so many dramatically beautiful routes:
6. MOROCCO: one of our favorite road trips starts from Marrakesh, heading east to Essaouira, then south via the surfing spots dotting the coast down to Agadir, before turning inland toward the walled city Taroudant, and on to other-worldly Ouarzazate, Zagora and the tiny hamlet Mhmed, the last stop before the Sahara, returning to Marrakesh via the Atlas Mountains. The trip took us through moonlike landscapes, sublime desert scenery, abandoned mountain palaces, Berber desert citadels, and date palm oases. Magical!
7. THAILAND: we once drove from Koh Samui (via a car ferry) across the south of Thailand to Phuket. This route takes you through lush green tropical landscapes boasting striking limestone mountains and impenetrable jungle. On the way are tiny towns with bustling markets and diversions such as elephant trekking and whitewater rafting, but the drive itself with the stunning scenery was enough to keep us satisfied.
8. BULGARIA: the roads may be in a poor state, pot-holed and breaking away in parts, and the Cyrillic signs mean you need to continually refer to your dictionary, yet other than that driving in Bulgaria is a road trippers' dream, with idyllic rural landscapes with lush green meadows carpeted with wildflowers, where ramshackle villages tumble down mountainsides, and striking war monuments appear in the most surprising places. You'll have to frequently stop for cows and families will pass you on wooden horses and carts, but that's part of the fun of it.
9. MUSANDAM, OMAN: from the UAE border to Khasab, the sleepy capital of the Musandam Peninsula of Oman, a road skirts the magnificent coast, taking you by majestic forts, mosques with pretty minarets, date palm oases, hills topped with watchtowers, and small coves where fisherman haul in nets. The whole way you have on one side sheer rocky mountains and on the other the turquoise sea. (For more info, see my story 'Dhows, dolphins and smugglers' published in the January issue of Get Lost magazine here)
10. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE): there's a drive in the Liwa region through the sandy desert near the border with Saudi Arabia that snakes through massive peach- and apricot-coloured sand dunes. There's very little vegetation, just an occasional small shrub, and the dunes are dotted with long-lashed camels. This is real Lawrence of Arabia stuff! As the sand is continually shifting it dramatically 'bleeds' across the road from time to time. (Read more in my story 'Dubai's Desert Escapes' published in Lifestyle+Travel magazine, available here.)

We do a lot of driving as part of our guidebook research - rather, my partner and co-author Terry drives and I do the trip planning and navigating. So it's inevitable that some of the most memorable aspects of our trips are the roads we drive. I stumbled across Matador's The World's Most Spectacular Roads, which inspired this post. As I only write about places I've been, here's my pick of some of the globe's most jawdropping drives from the roads we've travelled over the last few years. I've categorized them by country or region, as some destinations are gifted with so many dramatically beautiful routes:
1. WESTERN AUSTRALIA: this colossal island's most stunning drives are in the West. Our favorites are in the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of the Northwest, especially those through the area's national parks, including Karjini, Purnululu (Bungle Bungles), Millstream-Chichester and the Kennedy Range National Parks. Empty roads run through flat arid outback landscapes sprinkled with strange wildflowers, incredible rock formations, and mountains sliced with deep river gorges. These are also the country's most isolated roads (pictured) where you can drive 900 kilometres between towns and not see a soul, so a 4WD with extra fuel, water and supplies is recommended.
2. MAINLAND GREECE: the country's mainland boasts some of the planet's most breathtaking drives. Those we've loved best are the road from Edessa via Florina and Pisoderi to the splendid Prespa Lakes and fishing village of Psarades, near the border with Macedonia and Yugoslavia, which boasts some of the most pristine country we've come across; the narrow roads through the high country of the Pindos range with their monstrous rugged snow-capped mountains, hills thick with shrubs in every shade of green, and grey granite rock formations around Vikos Gorge; and the wild ruggedly beautiful Mani region of the Peloponnese (read more about our Greek travels on our Lonely Planet Greece Trip Journal).
3. CRETE: yes, we know Crete is an island of Greece, but Crete has so many amazing drives with spectacular scenery it deserves a listing of its own. The high roads of the isolated southeast coast skirt the mountains offering virtually birds-eye-view sea vistas, scenic routes snake through the elevated rural plateaus of central Crete offering picturesque views of villages and farmland, while the views from the windy roads of the west coast are so awe-inspring you'll find yourself stopping at every turn to take photos.
4. CALABRIA: Aspromonte, Sila and Pollino National Parks in Calabria, Italy, offer breathtaking scenery. In all three national parks, high roads snake through thick forests that form canopies over the roads - the drives are spooky in parts (very dark and moody) and the air fresh and fragrant. But once out of the woods, the views are almost always stunning, whether it's a vista of a hilltop village cascading down a mountain or a field blanketed with wildflowers.
5. CYPRUS: good narrow roads criss-cross the central Troodos mountains through thick aromatic pine forests dotted with Byzantine fresco-filled churches and splendid monasteries, the most impressive being the serpentine road through Cedar Valley; in the northwest, from Pomos to Kato Pyrgos, pretty fishing harbours bob with boats while around Kato Pyrgos the road rises to majestic heights, where it's just the mountain goats enjoying magnificent coastal vistas; and in Northern Cyprus, the road through the Karpaz Peninsula takes you through pristine country where wild donkeys graze on green meadows, by pretty turquoise coves watched over by crumbling Byzantine churches, and to one of the island's best beaches, a wide stretch of sand backed by high dunes.
Read part 2 here.

We recently finished a four-week research trip driving through Northern Italy. As we've spent a lot of time on Italy's autostradas (motorways, freeways), here are some tips to travelling the autostrada:
WHO: Every man and his dog drives the autostrada, from Italians doing the daily commute to work to truckies doing long-haul trips between countries. During holidays you'll be joined by campervanners and caravanners, who can be the most bothersome, generally driving well below the limit and slowing everyone down. Followed by drivers on their cell phones of course!
WHAT: Italy's autostradas are mostly dual carriageways and offer few places to exit, turn around, stop, rest, and refuel than freeways in many countries we've driven in, so always know where you're going, stay focused, fill up, and plan ahead. Or hope you see an Autogrill. Attached to fuel stations, these excellent one-stop-shops are a stand-up cafe, panini stop, book and music shop, delicatessen, and gadget heaven in one. You'll find anything here from a beach towel to a phone recharger.
WHERE: Autostradas criss-cross the country, connecting all major cities (see this list), the handiest being the A1 taking from Milan to Rome and on to Naples, the A4 from Milan via Venice to Trieste (although the area around Venice is almost always clogged), and the A14 running along the east coast from Bologna to Bari, which is picturesque.
WHY: The autostradas are fantastic for zipping between cities. Sit on 130 kph (the legal limit, although most Italians do 160 kph) and no sooner have you left one city that you realize you're already approaching another. Don't dare blink or you may miss a hilltop town or castle worth a detour. For cash-rich time-poor travellers the convenience and (mostly) smooth ride makes taking the autostrada worthwhile, however, budget travellers should be aware tolls are expensive and can add up. But these days, with the high cost of fuel, buses aren't cheap either, trains never were, and no other form of transport gives you the flexibility a car does.
WHEN: During some periods motorways can get just as clogged as the highways, so there are times to ditch the autostrada in favour of quieter country roads or simply staying put: on Friday afternoons in the warmer months avoid driving in the direction of beaches and lakes when Italians go away for the weekend; avoid travelling anywhere on a Sunday afternoon when everyone is returning home; and avoid any road during Italy's August vacation month, when everyone in the country is going anywhere they can as long as it's away from home and in the sun.
HOW: Make sure you're prepared:
1) carry lots of notes and coins: tolls are expensive, costing us anything from €1.60 to up to €14 for our most expensive trip
2) use the best quality maps you can find; the Italian Touring Club maps are excellent
3) know the route numbers you need, destinations along the way, and the city at the end of the line because Italy's road signage is terrible and the only constant is their lack of consistency: one destination may appear on one sign, but you may not see it again until it's time to get off and then it may be too late
4) know which exit to take to get to the part of the city you need (check with your hotel); some cities have two or three exits, generally a 'centro' (centre), sud (south), nord (north), oeste (east) or ovest (west)
5) stay alert - the autostrada exit and entry roads can be a nightmare, twisting and turning around, up and over each other like a tangled spiral (this is where you'll find bottlenecks, especially if it's anywhere near a port or industrial area); one wrong turn and you can waste an hour or more
Have I put you off? If you think the highways and back roads are better... well, that's another post!

One of the great things about travelling in Crete is the chance to get up close and personal with the locals, especially the four-legged kind. That's one of the reasons I prefer travelling by car over any other form of transport, for the opportunities it affords you to get off the beaten track. And the flexibility and freedom you have to stay as little or as long as you want in a place, to be able to stop and take photos, or simply take the scenery in. We recently did a drive on Crete's isolated west coast and had slowed down to capture the breathtaking views of the coastline below. We've gotten used to facing off with herds of goats and sheep on the roads, and used to the routine - as soon as they see the car they stop dead in their tracks, they wait a little to see what we'll do, and then, when they see we're no threat (because we've turned the engine off), they hurry past, often leaping and bounding in the air, to get on their way. But on this occasion we were surprised by the friendliness of this lone goat who appeared out of nowhere and came right up to my window.The goat went as far as to nuzzle my hand. He was curious and affectionate, more like a dog or cat, so we stayed a bit to enjoy his company. It's moments like these that make travelling by car cool for me.

Like Thailand - with its stray ox sauntering along the road, its dreadful drivers, its food vendors, and moveable feasts - Crete has its fair share of traffic hazards too. We have revised our list of world's worst drivers, adding the Cretans (and Cypriots) to the top of the list, however, after human beings, the most hazardous things on Crete's road are its animals, namely its goats, sheep, donkeys, and dogs. We have been confronted with a herd of goats or sheep heading our way on a local highway on more than one occasion, with their shepherd strolling not far behind. Our strategy? Simply stop and enjoy the passing show. How often, I ask myself, do we get a chance to get this close to nature?

This family driving along a highway in the south of Thailand was one of the more troublesome of the traffic hazards that we confronted. While Dad was obviously driving at a responsible speed, it was the other vehicles on the road that concerned us. We've driven all over the world and we've come to the conclusion that the Thai drivers are quite possibly the worst. They're not the most aggressive nor fastest by any means (the Middle East wins those prizes), however, they must be the most oblivious. What is it about travelling that compels us to contemplate driving skills, habits and etiquette in a depth that we might not at 'home'? Is it that because we're always moving we more acutely notice the mechanisms of movement and the means of getting around, because quite simply, that's what we're doing, just travelling around. And what else are we to do during all those hours on the road staring out windows?

As we drive around Thailand we're struck by the number of traffic hazards we confront on the roads every minute of every day. They range from the downright scary to the surprisingly cute. But no matter how horrified we are when we suddenly come face to face with a herd of animals sauntering across the highway (ox in this case), or as we overtake a motorcycle carrying a family of six (a tiny child precariously perched up front, another small kid on behind soundly sleeping as he somehow clings on to his older sibling, the parents in between), we never seem to get as mad as we might at 'home', where road rage prevails. It's something about the exoticism of the hazards that amuses us more than alarms us. Our willingness to be surprised. Our openness to the unusual. But it's also because we're in a far more tolerant mood when we're travelling than we are on our tedious daily commutes to work where tempers can so easily flare. (Especially, for us, in the gridlock that is Dubai.) Don't you think? My husband, who is the driver in our partnership (I navigate) will probably disagree. But there have been so many traffic hazards to entertain us on the roads in Thailand that I thought I'd start this series.

I've said before I'm only going to show you a picture and I've invariably ended up sharing the story behind the image. This time I promise I'm only going to show you this snap I took on our last road trip in Morocco. I won't bore you with the story behind this magical meeting unless you want to know. I want you to enjoy the moment. You must agree this cat is cute. I love this wise world weary guy, don't you? But naturally I'm fond of the story behind the moment.

Thinking about our Moroccan road trip, I'm reminded of Essaouira. Ah, Essaouira. One of my favourite places to be in this world. Enchanting blue and white walled town on the sea it may be, but it's the smells of the place that most remind me of Essaouira. Obviously the scent of the sea (and the sting of the wind on my cheeks, and the taste of salt on my tongue). But mostly the smell of fish. Fresh fish untangled from nets on the decks of the blue and white boats. Fried fish cooked at the makeshift wooden kitchen-stalls by the harbour. The putrid smell of raw sewage in the ramshackle old Jewish quarter (picture blue and whitewashed buildings once again). The aromas of fresh herbs and heady spices at the bustling souq in town. Ah, the scent of fresh mint is the scent I remember most. You know how it is when you squeeze a bunch between your hands? When you sniff the damp scent on your hands afterwards? Ah, for me, that's the smell I most associate with Essaouira. The scent that most drives my nostalgia. Ah, Essaouira.

I've shared with you my love of the road trip and the people you meet along the way. Nowhere is a road trip more satisfying than in Morocco. Syria comes a close second and Western Australia follows not far behind. But our road trips in Morocco have brought us the most pleasure. Like the time we drove from Marrakesh to Essaouira. We must have stopped a dozen times. The first was to snap some pics of goats standing in an Argan tree eating its leaves. (Have you ever tasted the nutty Argan oil? Dip some bread in it - it's delicious.) Our second stop is still the most vivid of the trip for me. We pulled over to admire the artful loading of blue and yellow sacks of golden hay on the back of a couple of unhappy beasts of burden, a rather handsome long-lashed camel and his less attractive donkey friend. Their young master seemed to take much amusement from their groans. And even more amusement from our interest. That's what I love about travel, that the pleasure of people meeting on the road is often two way.

What I love about the road trip is that wonderful sense of freedom you get from being in control of your own journey. Unlike travel by buses, trains, boats, and planes where you're at the mercy of misguided timetables, manic drivers and antiquated machinery, when you're at the wheel of your own vehicle you can choose to be as hurried or as lazy as you desire. If you need to get from A to B quickly you can put your foot down. If you want to take it slowly and explore the back roads you can be as spontaneous and as adventurous as you like. Most of all, I love being able to give a little wave to locals we pass - whether it's a shepherd on a donkey or farmers working their fields. And if they generously return the gesture, I like that we can turn the car around and go back to say hello. Road signs, murals and graffiti are also worth slowing down for - like my Marrakesh Mona Lisa and this enchanting palm tree in the palm of a hand in Morocco - they say so much about a place, don't you think?

So what happened to 'the journey' then? We used to get as excited about how we travelled - whether it was a flight, road trip or train ride - as we did about the destination. In my recent poll, I asked you whether that had changed, and - carbon footprints aside - if you still enjoyed the journey itself: 57% of you said you love train rides, 42% preferred ferry/boat journeys, 36% road trips, a surprising 26% still liked flying, 21% just want to get there, and only 10% of you enjoy bus rides. Me, I prefer road trips. And I don't even drive. I love to plan the journey, plot our path out on a map, find fascinating side-trips and diversions, calculate the mileage, and navigate our route. Somewhat guiltily, I admit I also enjoy gazing out the window, snapping pics in the rear vision mirror, and getting lost in my surroundings, reflections and reveries. Until I need to figure out how far it is to the next gas station. How about you?