Most Dangerous Roads in the World

Skippers Canyon Road is a 26.5-km unpaved, and unrailed highway built nearly 140 years ago. The road was carved by miners into parts of the mountainside using nothing but a handful of hand drills and gunpowder.

Today Skippers Canyon Road is a popular tourist attraction thanks to its mesmerizing views, but it is still quite dangerous to drive on. So dangerous that vehicle insurance will not pay out any claims taken out on accidents that happen on this road.

Image by Carreteras Peligrosas from Facebook

Connecting Ladakh and Kashmir, this 9 km Himalayan highway runs through a mountainside nearly 3,528 metres above sea level. This dirt road has no railings or barriers keeping you from tumbling down the rocky cliff.

Due to rain, wind, snow, and regular landslides, the Zojila Pass is usually closed during winter months, closing off Ladakh from the rest of the world. The rocky terrain means only off-road vehicles can drive here.

Norway is one of the most beautiful countries in Europe. And much like the rest of the country, the Atlantic Road boasts stunning scenery. Spanning over 8.3 km, the deadliest portion of this road is when the bridge drastically rises at an odd angle about 300 metres above the ocean.

With the constant threat of rockfalls, avalanches, and mudslides, the Sichuan-Tibet Highway is inarguably one of the most dangerous roads in Asia. This 2,140 km highway has a maximum elevation of 4,700 metres and is laden with numerous switchbacks.

Similar to the Guoliang Tunnel Road in China, the Taroko Gorge Road is carved into and runs through a mountain. This 19-km highway is quite narrow, full of blind turns, and under the constant threat of rockfalls, earthquakes, and landslides.

The Taroko Gorge Road runs along a gorgeous mountainscape with verdant cliffs and rivers running below it. This makes for an incredibly scenic drive meaning the road is often flooded with tour buses, cyclists, and bikers all vying for a spot along the narrow route.

Connecting Marrakech and Taroudant, Tizi-n-Test is a dreary mountain pass high in the Atlas Mountains. This nearly 180 km road lacks barriers along the edge, and local drivers are known to frequently zig-zag along the route at shocking speeds.

Driving at night should never be attempted due to the lack of lights and visibility. Bad weather also exasperates the danger of this road, with landslides and avalanches occurring almost daily in winter.

Connecting Ladakh and Kashmir, this 9 km Himalayan highway runs through a mountainside nearly 3,528 metres above sea level. This dirt road has no railings or barriers keeping you from tumbling down the rocky cliff.

Due to rain, wind, snow, and regular landslides, the Zojila Pass is usually closed during winter months, closing off Ladakh from the rest of the world. The rocky terrain means only off-road vehicles can drive here.

Running about 1,132 km across Siberia to the Russian city of Yakutsk, this isolated and icy road is one of the most freezing places to drive. This is the only place other than Antarctica where the coldest temperatures were ever recorded in the world. And don’t wear steel or metal glasses, as they will freeze on your face.

If you think driving along the Siberian Road in winter is bad, summer brings another daring challenge. As the snow melts, the road turns to mud, waiting to trap your car.

Nicknamed the “Road of Death”, this 80-km highway connecting Coroico and La Paz is not for the faint-hearted. This astonishingly winding and narrow road is only about 3.5 meters wide and doesn’t have barriers to keep cars from falling nearly 4,600 meters down to the Amazon valley below.

Connecting India’s Punjabi Province to China’s Xinjiang Region, the Karakoram Highway is the highest paved road in the world, situated at about 4,714 metres above sea level. This brutally long road spans over 1,300 km and is beset with landslides, rock falls, avalanches and flooding.