Best Road Trips for Solo Travelers Around the World

The best road trips for solo travelers are Iceland's Ring Road, Scotland's North Coast 500, and Ireland's Ring of Kerry, well-marked loops in safe countries where stopping, sleeping, and changing your plans alone is easy. Our top pick, the Ring Road, circles the whole island in nine days on one numbered highway, with hostels, joinable day tours, and a national road-and-weather service built for independent drivers. The ten drives below run from Europe to Australia, each with its real distance, season, and stops from our catalog.

Driving alone changes what matters. You want roads you can read without a navigator, towns close enough together to refuel and sleep, and places where parking at a trailhead or pulling over for a photo does not feel risky. We ranked these ten on safety, how easy the driving is, and how often the route puts you among other travelers rather than a long way from help.

The best solo road trips at a glance

1. Iceland Ring Road, Iceland

Iceland's Ring Road is the drive most solo travelers name first. Route 1 makes a single clockwise loop from Reykjavík past Þingvellir, the waterfalls of the south coast, the icebergs of Jökulsárlón and Diamond Beach, and the northern towns of Mývatn and Akureyri before closing the circle in nine days. Crime is low, English is widely spoken, and road.is and SafeTravel let you check every leg before you drive it. The grade is moderate because of weather rather than traffic, so keep F-roads out of your plans in a standard car and carry warm layers, food, and a charged phone for the long gaps in the East Fjords.

2. North Coast 500, Scotland

The North Coast 500 runs a clockwise 830 km loop from Inverness along the east and north coasts to Durness, then back down the west through Ullapool and Applecross over six days. It is a loop you cannot really get lost on, strung with villages, distilleries, and bunkhouses that make a single traveler feel expected rather than conspicuous. The one caution is the single-track west-coast section, which official NC500 advice calls unsuitable for inexperienced drivers, so use the passing places to let faster cars by and never stop in one for a photo.

3. Ring of Kerry, Ireland

For a first solo trip, few routes are gentler than Ireland's Ring of Kerry, a 179 km day loop from Killarney on the N71, N70, and N72. It passes Muckross, Ladies View, Kenmare, and the beaches at Derrynane and Waterville on a signed main road you can drive in a single easy day. Expect coaches, cyclists, livestock, and narrow Atlantic bends, so start early, hold the pace of the buses, and keep a spare day for the Skellig Ring if the weather holds.

4. Great Ocean Road, Australia

The Great Ocean Road packs surf coast, rainforest, and the Twelve Apostles into 660 km west of Melbourne, and three days is enough to drive it without rushing. The road is sealed and easy, towns like Lorne and Apollo Bay sit a short hop apart, and the whole route stays close enough to a major city that help and a hostel bed are never far. Australian summer, from November to April, brings the warm, long days for it, and VicTraffic is worth a look before each leg for coastal wind, works, and closures.

5. Cabot Trail, Canada

On Canada's Atlantic edge, Cape Breton's Cabot Trail loops 298 km from Baddeck over the Cape Breton Highlands and down to fishing villages at Chéticamp, Pleasant Bay, and Ingonish. Three or four days give you time for the Skyline Trail, where park parking needs an advance four-hour booking from late June to late October, so reserve before you drive in. Grades are steep and some curves hug 300 m cliff drops, but the loop is quiet, friendly, and short enough to feel safe alone in the June to October window.

6. Shimanami Kaido, Japan

Japan's Shimanami Kaido crosses six islands and six bridges over the Seto Inland Sea, from Onomichi to Imabari in about 70 km. It is one of the safest, lowest-stress drives anywhere for a solo traveler. Traffic is orderly, the islands are dotted with lemon groves and temples like Kosanji, and the famous blue-line cycle path lets you park the car and join a crowd of riders for an afternoon. Exit at the right island interchange for each sight, since a missed turn can mean a long bridge detour, and aim for spring or autumn.

7. Pacific Coast Highway, United States

California's Pacific Coast Highway hugs Highway 1 for 1,055 km from San Francisco to Los Angeles, past Monterey, Big Sur, Bixby Creek Bridge, McWay Falls, and the beaches of Santa Barbara and Malibu. The driving is easy and the corridor is busy and well-served, so a solo traveler is rarely far from fuel, a town, or a viewpoint full of other people. Fog, wind, and the occasional Big Sur landslide closure slow Highway 1 below its map speed, so check closures before the long stretches and keep the tank topped up. Summer and fall are the clearest months.

8. Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland

For a longer solo run, Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way threads about 1,450 km down the west coast from Malin Head through Donegal, Sligo, Achill Island, Connemara, and the Cliffs of Moher to the Dingle Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry over ten days. The driving is easy and the hostels and small-town guesthouses along it are full of other travelers going the same way. On the remotest peninsulas, refuel early and download offline maps, because mobile coverage and open services are not guaranteed, and that matters more when no one is in the passenger seat. May to September has the longest daylight.

9. Garden Route, South Africa

The Garden Route runs about 850 km from Cape Town's two-ocean peninsula along a coast of forest and lagoon to Storms River, taking in Chapman's Peak Drive, the whale town of Hermanus, and Knysna over seven days. It is a popular, well-trodden self-drive, which makes it one of the more approachable African routes for a first solo trip. Follow the standard safety guidance plainly: in Cape Town stay on recommended main roads, keep valuables out of sight, avoid isolated stops, and leave the rural legs for daylight. The season runs October to April.

10. Route 66, United States

The classic American solo trip is still Route 66, 3,940 km of neon diners, desert motels, and old alignments from Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier. It is entirely paved and easy to drive, and after a century of travelers it is about as well-documented and sociable a road as exists, which takes the edge off two weeks alone behind the wheel. Signage can be patchy where interstates have bypassed the original road, so a good offline map helps. Spring and fall dodge both the southwestern summer heat and winter ice on the higher New Mexico and Arizona stretches.

If you only do one

Drive Iceland's Ring Road. Nine days on a single clockwise highway take you past waterfalls, black-sand beaches, the icebergs of Jökulsárlón, and the geothermal north, all in a country where solo travel is routine and the roads are easy to check before you set out. Go between June and September for the long daylight, book hostels or guesthouses ahead in summer, and join a guided glacier or lagoon tour for a day if you want company. If you are still weighing whether to go alone at all, our guide to planning a solo road trip covers the logistics.

Frequently asked questions

Which is the best road trip for solo travelers?

Iceland's Ring Road. It is a self-contained loop in a safe, English-friendly country, with plenty of hostels, guided day tours you can sign onto, and road and weather conditions you can check online before every leg. Ireland's Ring of Kerry is the better pick if you want a short, easy first trip.

Is it safe to do a road trip alone?

On well-traveled routes like these, yes, with normal precautions. Tell someone your rough plan, check the local road service before each leg, such as road.is in Iceland or VicTraffic on the Great Ocean Road, keep the fuel topped up through remote gaps, and avoid driving isolated rural stretches after dark, which is the standing advice on the Garden Route in particular.

What is the best first solo road trip?

A short, easy, well-signed loop. The Ring of Kerry packs classic coast into one 179 km day, the Cabot Trail circles Cape Breton in three or four, and Japan's Shimanami Kaido crosses the Seto Inland Sea in 70 low-stress kilometres. All three are easy to drive and hard to get lost on.

How do you stay safe driving alone on remote roads?

Plan fuel and sleep around the gaps rather than your daily distance. On the Wild Atlantic Way and in Iceland's East Fjords, refuel early and carry offline maps and warm layers, since mobile coverage and open services are not guaranteed. Check the official road and weather pages the morning you drive, and keep a shorter fallback in case a pass or coastal section closes.

Which solo road trips are best for meeting other travelers?

The Irish and Scottish coast routes and Iceland's Ring Road run through a steady chain of hostels and small guesthouses where solo drivers cross paths. Shimanami Kaido draws cyclists from around the world to its blue-line path, so parking the car and renting a bike for an afternoon is the easy way into a crowd.

Plan your solo road trip

Every drive here is mapped stop by stop in our route guides, starting with the Ring Road. Open the interactive map to match each route to its season and to space out your fuel and overnight stops, and browse more of these coast-hugging loops in our Scenic Coastal Drives collection.