The best driving roads in Norway

Norway’s road authority keeps a list of eighteen National Tourist Routes, roads it looks after as much for the drive and the view as for getting anywhere. The scoring on this page has never heard of that list. It counts turns, hairpins and climb, and it keeps landing on the same roads anyway, starting with the highest scoring of all, Geirangervegen at 84.

That road is two climbs joined at the water. From the north, the Eagle Road drops into Geiranger in a stack of hairpins; to the south, the road climbs back out towards Dalsnibba. Between them they hold 30 hairpins and rise 1,037 metres from the fjord.

The pattern repeats across the west. Trollstigen climbs out of Romsdal on the other end of the same tourist route. Sognefjellsvegen crosses the highest mountain pass road in northern Europe. The Snow Road over Aurlandsfjellet appears twice, once for each side of the plateau, and the Aurland side alone rises 1,303 metres.

Second on the page is one the brochures mention less. Lysevegen runs down to Lysebotn at the head of the Lysefjord with 20 hairpins, and a tunnel near the bottom that turns a full circle inside the mountain before letting you out above the water.

Most of the roads at the top of this page close for winter, shutting with the first heavy snow and opening again in late spring. That makes this a list to plan with now and drive from June, when the snow walls are still standing beside the road on the high passes.

Plenty of drivers in Norway live a long way from any fjord. Point the map at Oslo, Trondheim or Kristiansand and it shows the best-scored roads within reach of home, which will see you through until the passes open. Then pick one and go.