Ten coastal drives for a honeymoon on wheels

A coastal road solves the central honeymoon dilemma — wanting to see everything while doing very little — by putting the scenery on rails. One of you drives, one of you navigates and points at things, and every day ends somewhere new with the sea still in earshot. The ten routes below are short enough to savour rather than endure; none needs more than a few days, and all are better taken slowly. Hire the smallest car you can bear, book rooms with parking, and agree in advance who reverses on the narrow bits.

Fifty kilometres of cliff-hugging tarmac between Sorrento and Salerno, past lemon terraces and pastel villages stacked like crockery. The driving is famously assertive, so go in May or October when the buses thin out, and consider basing yourselves in Praiano — Positano's views without Positano's prices. Pull over at the Fiordo di Furore, and take the boat to Capri from Amalfi to give the driver a day off.

A 179-kilometre loop around the Iveragh Peninsula: mountains sliding into the Atlantic, stone forts, sheep with right of way. Drive it clockwise to avoid meeting the tour coaches head-on, and detour onto the smaller Skellig Ring for the drama without the traffic. Weather changes by the quarter hour — that's part of the show. End the day with chowder and live music in a Kenmare or Portmagee pub.

Ninety miles of Highway 1 where the Santa Lucia mountains fall straight into the Pacific, punctuated by the much-photographed Bixby Bridge and redwood canyons. Drive south to north so the ocean is on your side for pulling over, and check road-status updates before setting off — landslides close sections with some regularity. Stop at Nepenthe for a clifftop lunch, and watch for whales between December and April.

Five fishing villages in impossible colours clinging to the Ligurian cliffs — technically drivable, sensibly not. Park the car in La Spezia and let the coastal train do the hopping while you walk the clifftop stretches between villages, vineyard on one side, sea on the other. Stay in Manarola or quiet Corniglia rather than busy Vernazza, and eat trofie al pesto in its birthplace. September is the sweet spot.

North of Barcelona the package-holiday coast gives way to pine-backed coves, whitewashed fishing villages and roads that switchback between them. String together Calella de Palafrugell, Llafranc and Tamariu, walk sections of the camí de ronda coastal path between swims, and detour inland to Dalí's surreal museum at Figueres. June and September deliver warm sea without the August squeeze; order arroz negro at a beachfront chiringuito.

Madeira's old coastal roads thread past waterfalls, sea cliffs and villages balanced on volcanic ledges, with the newer tunnels always available when nerves fray. The north-west stretch between São Vicente and Porto Moniz is the showstopper, ending at natural lava pools you can swim in. Base yourselves in Seixal for black-sand beaches and vineyard views, and drive the Ponta de São Lourenço headland at sunrise before the coaches arrive.

Australia's most scenic memorial — built by returned First World War soldiers — curls for 240 kilometres past surf towns, koala-hung eucalypts and the Twelve Apostles, limestone stacks that glow apricot at dusk. Drive west from Torquay so the ocean stays on your side, allow three days rather than the day trip everyone regrets, and stay in Port Fairy at the quiet far end. Visit the Apostles at sunrise, when the coaches from Melbourne are still hours away.

Nine kilometres and 114 curves carved into a cliff face between Hout Bay and Noordhoek, the Atlantic hammering away below — Cape Town's celebrated toll road earns every rand. Drive it in the late afternoon towards the sunset, pull into the viewpoints with a picnic, then carry on to Boulders Beach for the penguins and Cape Point for the full peninsula loop. Check the road's status before setting out; high winds close it now and then.

Eight kilometres of causeways and bridges skipping between skerries on Norway's west coast, with the Storseisundet Bridge appearing to launch cars into the sea from certain angles — engineers with a sense of theatre. It's short, so fold it into a slow Molde-to-Kristiansund honeymoon day with fjord detours and fish-soup stops. September brings dramatic weather that flings spray across the tarmac; calm June evenings offer midnight-sun driving with almost nobody else out.

The Bealach na Bà — Pass of the Cattle — hairpins up to 626 metres like an Alpine col that got lost in the Highlands, then drops to the whitewashed village of Applecross facing Skye across the water. It's the most dramatic single stretch of the North Coast 500. Eat langoustines at the Applecross Inn, watch the sun set behind the Cuillin, and go in May or September — midge-light, road quiet, light ridiculous.