You can enjoy even the worst road trip, but there are some drives that every gearhead wants to experience. We got Jalopnik readers to put together the ten ultimate destinations for the motoring soul.
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Photo Credit: Eric Ward
10.) Rally school
Suggested By: bryantwhite, Triborough
Why it's on the bucket list: You get to go sideways in a rented rally car for three days. That's pretty much the best way to spend a long weekend ever. While other trips leave you with pictures and memories, rally schools like Dirtfish in Washington State and Team O'Neil in New Hampshire leave you with improved car control.
Photo Credit: Dirtfish Rally School
9.) The Goodwood Festival of Speed
Suggested By: cooterbaldwin, ThatDamnDrunk
Why it's on the bucket list: Now that you've honed your driving skills, it's time to see them put to shame by some of the greatest drivers and the greatest cars in the world. You'll have to fly to England, but it's the only place where you can see vintage grand prix racers, Group B rally cars, and modern F1 cars all charging up the same hill. The beautiful grounds in the Goodwood estate in England host a true Festival of Speed for four glorious days in the end of June.
If Goodwood has too much pomp and circumstance for you, you could always slog up to some godforsaken mountain to watch some guys in souped-up Opels charge through a forest. We totally support that, too.
8.) The 24 Hours of LeMons
Suggested By: rawtoast
Why it's on the bucket list: You're back from England now, but seeing all those competition cars driven in anger has given you the itch for racing.
It's great to go on road trips and see the world, but what you really need to be doing is some wheel-to-wheel racing. If you're not familiar with the 24 Hours of LeMons, what you do is buy a $500 car and then prepare it with safety gear and then race it around some local road course with a couple dozen other teams like yours. You're fighting for a prize of $500 in nickels. It's all very silly, but it gets you on track with a car you can truly call your own.
If you don't like all the weird penalties and such, there's always ChumpCar.
Photo Credit: Telstar Logistics
7.) The 24 Hours of Le Mans
Suggested By: evoCS
Why it's on the bucket list: Now that you've actually run a race team and competed against a bunch of other amateurs, it's time to see what the greatest endurance race in the world looks like. You'll have to book another flight back to Europe, but it will be worth it to see and hear the endless, blaring, roaring symphony of Le Mans prototype and Ferrari, Aston, Corvette, and Porsche grand touring cars tearing around the Circuit de la Sarthe through the night and into the next day.
Oh yeah, and there's a massive party going on at all times around the track.
Photo Credit: Russell Trow
6.) The Tail of the Dragon
Suggested By: CobraJoe
Why it's on the bucket list: So the hangover from Le Mans has finally worn off a few weeks later and you can get on with the next leg of your trip. A big part of the Le Mans mystique is that the race is held on public roads. It's time for you to go sample some of the best driving roads in the world. Just drive down to North Carolina and Virginia and look for these signs: Tail of the Dragon, Diamondback, Devil's Staircase, Moonshiner, and Blue Ridge Parkway. The curves will speak for themselves.
5.) Indiana's Museums and the Woodward Dream Cruise
Suggested By: hemihotrod402, Startle a Thompsons Gazelle Ltd.
Why it's on the bucket list: You've driven the greatest roads of the US, now you can go see the country's greatest cars. You're going to start your drive going to the outstanding Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, and then you'll jump over to the National Corvette museum in Bowling Green. From there you can drive over to the Indy Hall of Fame, the legendary Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum in Auburn, Indiana, and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. There is no finer tribute to the world-beating automobiles we built before World War II than the collections in those museums.
Having paid your dues, you can finally take your car on the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit, the greatest convergence of outstanding cars in America.
Photo Credit: Mark Nielsen
4.) Southwest Germany and the Nürburgring
Suggested By: Nibby4WD, robertfoster
Why it's on the bucket list: After that complete Amerigasm, you'll be needing to get back to Europe. Book a flight to southern Germany for three more museums and another epic drive.
It's in the south where Germany keeps all its really legendary carmakers: BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche. The Germans are committed to preserving their history, so they've all set up car museums there, and they could well be the greatest in the world. Start in Munich for the BMW Museum (and perhaps the Munich Technical Museum for even more classic cars), then over to Mercedes and Porsche around Stuttgart. From there, well, you're just a few hours away from the Nürurgring. Rent a racer for a few hundred euros and take a few laps. Hell, you could try and squeeze the whole thing under a grand now that a Euro is just $1.26.
3.) The Stelvio Pass to Monaco
Suggested By: AndreaGentile13, rawtoast, teampenske3
Why it's on the bucket list: Now that you've gone through Southern Germany and the ‘Ring, it's time to get back into your rental car and migrate further south to the twisting passes of the Alps, perhaps the greatest driving roads in the world. The Stelvio is slow and frankly overrated, but there are tons of epic roads as you trace the path of the Monte Carlo Rally to your next destination: the Monaco Grand Prix.
No other race challenges it for sheer opulence and grandeur, and the sound of F1 cars echoing through the narrow streets is incomparable. You can even do it on a budget, as our own Peter Orosz found out this year.
Photo Credit: Døgen
2.) Pikes Peak to the Bonneville Salt Flats
Suggested By: waveridin1959, $kaycog
Why it's on the bucket list: You've had the fairy tale trips in rental cars and budget racers, now it's time to take your own car to the limit. Jet back to the States and point yourself towards the greatest hillclimb there ever was, Pikes Peak. Head back down from the summit to the Bonneville Salt Flats. There are few other places in the world that can match it for otherworldly beauty, certainly, but there is little better than seeing your speedometer twitching at your car's top speed, flying through the salt.
1.) Touring Northern Italy
Suggested By: heavyearly76, EndrasBMW
Why it's on the bucket list: You've saved the best for last. Northern Italy might be the one place in the world combines all the hallmarks of your other destinations. You have high speed runs on the Autostrada. You have the unbeatable museums and factories of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, and Pagani. Finally you have the legendary circuit of Monza. It will take some planning to get to either the Italian Grand Prix or a trackday, but it will be worth it.
Of course the whole time you'll be in Northern Italy, just about the finest vacation spot in the world. You really can't do better.
Photo Credit: Damian Morys Foto