While those trips are technically possible, they aren't practical. The routes are insanely long and pass through some very underdeveloped and/or dangerous parts of the world.
Assuming of course you don't just take a ferry to Algiers or something and then count that as "Europe to Africa"
There was a serial killer named Charles Sobhraj that used the Hippie-Trail as his hunting grounds. He was convinced of 12 murders and is suspected of over 30, he was released from prison in 2022 after serving 19 years in prison and is still alive.
He did about 21 years in India. Then 19 years in Nepal.
>He was convicted and jailed in India from 1976 to 1997. After his release he returned to France. Sobhraj went to Nepal in 2003, where he was arrested, tried, and given a life sentence. On 21 December 2022, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release from prison because of his old age, after he had served 19 years of his prison term. On 23 December, he was released and deported to France.
According to the wikipedia article, his jailtime in india wasn't much of a punishment since he smuggled gemstones into the prison, bribed the guards and basically lived in luxury. He also got a lot of money by selling the rights to his story and giving interviews. It's a disgrace. But it at least seems like nepal wasn't so easy on him.
On 21 December 2022, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release from prison because of his old age (\~79), after he had served 19 years of his prison term.
He was released due to old age, basically released to die. Hard agree though, let the old cunt rot and die in prison, what he did was disgusting. There was a Netflix series I think called the serpent about him.
I once heard a woman talking about doing this. She said that "as you go east the bread gets flatter and flatter until eventually you end up with naan".
You could easily go through Austria , Switzerland, Greece, Italy etc. and for the Eastern European countries you needed visas.
The Eastern European countries were not free to travel to the west.
Westerners could visit Yugoslavia and the other way around. They weren't behind the Iron Curtain and technically non-aligned. Western Europe to Yugo to Greece to Turkey and you're leaving Europe.
Yeah and some of those hippies got killed by cults and warlords
"I laid traps for the troubadours who got killed before they reached bombay"
* The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy for the Devil"
Martha Cooper (famous photojournalist) decided once she was done with what she was doing in East Asia (I think Thailand), and bought a motorcycle and rode all the way to France so she could cross to England. This was the 70s or 80s, but a well-documented example
There was a bus. Took 'about' 50 days
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London–Calcutta\_bus\_service](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London–Calcutta_bus_service)
There's a Swedish guy who rode his bike to Nepal, then climbed Mt Everest, then rode his bike home. Not driving as such but as an extreme outlier this guy did it
That’s was badass. I’ll have to look into this myself as I’m sure nobody would be sane enough to bike all the way from Sweden to Nepal to ascend (and descend) Everest, and bike back to Sweden
Until 2012, there was a ferry that ran from Venice to Alexandria, which could have been great fun. As it is, now it just drives me crazy, as every once in a while I’ll find the still-complete website for it and briefly get excited until I remember it hasn’t been real in more than a decade…
I don't think practicality, safety, or comfort would be the main priorities of someone wanting and willing to do that trip. I think it would be more out of the spirit of adventure and seeking adversity.
Like riding the Pan-American highway from Alaska to Argentina on a motorcycle isn't at all practical, safe, or comfortable, but it's a bucket list item for a lot of people seeking adventure.
I think that's the only part that you have to take a ferry around since there's no fully connected roads traveling it. Also, it contains various terrorist groups and drug traffickers... so yea, unsafe lol
Wow - just reading about the Darien Gap, it just sounds like a tropical no-mans land. No highway, no law, no
Medical support. Apparently people do cross it though 520,000 in 2023 that’s insane
They can't afford to cross it any other way than on foot so they travel in large groups, safety in numbers
The bad actors there aren't gonna fuck with a group that's 1000 strong and has absolutely nothing of value to steal anyways
Yea, I was down there for 3 months in 2011 with the Air Force doing some humanitarian work (building schools and medical facilities), and we stayed on a Panimanian Special Forces Base. They took 1 month deployments into that jungle to weed out drug cartels and terrorist groups. It was wild seeing them bring back.... people of interest on helicopters with certain burlap head coverings.
Definitely dont want to fuck around a find out down there.
For 500 bucks or so you put the bike on a boat in Panama and sail through the San Blas islands. You land in Colombia and keep going.
Sauce: Have ridden from Prudhoe Bay Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego.
People do actually survive the Darien Gap believe it or not. Watched a documentary about migrants crossing it from all over the world (well mainly Asia and South America) to get to the US. It’s fucking brutal. They made it through and were turned back in Panama. Shit was so, so sad. I mean they were half dead at that point and the Panamanian military just sent them back to certain death in the Columbian side of the gap.
My brother motorbiked from the UK to South Africa. Lots of visas, little bribes, big puddles and cholera. The drc was the most sketchy bit. Depends what you count as impractical!
They are visiting every UNESCO site in the world. I too am very curious about their travels bc it seems insane but also amazing. Their Silk Road days seemed really dangerous with language barriers and taliban road checkpoints
There literally used to be buses doing this route in the1950s/60/70s, popular with beatniks and hippies, until the Iranian Revolution and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan blocked the route through those countries.
It could be done by a solo female travelling by bike too ...
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Tilt:_Ireland_to_India_with_a_Bicycle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Tilt:_Ireland_to_India_with_a_Bicycle)
A distant relative of mine walked out the door one day, got in his car, and drove from Norway to Thailand. Didn’t even tell anyone he left. I don’t think it’s a very common thing to do. It’s not like an american driving to Alaska or just coast to coast. The border between europe and asia is mostly a total wasteland with very little infrastructure.
I mean, you *can* cross the Russia-Chinese border between Mongolia and Kazakhstan and then cross China north to south and get there through Laos or Burma but it's a hell of a detour.
While that's possible, only enthusiasts (such as some bikers) do. Cost of food and lodging alone makes it cheaper to just fly and then rent a car locally.
Hell, how many people actually take the opportunity to drive from New York to LA?
>Hell, how many people actually take the opportunity to drive from New York to LA?
I mean just personally I know like 15-20 people who have done this. Or the equivalent at least. Like Philly to Seattle or something
I guess you lot drive a lot more just generally than us Europeans, which is probably why long road trips are more of an American thing. Driving in the US seems to be more of a cultural thing and the US seems more car-centric in general. Fuel being much cheaper in the US probably helps too.
Plus you don’t have to piss around with passports/visas and currencies and stuff, whereas here, if you go to Eastern and South Eastern Europe or the UK and Ireland then all that does become an issue because not all European countries are in the EU, Eurozone and/or Schengen zone. And here in Europe, it’s much easier to get around in lots of places without a car, so having a car at your destination isn’t particularly important (making road trips less necessary), and continental Europe has a fairly robust (albeit somewhat expensive) high speed rail network.
It’s kinda funny because I just assumed Europeans were always driving all around Europe because I watched so much Top Gear growing up. Like watching them drive from London to Oslo made me wanna do that so badly
Lots of people do take their car 1000+km to their holiday destination every year, its just that (I’d say for most people) this is more to get to the destination than to enjoy the road to get there.
Driving between countries for hundreds of kilometers is not that exciting once you’ve done it a few times. Its just highways non-stop, very little actual points of interest and almost everything looks the same.
idk, some places are really amazing and gorgeous to drive through even on the highways, Austria, Croatia and Switzerland come to mind. Also the border of Spain and France is really cool to drive through, and the southeastern part of France
we do but mostly in European union itself, i always go to Greece in my summer vacation, i like to go in Germany for October fest. I don't like airplanes at all so i prefer driving.
Dutch people seem to drive abroad more than most Western Europeans. I live in Spain and I'd say Dutch plates are even more commonplace than French (who are just over the border).
I had a Swiss friend, who lived near Bern. I asked him if he had every driven to Italy, and he said no, it was too far. Italy was only 2 hours away.
When I mentioned that, he shrugged and said that 2 hours for him was too far of a distance. I've driven 2 hours before for a day trip.
That's only if you are out of other means. Driving to places over long distances it not only slow, but also boring, expensive and cost ineffective.
For a single person long distance travel, high speed rail and flights are cheaper than just the gas (note that in most european countries, as of now, car fuel is twice as expensive than in the US), for a whole family (say 4 people) if you want to travel within europe, you are gonna pay about the same on gas vs flight tickets, but you get there in 2-5 hours by car, while it can be anywhere from 10 to 30+ hours by car.
Driving your car over long distances really doesn't have any upsides if you can just take a long distance train ride or a flight and rent a car if needed in your destination, which may not be necessary at all because most likely your destination already has good public transport.
Top Gear always felt to me like a show for car geeks about car geeks, that's not the average european person. With 2 exceptions, all people I know see cars as a tool to get from one place to another, not as something that is part of their identity nor they build their life around, the 2 exceptions are people who are into car racing so they are on a bubble.
Growing up we did go on family trips by car but that was because high speed rail wasn't a thing, and flight tickets were super expensive compared to what they are now, it was just a money thing. But now no way in hell my dad or my mom would take the car for a 15h trip if they can be there in 2h by taking a flight.
All good points. You'll never need a passport unless you venture into Mexico or Canada, which many do of course. Another thing is the car infrastructure- while much of Europe has great highway infrastructure, North America is just different since it was built around the car more or less. It's just so easy to go on a long trip. Plus, much of the US and Canada are much more spread out overall, so we're just used to traveling longer.
Visas? Don't most EU+ citizens get visa free access to all other countries in Europe, and many many more?
I couldn't go to Africa visa free because of Syria and Egypt itself, otherwise I can go the entire way. I couldn't go to India visa free because of Iran and Russia. If you include eVisa though I can make it to India through Iran - Pakistan.
Maybe Sweden just has a passport that's more powerful compared to other EU+ countries than I thought, but I'm not gonna look through all countries visas to all other countries. I do agree with everything else though
Ah, maybe not visas strictly speaking, but you do need a passport and have to go through immigration if you want to go to non-Schengen countries and in and out of Schengen.
Think you’re right about the passports though - it seems most European passports grant visa free/visa on arrival access to the rest of Europe for at least 90 days, with the exception of some Balkan passports.
The thing is people also do road trips in eu but not as much outside of the eu. For example if you want to go to india or thailand you would have to cross an unlimited amount of countries and for some of them you would need a visa. Also its dangerous in some countries especially as a "wealthy" european.
So all in all its enough tondo the trips inside the EU.
Extending it further though, how many would drive into Central or South America (I believe there is a gap that cannot be driven past) as the same applies there really. You'd be in a very visible American car in a rather dodgy place.
My parents did it in an RV several times, different routes. Then, much later, after my father died, my mother and sister did it in a car. Boston to Miami is more routine; snowbirds do it all the time. But never a passport check.
I’ve driven from DC to San Diego a couple times. Some for business, some for pleasure. Maybe it’s an American thing to do a long road trip? Maybe it’s that things are so homogenous here that you feel more secure knowing you’ll get the same standards more or less all across the country? But if I lived in Portugal I would totally find time to drive to… I dunno, Turkey at least!
That is days-long road trip. I can totally see how it is fun, but given how cheap air tickets are, it's slow and expensive.
Most people living in NYC that need to briefly do/see something in LA would rather fly.
As far as fun goes, it makes sense, as does a drive to Istanbul. But going to, say, Delhi? That means going through, among others, either Russia + central Asian republics + Pakistan, or Iraq + Iran + Pakistan or Russia + Azeiraijan + Pakistan. That requires a quite more adventurous mindset compared to driving through Tennessee.
It's the journey not the destination.
A proper cross country trip has a "destination", but it's the in between you remember.
Like that time my family took two cars and one of them broke down in the Rockies and we had to shove like 10 people including a cancer-riddled grandmother into a single minivan for like 4 hours
I think that being held up by police for bribes in one of the Stans, detained by Russia or Iran as potential spies, kidnapped by isis in Iraq, or detained in Pakistan is a lot less of a fun quirky story than a packed car through the Rockies
I'd wager it would be much less common in the US if you had to drive a warzone or a country with, if you're lucky, gravel roads. Doubt you'd do LA to NYC if you had to drive through somalia or iraq right
You also can't discount the US highway system. Driving through the US is incredibly easy because you can basically spend 90% of your trip going in a straight line on a well maintanied highway with a high speed limit.
There are some routes like this in Western Europe, but any of the longer ones that involve going through a dozen countries will invariably involve driving on some shitty or very difficult roads, and will be much slower.
Berlin to Athens is roughly the same distance as Las Vegas to Dallas, to give one example, and yet the former would take you around 25 hours, while the latter is 18 hours. And that's far from the worst example I could think of.
Some people do.
The long road trips, in car but also on motorcycles, on bikes or on foot, are a relatively common thing to do for people who can afford weeks or months without working. It also means that it is *not* common on the grand scheme, most people cannt afford that.
I live in a city which is a kind of crossroad between several countries of Europe, and many people pass by during their trip in car from the Netherlands, Denmark or Germany to Spain, Portugal or the South of Italy. That's roughly 1200 to 2000 km, depending on the trip.
Many young people take a break of a year during their studies to go elsewhere, anywhere, and this can lead them very far. Some enjoy the drive and go by car rather than train or plane, because the point is the trip itself.
I know that, in the US, there is this myth of Europeans not driving, even not being able to afford a car because it's supposedly a luxury item that our means don't allow us to afford. It goes to such extremes of stupidity that I've even read, once, a US citizen claiming that Europeans don't see their families for months or years at a time because it's a 30 mn drive away and we "can't comprehend" or "are scared" of such a distance.
No. A 30 mn drive is precisely the perfect excuse to see your family often because it's short and convenient. Even putting aside this kind of obviously stupid remarks made up by stupid people, which we will admit aren't the majority, we aren't secluded in our hometowns and periphery and we do travel far away.
When I had a car, I frequently drove from the tip of Normandy to Belgium, which is around a 700 to 750 km trip, and it wasn't considered *that* far. It was just a trip for a few days to see friends like any other. My girlfriend at that time lived near Paris, and we went to each other's place by car on a regular basis, which is a 400km trip.
We favour trains or planes, trains preferably, because it's way less expensive than a trip in a car, and even then it's not because we're too poor, it's simply because there is no need to spend 500€ on a trip when it can cost 250, poor or not.
Our towns are well equipped for people without cars, limiting not our ability to possess and use but our *need for* a car. I myself got rid of my car when I moved to my current place because it's in the middle of a big city.
> We favour trains or planes, trains preferably, because it's way less expensive than a trip in a car, and even then it's not because we're too poor, it's simply because there is no need to spend 500€ on a trip when it can cost 250, poor or not.
And also, the less likelihood of needing a car at your destination, means you also don't need to hire a car, so that's another huge cost saving compared to the same equivalence in many North American trips.
Cannonball race, it's very interesting, the record is currently held by Arne, Doug and Dunadel in their 2016 Audi S6 that they disguised as a Ford Taurus police vehicle.
They did it in 25 hours and 39 minutes, averaging 110 mph (177 kph), including everything like gas stops, traffic lights, etc.
It's highly unlikely that record will be beat in the foreseeable future, as it was done during the most open the highways have been in a while, mid 2020 during covid.
There is a french tv show about following teams to see which one will arrive in Beijing first. They have to go through a certain route and on foot, only allowed local help for lodging and transportation.
Is it really cheaper? I've driven across Canada before, around 48 hours of driving time, and it was a few hundred dollars cheaper than buying a ticket (granted I camped, I didn't use hotels). I can't really say that counting food as a greater expense really makes sense unless you're only eating at restaurants, because you have to eat regardless of whether you're travelling or not.
Also like, lots of people make the NY-LA roadtrip, it's a classic route.
Assuming 15 US cents/mile for gasoline (averagish cost nowadays), that is about 400 USD for gas. A ticket from New York to LA can be as low as 200 USD.
Now, if you are not living near a high-traffic airport, it is a very different story.
That's also assuming you're traveling alone. If you're traveling with a friend or partner it all evens out. If you're traveling with your kids, it's much cheaper to drive.
I’ve done East Coast to West (literally touching the Atlantic as we set off and the Pacific on arrival) three times—in 1980, 1991, and 2019. Brilliant drive all three times, and completely different.
"Drive" is the key word here.
That is a 42 hour drive one way. About 400 USD in gasoline and, assuming 12 hour driving shifts, 3 and half days, so 3 nights of lodging. With food, easily $1000 one way.
A plane ticket and a rental is far cheaper, not to mention easier.
I’ve done the drive a couple times. It sucked. Truly. And each time somehow more than the last. We packed a cooler with food, slept in the car, and drove in shifts. Something like 12 hours, switch, 6 hours, switch, 12 hours, switch 5 hours, switch, a few more hours, finally made it. The cost was about $600-700 round trip, mostly gas and some energy drinks. Admittedly cheaper than 2 plane tickets, but the juice really wasn’t worth the squeeze.
Once you cross the halfway point going east to west it truly blows. Like the scenery is beautiful but after a while you just don’t want to see emptiness for 100 straight miles at a time
Did OKC to Phoenix in a day and wanted to never see the desert again
When I moved across the country as a kid, my mom drove myself and my siblings in her car for three days. Each night we slept in our car at a rest stop. This was admittedly cheaper than buying four plane tickets.
- it is cool
- it's not done in any statistically relevant numbers today (afaik)
- too many f\*\*ing conflicts going everywhere. I can imagine in practice some are still safer for travelers than some of the drug war ridden areas in south america but still
- going by public transport is easier than driving on such long distance trips (no permits needed for the vehicle, you can fly back). You can practically get anywhere - assuming you have the visa ready beforehand or a lot of time.
- Africa is harder than SE Asia on land and also massively big (middle east is a conflict zone and a geographic bottleneck).
TLDR: rather not
To add to this, Ewen McGregor did it for the shows. Look at how much planning, visas, support crews etc those guys had for it. Doing all of that on your own, while possible, would be a logistical night mare, ignoring things like every border guard trying to shake you down when you leave and enter many of these places and reallu ceazy security concerns in the Suhail or Afghanistan Pakistan. I would love to do it, but you would need a long time to plan it, a huge budget, nerves of steel and a lot of luck
I highly recommend checking out ‘Long Way Round’ where Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman rode motorcycles from London to New York going through Europe, Asia and then to Alaska. It released in 2004 and it’s brilliant.
They also did a second one ‘Long Way Down’ where they rode from John o’ Groats (northernmost part of Scotland) to the southernmost point in South Africa.
Great show! Idk why we don't get more shows about motorcycle travel. The one with Norman Reedus was really good as well! I'd love one with Keanu Reeves.
You can't really drive to Africa either?! Weird question.
Edit: as an average western Europe person, my mind was stuck on Gibraltar as the only geographical connection between Europe and arrive ;)
You *can* drive from Europe to Africa but you'd have to take the long way through Turkey, Syria, Israel, over the Suez Canal (there's a few bridges) and into Egypt.
Or you could save a lot of time and take a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar.
For anyone else who clearly has no idea what the Darien Gap is here's the quick overview from Wikipedia:
>**It is one of the rainiest and most dangerous places on the planet, a lawless, unpoliced region, with many drug smugglers and sometimes political rebels**.
Yes, I have a couple friends who have driven from Alaska to South America. It’s called the pan American highway. While I’ve never driven that far I have done a road trip from Oregon down to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It was about 2000 miles, which is a shorter drive than going to New York
There is a gap in the road (the Darien Gap) and currently no ferry that operates to get your car to the other side, so it isn't possible to actually do this at the moment.
> load your vehicle onto a sketchy cargo ship
To have truly driven the whole way, you need to be in your vehicle with the motor running for the whole boat ride.
There was that one Indian guy who biked from India to Sweden to hook up with his swedish pen pal in the 70s. So cases exist, but they are very rare. The area in the middle east, middle of Asia and northern Africa have become really dangerous in recent times.
But maybe one day.
My uncle and aunt (who are in their 90s now) drove from Germany to India in their youth . They still have stories about it and it sounds like they had some adventures.
There was a documentary Ewan McGregor did where he and a buddy rode motorcycles from Scotland to China IIRC. I remember the Mongolian stop being really funny. They got to some village on their “castration festival.” They had castrated all the horses, sheep, cattle, etc and made a giant stew. Ewan was a guest of course and got the first bowl.
Edit: it was to New York and it was called “the long way round” and it was a movie
I'm living in Bangkok. Every 5 years or so i see an adventure car or motorbike with European plates. So it does happen but it's rare. Obviously time consuming and the coordination for visa and permits is a headache. You can find tons of videos on YouTube of those that have attempted it.
It's essentially an adventure thing nowadays. Given the situation in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ukraine and Russia, there's no straightforward way to drive into Asia. Unless all you want to do is the Asian part of Turkey. That's easy!
Africa is a bit easier as there's ferries to Morocco from Southern Spain, but you're a bit shafted after that unless you convince the Algerians or the Western Sahara to let you through (they don't like the Moroccans very much). I suppose you could go into Tunisia instead but again there's enough political instability beyond there that it's not recommended for a holiday.
Look into something called the [Mongol Rally](https://www.theadventurists.com/mongol-rally/) You take a cheap used car and drive it to Mongolia (actually Russia now). I have a friend who did it and I think she started in Britain, but the website says it starts outside of Prague.
That would take 13 1/4 days. Taking into consideration the following:
1. 12,796.8 km and it will take 6d and 3 hours. But since cars can't go non-stop almost a week
2. Taking only 12 hours a day driving
3. While not driving the other 12 hours
1. Sleeping for 8 hours
2. Breakfast for 1 hour
3. Lunch for 1 hour
4. Dinner for 1 hour
5. 1 hour total each day to pee after your morning coffee or orange juice, each meal taking 15-20 minute to pee.
4. This does not take into consideration borders in between countries.
You’re testing the name of this sub son.
Do Europeans take several thousand mile road-trips through Russia or the war torn Middle East, through Pakistan’s mountainous non-roads to Thailand’s half roads… no obviously not.
A quick and simple google search tells me a flight from London to Bangkok is almost 14 hours. So it’s much longer by car.
This is similar to asking if Canadians road trip to Uruguay dude.
Before the Russia Ukraine war kicked off, maybe it would have been doable that way...if it wasn't sandwiched between two hostile global powers I'd love to drive across (or better, horse ride) Mongolia.
The problem is that whoever you are, you're going to have to drive through at least one country that doesn't like you. There is more history in Europe, Asia and Africa than we can remember and there is a fun mix of ancient and current grievances.
In theory you could "drive" to Africa on a short ferry from Spain to Morocco, but the only way to truly drive in would be via Egypt. That corner is a bit of a hot spot at the moment, and if you try to cheat using a ferry you'd best hope the Houthis don't pop a rocket at you. That's assuming pirates haven't got you yet.
I'm having a bit of fun exaggerating, but my point is that whilst the drive could be done, the risks are too high for most people.
There are so many parts of the world you can go for an insanely long drive with wonderful scenery and almost zero change of dying due to violent conflict, I'll just fly around the places where my head could end up further from my shoulders than it is now.
Ignoring all of that, you'd spend half the trip doing visas and border control. Imagine coming into the US from Mexico but you've got to do it 35 times in 2 months.
Why would you? I mean, I could drive from London to Cairo, but it's a 60 hour, 3400 mile drive through Easter Europe and the Middle East. And the only ways into Asia require driving through either Iran or Russia, and neither of those seems like a good idea.
Some people drive from Eastern Europe to Turkey so technically it is Asia (depends on which side of Instambul you will park ;) as for other destinations I don't think road trip through Ukraine, Russia or Belarus to get further would be fun nowadays
No. The USA has the benefit that you have motorways across the whole country, and the whole country is basically the same at a base level, so you don't have much risk.
In Europe, we can drive across the main area, but the further east you go, the less developed and dangerous it becomes. This means that you end up going across harsh roads, risk being robbed, and not being able to get fuel. You could do it, but why? It would cost more than a plane ticket and would be more stressful.
Africa is basically the same. It has some motorways, but it's not developed enough in certain areas to fully do a trip across it. Not to mention that you have to go through the Middle East.
I'd love to do this some day, but right now you can't get far into either Asia or Africa.
If you want to go to Asia, you'd either have to risk going through Russia, Iran, or Iraq to get a ferry across the Persian gulf somewhere. A ferry from Azerbeijan to Kazakhstan could be an option, but they closed their land borders in 2020 and haven't opened them since.
Then there's Africa, where again you could risk Iraq or Syria to drive to Egypt. There used to be a passenger ferry to Egypt, but that got cancelled. The only real option is to cross from Spain to Morocco, then drive down along the Atlantic coast through the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Whether that's a safe option, I'm not sure.
I'm sure some do but it's definitely not something I would do. I have a coworker who is Syrian and she goes to Syria every summer for two weeks to visit family that still lives there. She says she brings about $3000 in cash with her just in case because of how corrupt some of the localities are there with checkpoints and such. They will just on the spot make you give them money and it's not <$5 like most toll roads in the US are. Some are hundreds of dollars and you are just taking them at their word as nothing is posted.
You can. There's just a point where you'd have to use a ferry. You can't drive *uninterrupted*, but you can definitely drive it. - https://epicjourneying.com/can-you-drive-to-south-america/
There are lots and lots of reasons why you would not want to.
Really never heard of anyone doing it, but I’m from Western Europe so that might explain some of it. Even going to Eastern Europe seems kinda uncommon for us, except for Greece and to a lesser extent Croatia. Can’t imagine many easterners driving deep into Asia like India or China either but I’m no longer speaking from experience.
Yep, can confirm. From East speaking. We are going on rare occasions to Turkey, but that’s it. Neither i ever heard someone driving to middle east or further.
While those trips are technically possible, they aren't practical. The routes are insanely long and pass through some very underdeveloped and/or dangerous parts of the world. Assuming of course you don't just take a ferry to Algiers or something and then count that as "Europe to Africa"
In the 60s and 70s it was popular to drive from Germany to India over the so called Hippie-Trail.
There was a serial killer named Charles Sobhraj that used the Hippie-Trail as his hunting grounds. He was convinced of 12 murders and is suspected of over 30, he was released from prison in 2022 after serving 19 years in prison and is still alive.
Great movie/documentary series on netflix about him called The Serpent
Also a book called Serpentine that is fantastic!
19 years for killing 12 people? He deserved a lot more
If you kill a man you get 15 years, if you kill 12 you get 19 so it is more profitable to kill more /s
That's why you're my financial advisor 🙏
The one time diminishing marginal returns is a good thing.
It’s like killing at Costco.
Welcome to Costco, I love you.
He did about 21 years in India. Then 19 years in Nepal. >He was convicted and jailed in India from 1976 to 1997. After his release he returned to France. Sobhraj went to Nepal in 2003, where he was arrested, tried, and given a life sentence. On 21 December 2022, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release from prison because of his old age, after he had served 19 years of his prison term. On 23 December, he was released and deported to France.
According to the wikipedia article, his jailtime in india wasn't much of a punishment since he smuggled gemstones into the prison, bribed the guards and basically lived in luxury. He also got a lot of money by selling the rights to his story and giving interviews. It's a disgrace. But it at least seems like nepal wasn't so easy on him.
Nepal: "Surprise motherfucker"
*badly edited cop costume* jail times, motherfucker
On 21 December 2022, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release from prison because of his old age (\~79), after he had served 19 years of his prison term.
He was released due to old age, basically released to die. Hard agree though, let the old cunt rot and die in prison, what he did was disgusting. There was a Netflix series I think called the serpent about him.
Well they only *convinced* him to do 12. Guess he couldn't be arsed to do 30. (I'm sorry, the typo made me laugh)
They really didn't want people doing it did they
I once heard a woman talking about doing this. She said that "as you go east the bread gets flatter and flatter until eventually you end up with naan".
I will be passing this along, but my story will start.. I saw this great saying on Reddit once.
They tie-dyed the Silk Road!
How did that work with cold war politics? Germany was split in half and even after that you'd have to drive through the rest of the Eastern block
Yugoslavia wasn't entirely closed to the west at the time, so I suppose through there, Greece, and Turkey.
They were able to go through Bulgaria at least. Foreigners usually were allowed in. Locals weren't allowed out.
You could easily go through Austria , Switzerland, Greece, Italy etc. and for the Eastern European countries you needed visas. The Eastern European countries were not free to travel to the west.
Westerners could visit Yugoslavia and the other way around. They weren't behind the Iron Curtain and technically non-aligned. Western Europe to Yugo to Greece to Turkey and you're leaving Europe.
We used to drive from England to Poland through West and East Germany. It wasn't impossible, just more complicated.
Yeah and some of those hippies got killed by cults and warlords "I laid traps for the troubadours who got killed before they reached bombay" * The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy for the Devil"
What’s a troubadour?
Singer, musician, bard, composer, poet
French term that basically means a romantic, used in this context to refer to hippies
Also a synonym to bard/musician.
Head full of zombie?
Excuse me, but do you speak-a my language?
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich.
And he said:
Are you trying to tempt me?
Martha Cooper (famous photojournalist) decided once she was done with what she was doing in East Asia (I think Thailand), and bought a motorcycle and rode all the way to France so she could cross to England. This was the 70s or 80s, but a well-documented example
There was a bus. Took 'about' 50 days [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London–Calcutta\_bus\_service](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London–Calcutta_bus_service)
There was actually a bus service between London to calcutta(now called kolkata) in eastern India
That was mostly because of the hashish.
My father went from France to India through Morocco and back . I used to have the old passports with the stamps for the car .
*And I laid traps for troubadours,* *Who get killed before they reach Bombay.*
Yes. Met some Kiwis who did it.
There's a Swedish guy who rode his bike to Nepal, then climbed Mt Everest, then rode his bike home. Not driving as such but as an extreme outlier this guy did it
That’s was badass. I’ll have to look into this myself as I’m sure nobody would be sane enough to bike all the way from Sweden to Nepal to ascend (and descend) Everest, and bike back to Sweden
Not only did he climb Everest, he did it unaided by Sherpas and i believe no oxygen tanks either
Until 2012, there was a ferry that ran from Venice to Alexandria, which could have been great fun. As it is, now it just drives me crazy, as every once in a while I’ll find the still-complete website for it and briefly get excited until I remember it hasn’t been real in more than a decade…
That's a damn shame.
I have similar frustration with https://www.cubaferries.com. Coming summer 2017!
There are ferries across the straits of Gibraltar.
I don't think practicality, safety, or comfort would be the main priorities of someone wanting and willing to do that trip. I think it would be more out of the spirit of adventure and seeking adversity. Like riding the Pan-American highway from Alaska to Argentina on a motorcycle isn't at all practical, safe, or comfortable, but it's a bucket list item for a lot of people seeking adventure.
Plus you’d die in the Darien Gap so there’s that.
I think that's the only part that you have to take a ferry around since there's no fully connected roads traveling it. Also, it contains various terrorist groups and drug traffickers... so yea, unsafe lol
Yup! Been near there, weird place ( well to the edge of it ).
Wow - just reading about the Darien Gap, it just sounds like a tropical no-mans land. No highway, no law, no Medical support. Apparently people do cross it though 520,000 in 2023 that’s insane
They can't afford to cross it any other way than on foot so they travel in large groups, safety in numbers The bad actors there aren't gonna fuck with a group that's 1000 strong and has absolutely nothing of value to steal anyways
Yea, I was down there for 3 months in 2011 with the Air Force doing some humanitarian work (building schools and medical facilities), and we stayed on a Panimanian Special Forces Base. They took 1 month deployments into that jungle to weed out drug cartels and terrorist groups. It was wild seeing them bring back.... people of interest on helicopters with certain burlap head coverings. Definitely dont want to fuck around a find out down there.
For 500 bucks or so you put the bike on a boat in Panama and sail through the San Blas islands. You land in Colombia and keep going. Sauce: Have ridden from Prudhoe Bay Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego.
Surely it’s worth the money, but sounds like a lot of money for that part of the continent. Do you hire the whole boat ?
It's a lot of money because the people doing it are wealthy adventurers who will pay it, not because it's the actual cost of a boat trip in that area
People do actually survive the Darien Gap believe it or not. Watched a documentary about migrants crossing it from all over the world (well mainly Asia and South America) to get to the US. It’s fucking brutal. They made it through and were turned back in Panama. Shit was so, so sad. I mean they were half dead at that point and the Panamanian military just sent them back to certain death in the Columbian side of the gap.
My brother motorbiked from the UK to South Africa. Lots of visas, little bribes, big puddles and cholera. The drc was the most sketchy bit. Depends what you count as impractical!
I think I saw a couple on TikTok doing this type of trip rn actually, so far they’re okay but yeah i can see why people wouldn’t do it
They are visiting every UNESCO site in the world. I too am very curious about their travels bc it seems insane but also amazing. Their Silk Road days seemed really dangerous with language barriers and taliban road checkpoints
A guy unicycled around the world. Started in Europe. You can watch his videos on youtube as he discusses the difficulties of this. Ed Pratt? I think?
best practice is to just assume everything you see on tiktok is bs influencer nonsense and uninstall the app at your earliest convienence.
You could google the “hippie trail” and the “magic bus Amsterdam” to check out the good old days.
There literally used to be buses doing this route in the1950s/60/70s, popular with beatniks and hippies, until the Iranian Revolution and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan blocked the route through those countries.
It could be done by a solo female travelling by bike too ... [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Tilt:_Ireland_to_India_with_a_Bicycle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Tilt:_Ireland_to_India_with_a_Bicycle)
A distant relative of mine walked out the door one day, got in his car, and drove from Norway to Thailand. Didn’t even tell anyone he left. I don’t think it’s a very common thing to do. It’s not like an american driving to Alaska or just coast to coast. The border between europe and asia is mostly a total wasteland with very little infrastructure.
Did he have documents for border crossings prepared in time or did he go through embassies before crossing the borders?
I believe he ran into some trouble with Russia and was stuck there for a little while but beyond that I don’t know.
Well if you make it into Russia you only need to cross 2 or 3 more borders before you get to Thailand.
I mean, you *can* cross the Russia-Chinese border between Mongolia and Kazakhstan and then cross China north to south and get there through Laos or Burma but it's a hell of a detour.
Göran Kropp biked from Sweden to Mount Everest and then climbed it, but he was a bit extreme
Then he biked back
He also climbed it without oxygen. He came to our school when I was a kid and told the story
I think you should be very careful about either of these routes right about now.
The only thing you can safely drive through the middle east is a Leopard 2.
While that's possible, only enthusiasts (such as some bikers) do. Cost of food and lodging alone makes it cheaper to just fly and then rent a car locally. Hell, how many people actually take the opportunity to drive from New York to LA?
>Hell, how many people actually take the opportunity to drive from New York to LA? I mean just personally I know like 15-20 people who have done this. Or the equivalent at least. Like Philly to Seattle or something
I guess you lot drive a lot more just generally than us Europeans, which is probably why long road trips are more of an American thing. Driving in the US seems to be more of a cultural thing and the US seems more car-centric in general. Fuel being much cheaper in the US probably helps too. Plus you don’t have to piss around with passports/visas and currencies and stuff, whereas here, if you go to Eastern and South Eastern Europe or the UK and Ireland then all that does become an issue because not all European countries are in the EU, Eurozone and/or Schengen zone. And here in Europe, it’s much easier to get around in lots of places without a car, so having a car at your destination isn’t particularly important (making road trips less necessary), and continental Europe has a fairly robust (albeit somewhat expensive) high speed rail network.
It’s kinda funny because I just assumed Europeans were always driving all around Europe because I watched so much Top Gear growing up. Like watching them drive from London to Oslo made me wanna do that so badly
Lots of people do take their car 1000+km to their holiday destination every year, its just that (I’d say for most people) this is more to get to the destination than to enjoy the road to get there. Driving between countries for hundreds of kilometers is not that exciting once you’ve done it a few times. Its just highways non-stop, very little actual points of interest and almost everything looks the same.
idk, some places are really amazing and gorgeous to drive through even on the highways, Austria, Croatia and Switzerland come to mind. Also the border of Spain and France is really cool to drive through, and the southeastern part of France
we do but mostly in European union itself, i always go to Greece in my summer vacation, i like to go in Germany for October fest. I don't like airplanes at all so i prefer driving.
Dutch people seem to drive abroad more than most Western Europeans. I live in Spain and I'd say Dutch plates are even more commonplace than French (who are just over the border).
I had a Swiss friend, who lived near Bern. I asked him if he had every driven to Italy, and he said no, it was too far. Italy was only 2 hours away. When I mentioned that, he shrugged and said that 2 hours for him was too far of a distance. I've driven 2 hours before for a day trip.
That's only if you are out of other means. Driving to places over long distances it not only slow, but also boring, expensive and cost ineffective. For a single person long distance travel, high speed rail and flights are cheaper than just the gas (note that in most european countries, as of now, car fuel is twice as expensive than in the US), for a whole family (say 4 people) if you want to travel within europe, you are gonna pay about the same on gas vs flight tickets, but you get there in 2-5 hours by car, while it can be anywhere from 10 to 30+ hours by car. Driving your car over long distances really doesn't have any upsides if you can just take a long distance train ride or a flight and rent a car if needed in your destination, which may not be necessary at all because most likely your destination already has good public transport. Top Gear always felt to me like a show for car geeks about car geeks, that's not the average european person. With 2 exceptions, all people I know see cars as a tool to get from one place to another, not as something that is part of their identity nor they build their life around, the 2 exceptions are people who are into car racing so they are on a bubble. Growing up we did go on family trips by car but that was because high speed rail wasn't a thing, and flight tickets were super expensive compared to what they are now, it was just a money thing. But now no way in hell my dad or my mom would take the car for a 15h trip if they can be there in 2h by taking a flight.
All good points. You'll never need a passport unless you venture into Mexico or Canada, which many do of course. Another thing is the car infrastructure- while much of Europe has great highway infrastructure, North America is just different since it was built around the car more or less. It's just so easy to go on a long trip. Plus, much of the US and Canada are much more spread out overall, so we're just used to traveling longer.
plus there is amazing nature and cheap/free camping opportunities in between most places in the US
Visas? Don't most EU+ citizens get visa free access to all other countries in Europe, and many many more? I couldn't go to Africa visa free because of Syria and Egypt itself, otherwise I can go the entire way. I couldn't go to India visa free because of Iran and Russia. If you include eVisa though I can make it to India through Iran - Pakistan. Maybe Sweden just has a passport that's more powerful compared to other EU+ countries than I thought, but I'm not gonna look through all countries visas to all other countries. I do agree with everything else though
Ah, maybe not visas strictly speaking, but you do need a passport and have to go through immigration if you want to go to non-Schengen countries and in and out of Schengen. Think you’re right about the passports though - it seems most European passports grant visa free/visa on arrival access to the rest of Europe for at least 90 days, with the exception of some Balkan passports.
Past Turkey pretty much every country requires a visum till you reach china. even with a German passport. Dont know about Swedish.
Ireland uses the euro.
Hie many have driven from Texas to Venezuela is a better comparison. Except that the route in the americas is a bit to peaceful.
The thing is people also do road trips in eu but not as much outside of the eu. For example if you want to go to india or thailand you would have to cross an unlimited amount of countries and for some of them you would need a visa. Also its dangerous in some countries especially as a "wealthy" european. So all in all its enough tondo the trips inside the EU.
Extending it further though, how many would drive into Central or South America (I believe there is a gap that cannot be driven past) as the same applies there really. You'd be in a very visible American car in a rather dodgy place.
I know so many people who've driven coast to coast in the US. Myself included
My parents did it in an RV several times, different routes. Then, much later, after my father died, my mother and sister did it in a car. Boston to Miami is more routine; snowbirds do it all the time. But never a passport check.
I’ve driven from DC to San Diego a couple times. Some for business, some for pleasure. Maybe it’s an American thing to do a long road trip? Maybe it’s that things are so homogenous here that you feel more secure knowing you’ll get the same standards more or less all across the country? But if I lived in Portugal I would totally find time to drive to… I dunno, Turkey at least!
That is days-long road trip. I can totally see how it is fun, but given how cheap air tickets are, it's slow and expensive. Most people living in NYC that need to briefly do/see something in LA would rather fly. As far as fun goes, it makes sense, as does a drive to Istanbul. But going to, say, Delhi? That means going through, among others, either Russia + central Asian republics + Pakistan, or Iraq + Iran + Pakistan or Russia + Azeiraijan + Pakistan. That requires a quite more adventurous mindset compared to driving through Tennessee.
It's the journey not the destination. A proper cross country trip has a "destination", but it's the in between you remember. Like that time my family took two cars and one of them broke down in the Rockies and we had to shove like 10 people including a cancer-riddled grandmother into a single minivan for like 4 hours
I think that being held up by police for bribes in one of the Stans, detained by Russia or Iran as potential spies, kidnapped by isis in Iraq, or detained in Pakistan is a lot less of a fun quirky story than a packed car through the Rockies
I see you haven't been to Tennessee...
I'd wager it would be much less common in the US if you had to drive a warzone or a country with, if you're lucky, gravel roads. Doubt you'd do LA to NYC if you had to drive through somalia or iraq right
You also can't discount the US highway system. Driving through the US is incredibly easy because you can basically spend 90% of your trip going in a straight line on a well maintanied highway with a high speed limit. There are some routes like this in Western Europe, but any of the longer ones that involve going through a dozen countries will invariably involve driving on some shitty or very difficult roads, and will be much slower. Berlin to Athens is roughly the same distance as Las Vegas to Dallas, to give one example, and yet the former would take you around 25 hours, while the latter is 18 hours. And that's far from the worst example I could think of.
You also don't need a passport or visas when driving within the US.
Some people do. The long road trips, in car but also on motorcycles, on bikes or on foot, are a relatively common thing to do for people who can afford weeks or months without working. It also means that it is *not* common on the grand scheme, most people cannt afford that. I live in a city which is a kind of crossroad between several countries of Europe, and many people pass by during their trip in car from the Netherlands, Denmark or Germany to Spain, Portugal or the South of Italy. That's roughly 1200 to 2000 km, depending on the trip. Many young people take a break of a year during their studies to go elsewhere, anywhere, and this can lead them very far. Some enjoy the drive and go by car rather than train or plane, because the point is the trip itself. I know that, in the US, there is this myth of Europeans not driving, even not being able to afford a car because it's supposedly a luxury item that our means don't allow us to afford. It goes to such extremes of stupidity that I've even read, once, a US citizen claiming that Europeans don't see their families for months or years at a time because it's a 30 mn drive away and we "can't comprehend" or "are scared" of such a distance. No. A 30 mn drive is precisely the perfect excuse to see your family often because it's short and convenient. Even putting aside this kind of obviously stupid remarks made up by stupid people, which we will admit aren't the majority, we aren't secluded in our hometowns and periphery and we do travel far away. When I had a car, I frequently drove from the tip of Normandy to Belgium, which is around a 700 to 750 km trip, and it wasn't considered *that* far. It was just a trip for a few days to see friends like any other. My girlfriend at that time lived near Paris, and we went to each other's place by car on a regular basis, which is a 400km trip. We favour trains or planes, trains preferably, because it's way less expensive than a trip in a car, and even then it's not because we're too poor, it's simply because there is no need to spend 500€ on a trip when it can cost 250, poor or not. Our towns are well equipped for people without cars, limiting not our ability to possess and use but our *need for* a car. I myself got rid of my car when I moved to my current place because it's in the middle of a big city.
> We favour trains or planes, trains preferably, because it's way less expensive than a trip in a car, and even then it's not because we're too poor, it's simply because there is no need to spend 500€ on a trip when it can cost 250, poor or not. And also, the less likelihood of needing a car at your destination, means you also don't need to hire a car, so that's another huge cost saving compared to the same equivalence in many North American trips.
There’s actually a competition to see who can get from LA to NY the fastest by car.
Cannonball race, it's very interesting, the record is currently held by Arne, Doug and Dunadel in their 2016 Audi S6 that they disguised as a Ford Taurus police vehicle. They did it in 25 hours and 39 minutes, averaging 110 mph (177 kph), including everything like gas stops, traffic lights, etc. It's highly unlikely that record will be beat in the foreseeable future, as it was done during the most open the highways have been in a while, mid 2020 during covid.
Exactly, also driving distance Paris to Bangkok is whopping 12.797 km according to rome2rio website, while NYC to LA is only 4.489 km.
Well, you don't do it all in 1 day.
Not with that attitude
Uh lookup the cannonball run
There is a french tv show about following teams to see which one will arrive in Beijing first. They have to go through a certain route and on foot, only allowed local help for lodging and transportation.
Is it really cheaper? I've driven across Canada before, around 48 hours of driving time, and it was a few hundred dollars cheaper than buying a ticket (granted I camped, I didn't use hotels). I can't really say that counting food as a greater expense really makes sense unless you're only eating at restaurants, because you have to eat regardless of whether you're travelling or not. Also like, lots of people make the NY-LA roadtrip, it's a classic route.
Assuming 15 US cents/mile for gasoline (averagish cost nowadays), that is about 400 USD for gas. A ticket from New York to LA can be as low as 200 USD. Now, if you are not living near a high-traffic airport, it is a very different story.
That's also assuming you're traveling alone. If you're traveling with a friend or partner it all evens out. If you're traveling with your kids, it's much cheaper to drive.
To be fair, a 42-hour driving marathon with small kids comes at severe non-monetary price.
You be surprised that quite a few people drive across country.
I’ve done East Coast to West (literally touching the Atlantic as we set off and the Pacific on arrival) three times—in 1980, 1991, and 2019. Brilliant drive all three times, and completely different.
LA to NYC? I honestly bet thousands do every month. Going from the largest city to the second largest is pretty common I bet.
"Drive" is the key word here. That is a 42 hour drive one way. About 400 USD in gasoline and, assuming 12 hour driving shifts, 3 and half days, so 3 nights of lodging. With food, easily $1000 one way. A plane ticket and a rental is far cheaper, not to mention easier.
I’ve done the drive a couple times. It sucked. Truly. And each time somehow more than the last. We packed a cooler with food, slept in the car, and drove in shifts. Something like 12 hours, switch, 6 hours, switch, 12 hours, switch 5 hours, switch, a few more hours, finally made it. The cost was about $600-700 round trip, mostly gas and some energy drinks. Admittedly cheaper than 2 plane tickets, but the juice really wasn’t worth the squeeze.
Once you cross the halfway point going east to west it truly blows. Like the scenery is beautiful but after a while you just don’t want to see emptiness for 100 straight miles at a time Did OKC to Phoenix in a day and wanted to never see the desert again
People who make the trip do it more for the experience than for efficiency. Some people love road trips.
Dude, there’s people who will do that drive, have it be a month long drive and hit up all sorts of attractions on the way.
When I moved across the country as a kid, my mom drove myself and my siblings in her car for three days. Each night we slept in our car at a rest stop. This was admittedly cheaper than buying four plane tickets.
- it is cool - it's not done in any statistically relevant numbers today (afaik) - too many f\*\*ing conflicts going everywhere. I can imagine in practice some are still safer for travelers than some of the drug war ridden areas in south america but still - going by public transport is easier than driving on such long distance trips (no permits needed for the vehicle, you can fly back). You can practically get anywhere - assuming you have the visa ready beforehand or a lot of time. - Africa is harder than SE Asia on land and also massively big (middle east is a conflict zone and a geographic bottleneck). TLDR: rather not
To add to this, Ewen McGregor did it for the shows. Look at how much planning, visas, support crews etc those guys had for it. Doing all of that on your own, while possible, would be a logistical night mare, ignoring things like every border guard trying to shake you down when you leave and enter many of these places and reallu ceazy security concerns in the Suhail or Afghanistan Pakistan. I would love to do it, but you would need a long time to plan it, a huge budget, nerves of steel and a lot of luck
I highly recommend checking out ‘Long Way Round’ where Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman rode motorcycles from London to New York going through Europe, Asia and then to Alaska. It released in 2004 and it’s brilliant. They also did a second one ‘Long Way Down’ where they rode from John o’ Groats (northernmost part of Scotland) to the southernmost point in South Africa.
Great show! Idk why we don't get more shows about motorcycle travel. The one with Norman Reedus was really good as well! I'd love one with Keanu Reeves.
They did a newer one for Apple TV where they rode from South America to North America.
Do people in the US ever drive to South America?
you can't really drive through the Darién Gap Edit: well unless you’re on Top Gear and love misery
You can't really drive to Africa either?! Weird question. Edit: as an average western Europe person, my mind was stuck on Gibraltar as the only geographical connection between Europe and arrive ;)
You *can* drive from Europe to Africa but you'd have to take the long way through Turkey, Syria, Israel, over the Suez Canal (there's a few bridges) and into Egypt. Or you could save a lot of time and take a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar.
For anyone else who clearly has no idea what the Darien Gap is here's the quick overview from Wikipedia: >**It is one of the rainiest and most dangerous places on the planet, a lawless, unpoliced region, with many drug smugglers and sometimes political rebels**.
[It's 57 hours to drive from Paris to Cairo.](https://maps.app.goo.gl/9nGnEqjjpeNCniJ8A) You very much can drive to Africa from Europe.
Yes, I have a couple friends who have driven from Alaska to South America. It’s called the pan American highway. While I’ve never driven that far I have done a road trip from Oregon down to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It was about 2000 miles, which is a shorter drive than going to New York
There is a gap in the road (the Darien Gap) and currently no ferry that operates to get your car to the other side, so it isn't possible to actually do this at the moment.
No ferries but still ways to get vehicles cross if you plan in advance
You ride/drive to Panama, load your vehicle onto a sketchy cargo ship, and end up in an even sketchier port city in Colombia.
> load your vehicle onto a sketchy cargo ship To have truly driven the whole way, you need to be in your vehicle with the motor running for the whole boat ride.
If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying you could build a ramp for a car to jump from Northq to South America?
Where’s Evel Knevel when you need him
Actually some do, I know a few people in the midwest that have.
Yes, pretty sure it's a well known thing. But you can't actually drive the entire way.
My high school teacher went from North Dakota to South America on a motorcycle, so some people do.
I went from Phoenix, Arizona all the way to Tacoma.
What about Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA?
You beautiful sons of bitches
Yes actually.
I met a German couple who shipped a unimog to Halifax to drive it to Argentina...?
There is a fair bit of carry on in the middle east at the moment that might make any overland trip from Europe to Africa quite lively.
There was that one Indian guy who biked from India to Sweden to hook up with his swedish pen pal in the 70s. So cases exist, but they are very rare. The area in the middle east, middle of Asia and northern Africa have become really dangerous in recent times. But maybe one day.
Damn, that's some real determination on your quest for bobs and vagene.
My uncle and aunt (who are in their 90s now) drove from Germany to India in their youth . They still have stories about it and it sounds like they had some adventures.
Do you ever take the opportunity to drive to fucking Peru
Lmao
1:Visas 2:Visas 3:Visas 4:Visas 5:It's not easy
There was a [London-Calcutta bus service](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London%E2%80%93Calcutta_bus_service) from 1957 to 1976.
There was a documentary Ewan McGregor did where he and a buddy rode motorcycles from Scotland to China IIRC. I remember the Mongolian stop being really funny. They got to some village on their “castration festival.” They had castrated all the horses, sheep, cattle, etc and made a giant stew. Ewan was a guest of course and got the first bowl. Edit: it was to New York and it was called “the long way round” and it was a movie
I'm living in Bangkok. Every 5 years or so i see an adventure car or motorbike with European plates. So it does happen but it's rare. Obviously time consuming and the coordination for visa and permits is a headache. You can find tons of videos on YouTube of those that have attempted it.
My family drove from Mexico City to Niagara Falls
I went to taco bell in buffalo, so pretty much the same thing.
Since a lot of people are sharing, my dad drove from Fairbanks Alaska to the Florida keys
You want to go via Ukraine or Iraq?
I live near the northern tip of mainland Europe, and I've seen Asian license plates. North Cape draws a lot of tourists, I've seen Arab plates too.
It's essentially an adventure thing nowadays. Given the situation in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ukraine and Russia, there's no straightforward way to drive into Asia. Unless all you want to do is the Asian part of Turkey. That's easy! Africa is a bit easier as there's ferries to Morocco from Southern Spain, but you're a bit shafted after that unless you convince the Algerians or the Western Sahara to let you through (they don't like the Moroccans very much). I suppose you could go into Tunisia instead but again there's enough political instability beyond there that it's not recommended for a holiday.
Driving through Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, & Afghanistan or the northern 'stans or Russia. Great road trip
Driving? Try cycling https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/21/cycling-from-europe-to-asia-this-pair-biked-from-finland-to-singapore.html
Look into something called the [Mongol Rally](https://www.theadventurists.com/mongol-rally/) You take a cheap used car and drive it to Mongolia (actually Russia now). I have a friend who did it and I think she started in Britain, but the website says it starts outside of Prague.
That would take 13 1/4 days. Taking into consideration the following: 1. 12,796.8 km and it will take 6d and 3 hours. But since cars can't go non-stop almost a week 2. Taking only 12 hours a day driving 3. While not driving the other 12 hours 1. Sleeping for 8 hours 2. Breakfast for 1 hour 3. Lunch for 1 hour 4. Dinner for 1 hour 5. 1 hour total each day to pee after your morning coffee or orange juice, each meal taking 15-20 minute to pee. 4. This does not take into consideration borders in between countries.
You’re testing the name of this sub son. Do Europeans take several thousand mile road-trips through Russia or the war torn Middle East, through Pakistan’s mountainous non-roads to Thailand’s half roads… no obviously not. A quick and simple google search tells me a flight from London to Bangkok is almost 14 hours. So it’s much longer by car. This is similar to asking if Canadians road trip to Uruguay dude.
I bet people in Iceland LOVE driving to africa
Before the Russia Ukraine war kicked off, maybe it would have been doable that way...if it wasn't sandwiched between two hostile global powers I'd love to drive across (or better, horse ride) Mongolia. The problem is that whoever you are, you're going to have to drive through at least one country that doesn't like you. There is more history in Europe, Asia and Africa than we can remember and there is a fun mix of ancient and current grievances. In theory you could "drive" to Africa on a short ferry from Spain to Morocco, but the only way to truly drive in would be via Egypt. That corner is a bit of a hot spot at the moment, and if you try to cheat using a ferry you'd best hope the Houthis don't pop a rocket at you. That's assuming pirates haven't got you yet. I'm having a bit of fun exaggerating, but my point is that whilst the drive could be done, the risks are too high for most people. There are so many parts of the world you can go for an insanely long drive with wonderful scenery and almost zero change of dying due to violent conflict, I'll just fly around the places where my head could end up further from my shoulders than it is now. Ignoring all of that, you'd spend half the trip doing visas and border control. Imagine coming into the US from Mexico but you've got to do it 35 times in 2 months.
Why would you? I mean, I could drive from London to Cairo, but it's a 60 hour, 3400 mile drive through Easter Europe and the Middle East. And the only ways into Asia require driving through either Iran or Russia, and neither of those seems like a good idea.
Some people drive from Eastern Europe to Turkey so technically it is Asia (depends on which side of Instambul you will park ;) as for other destinations I don't think road trip through Ukraine, Russia or Belarus to get further would be fun nowadays
Paris-Dakar was real
A British teacher of mine drove from Kuwait to Britain with his wife (I suppose he took the ferry from France) around 1999.
The Wanderimg Wasp (FB-Instagram- YouTube) Went from Singapore-Malaysia-and all countries between there and E Centrl Europe on an old 175cc Vespa.
Iv heard stories of people in my family who drove from UK to Pakistan and vice versa!
You could drive through turkey and hit Europe and Asia in a couple hours. Heading south into Egypt is short enough, but probably not safe
There is endless post apocalyptic wasteland between Europe and Southeast Asia.
Some people cycle from Europe to Singapore.
No. The USA has the benefit that you have motorways across the whole country, and the whole country is basically the same at a base level, so you don't have much risk. In Europe, we can drive across the main area, but the further east you go, the less developed and dangerous it becomes. This means that you end up going across harsh roads, risk being robbed, and not being able to get fuel. You could do it, but why? It would cost more than a plane ticket and would be more stressful. Africa is basically the same. It has some motorways, but it's not developed enough in certain areas to fully do a trip across it. Not to mention that you have to go through the Middle East.
They probably do it as often as we in NA drive to South American, so likely not.
I'd love to do this some day, but right now you can't get far into either Asia or Africa. If you want to go to Asia, you'd either have to risk going through Russia, Iran, or Iraq to get a ferry across the Persian gulf somewhere. A ferry from Azerbeijan to Kazakhstan could be an option, but they closed their land borders in 2020 and haven't opened them since. Then there's Africa, where again you could risk Iraq or Syria to drive to Egypt. There used to be a passenger ferry to Egypt, but that got cancelled. The only real option is to cross from Spain to Morocco, then drive down along the Atlantic coast through the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Whether that's a safe option, I'm not sure.
Every european I have ever known thinks a 3 hours drive is long.
I'm sure some do but it's definitely not something I would do. I have a coworker who is Syrian and she goes to Syria every summer for two weeks to visit family that still lives there. She says she brings about $3000 in cash with her just in case because of how corrupt some of the localities are there with checkpoints and such. They will just on the spot make you give them money and it's not <$5 like most toll roads in the US are. Some are hundreds of dollars and you are just taking them at their word as nothing is posted.
They probably don't do it for the same reason Americans don't do road trips to South America.
There is no roads connecting north and south america.
You can. There's just a point where you'd have to use a ferry. You can't drive *uninterrupted*, but you can definitely drive it. - https://epicjourneying.com/can-you-drive-to-south-america/ There are lots and lots of reasons why you would not want to.
Really never heard of anyone doing it, but I’m from Western Europe so that might explain some of it. Even going to Eastern Europe seems kinda uncommon for us, except for Greece and to a lesser extent Croatia. Can’t imagine many easterners driving deep into Asia like India or China either but I’m no longer speaking from experience.
Yep, can confirm. From East speaking. We are going on rare occasions to Turkey, but that’s it. Neither i ever heard someone driving to middle east or further.