10 Of The Longest Highways In The World

We can use trains to cross continents, boats to sail the seas, and airplanes to fly across the world, but there's nothing like getting behind the wheel of a car and hitting the highway for a good old-fashioned road trip. Across the world, there are endless miles and miles of road just begging to be traversed on four wheels (plus plenty of abandoned roads that tell their own story). If your destination is on the same continent as your departure point, there's a good chance you can get where you want to go with nothing more than a car and a lot of gas money. And snacks. Don't forget snacks.

Highway networks are like the veins of a continent, and cars are the blood pumping through its system. Within these highway networks, individual roads stretch tens of thousands of miles across multiple countries. It can sometimes feel isolating to live in the modern world, but if you want to travel somewhere thousands of miles away, all you need to do is hit the highway, though the roads in this list will likely exceed the longest road trip you're willing to take. 

If you find yourself on a road trip in India, chances are you're going to spend some time on the Golden Quadrilateral. This road is essentially a four-sided loop within India, connecting four major cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, spanning nearly 3,633 miles. The Golden Quadrilateral is a relatively recent addition to the global community of highways, having been largely completed by 2004 and finished in 2012. 

Long stretches of the highway have four or six lanes, dramatically improving long-distance connectivity across the country, although traffic conditions can vary along the way. In particular, the stretch between Mumbai and Gujarat has been described as 'in a state of disrepair' as recently as 2024, with gaping potholes causing fatal accidents and congestion that keep the road from reaching its full potential. If you're going to drive it, make sure to check the road conditions beforehand, lest you get stuck sitting in traffic jams for hours on end.

The Golden Quadrilateral project has been tainted by an alleged history of corruption within the National Highways Authority of India group. Concerning the Golden Quadrilateral, a man named Satyendra Dubey made inquiries into potential corruption, which made him a target of the "Mafia Raj," which turned public works projects like the Golden Quadrilateral into ways to line their own pockets with misappropriated government funds. In 2003, the 31-year-old Dubey was murdered. While nobody within the Indian mob was ever formally indicted for the crime, Dubey became a posthumous folk hero, and his story has been immortalized in documentaries and the music of Rabbi Shergill, a noteworthy Indian rock star.

As its name suggests, the Trans-Canada Highway spans the entire country. If you want to take one road from the west coast to the east coast, this highway will get you there, taking you through some of Canada's most famous scenery along the way. It wasn't fully completed until 1971, but even when it first opened in 1962, the Trans-Canada Highway was the longest continuous national highway in the world. Today, the road stretches for about 4,860 miles, and even encompasses ferry rides that will carry your car across the water into places such as Newfoundland and Vancouver Island — just beware of some Canadian traffic rules that may seem foreign to Americans.

While driving along the Highway, you can find many roadside landmarks and tourist attractions that serve as a distraction during long, cross-country drives. They include the world's largest Canada Goose, which resides next to Wawa's Tourist Information Center, as well as the Saamis Teepee in Medicine Hat, Alberta. The teepee, originally built for the 1988 Calgary Olympics, is over 200 feet tall and is illuminated at night, making it a glowing beacon for highway travelers. 

The International E-road network encompasses a large series of highway networks across Europe, Central Asia, and Asia Minor. Created by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the first agreement defining these international routes was signed in 1950, with its modern numbering system introduced in 1975. The network was developed to standardize international road travel and support postwar economic cooperation, linking countries through a more coordinated highway system.

European Route E60 goes all the way from Brest, France, in the west to Irkeshtam, Kyrgyzstan, on the border with China in the east. That's a total of about 5,100 miles of road to drive across. It's the second-longest road in the E-road network, and it'll take you through Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Romania, among others. 

The Cairo-Dakar Highway runs for 5,366 miles and offers one heck of a view, since it runs along the northern and western coasts of Africa. A full, end-to-end drive will give you grand views of the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. You might even get to see whales or dolphins off the coast of Morocco or Egypt. It makes for a challenging drive for an adventure-seeker, punctuated by the arid desert heat and political roadblocks. Some parts of the highway are unpaved, while others are at risk due to political violence in regions like Mali and Burkina Faso, so buyer beware: you may have to find some alternate routes.

Once upon a time, the road connected the nations of Algeria and Morocco, but relations have become less than cordial in recent years, with the border closed since 1994. While the two countries are not at outright war with one another today, they aren't on speaking terms, either. If you want to drive the African coast via the Cairo-Dakar Highway, you'll need to find a detour around the Algeria-Morocco border.

European Route E40 spans 5,369 miles from France into Germany, then Poland and Ukraine, and then Russia, before ending in the east of Kazakhstan. It's a great road for traveling through Europe, taking you through tourist-friendly cities like Brussels, Bruges, Dresden, and Krakow. In better days, the road would also give travelers access to some of Ukraine's more bustling cities, including Kyiv and Lviv, and the beautiful sunflower fields that define Ukraine's sweeping countryside.

Unfortunately, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has disrupted Route E40. Parts of the highway run through the Donbas region of Ukraine, which Russia has occupied since 2014. While much of the road is fully drivable in Western Europe, things get a bit dicey once you cross into Ukraine, where Russian violence prevents full access to Europe's longest road.

Also known as one of China's "Sky Roads," National Highway 219 is a single route running from Kom-Kanas in the northwest tip of China all the way to Dongxing in the south. All told, some estimates say it spans 6,214 miles of road, though its construction is ongoing. Originally constructed largely for military logistics, G219 also serves civilian transport and tourism, though its security role remains significant.

The road was constructed between 1951 and 1957, but it wasn't fully paved until 2013. National Highway 219 was controversial from the jump, with its construction being one of the factors that led to 1962's Sino-Indian War, since the road was being constructed along the border of China and India, or rather, land that was claimed by both China and India, despite the inhospitable mountain range that comprised the disputed territory. Nevertheless, land is land, and neither country would give up its claim to the territory without a fight. To this day, China maintains control over Aksai Chin, while India continues to assert its claim, leaving the region diplomatically unresolved despite China's de facto administration.

In 1913, Captain Kelsey led an expedition to be the first man to drive from Cairo to Cape Town. His journey ended in tragedy when Kelsey died after a leopard attack in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). It would take another decade for someone to complete the journey. The honor would ultimately go to the expedition of Major Chaplin Court Treatt and his wife, Stella Court Treatt. These days, it's a bit easier to drive from Cairo to Cape Town, thanks to the Cairo-Cape Town Highway.

The Cairo-Cape Town Highway, also known as Trans-African Highway 4, is exactly what it sounds like. It's a road intended to connect Cairo in northern Africa with Cape Town at the continent's southern tip. Rather than a single continuous motorway, it consists of a network of national roads across multiple African countries. While significant portions have been completed, the route remains unfinished in places, with some stretches still unpaved or poorly maintained due to economic challenges, infrastructure limitations, and ongoing political instability in parts of the region.

The Trans-Siberian Highway is an unofficial designation for a network of federal roads running east from Moscow to Vladivostok, effectively connecting Russia's Baltic-adjacent west with its Pacific coast. This network of roads serves as an alternative to the Trans-Siberian Railway, which has served the country since 1916. By contrast, the highway was only fully paved in 2010. For the record, the highway spans 6,800 miles, while the Railway, the longest such railway in the world, spans 5,772 miles.

However, when given the choice between driving or taking the train, the railroad might be the safer option. In December 2025, the highway was crippled by a major traffic jam that spanned for 50 miles, leaving Russian drivers stuck in the bitter Siberian cold all night. Speaking of the bitter cold, it can make driving conditions unpredictable, which is another reason to just take the train instead.

While Australia might not be known for its car industry, it does have one of the longest highways in the world, courtesy of Highway 1, which basically encircles the entire continent. The road spans over 9,000 miles, some of it encompassing the scenic coast of Australia. Due to its circuitous design, Highway 1 is sometimes called The Big Lap, which has led to groups informally racing around the highway. In 2017, a group called "Highway 1 to Hell" in tribute to the AC/DC song, "Highway to Hell," set a record by navigating the entire highway — and circling all of Australia — in five days, 13 hours, and 43 minutes.

Highway 1 has existed since 1955, and some Australians lament its iconic designation, "National Route 1," being diluted by other names in different parts of the country. It's still the same continuous network of roads, but due to changes in the way roads are labeled, parts of Highway 1 have different monikers. The 'alpha-numeric' numbering system might be more convenient when it comes to identifying the geography of Highway 1, but one can argue that some of the charm of this singular slab of nigh-endless asphalt uniting all of Australia is lost when it's split up into different sections.

If you want to embark on a cozy drive from the north of Alaska to the south of Argentina, well, you can't. But you can come pretty close by driving the Pan-American Highway, the longest highway in the world, which runs for about 19,000 miles. However, there is a caveat, which we hinted at before. For the most part, yes, you can drive from Alaska to Argentina. But not entirely. You'll have to contend with the Darién Gap. This stretch of inhospitable land is the only land bridge between Panama and Colombia, and the Pan-American Highway does not extend into this jungle, which can only be crossed on foot. 

While the Pan-American Highway is the longest road in the world, it remains impossible to drive from Alaska to Argentina in one continuous trip. Those who want to travel from Alaska to Argentina must charter a boat or a plane to get around the Darién Gap.