Brazil
Serra do Rio do Rastro
Over two hundred hairpin bends carved into a sheer cliff face that descends through clouds.
The road appears impossible from below — a thin white line zigzagging up a near-vertical cliff face and vanishing into cloud. Serra do Rio do Rastro in Santa Catarina is 256 curves carved into a 1,450-metre escarpment, each hairpin tighter than the last, each viewpoint revealing the full madness of the one before. The fog rolls in without warning, and for long minutes you are driving blind through white, the drop somewhere just beyond the barrier.
Serra do Rio do Rastro is widely regarded as one of the most dramatic mountain roads in South America. The SC-390 highway climbs twelve kilometres between the subtropical lowlands and the Planalto Serrano highlands, passing through three distinct climate zones in under twenty minutes. Three formal mirantes (viewpoints) are built into the switchbacks, each looking back across the full cascade of previous curves. Motorcyclists and driving enthusiasts treat the road as a pilgrimage. The highland town of Bom Jardim da Serra at the summit offers trout restaurants and Italian-heritage cooking — fuel for the descent or reward for the ascent.
Solo
Driving or riding Serra do Rio do Rastro alone is a focused, almost meditative experience. Each curve demands concentration, each viewpoint demands you stop. The road rewards precision and patience.
Couple
One drives, one watches the view unravel. Stopping at the mirantes to photograph the road you just navigated — then doing it again from the other direction — makes an unforgettable shared memory.
Friends
A convoy of motorcycles or a carload of mates trading who-drives-next down 256 curves. The adrenaline is collective, and the stories at the trout restaurant afterwards write themselves.
- The road climbs 1,450 metres in twelve kilometres through 256 curves — motorcyclists rate it among the top five roads in South America.
- Fog frequently fills the valley below — driving above the cloud line in mid-morning, then descending into white.
- Three formal viewpoints are built into the switchbacks — the furthest looks back over all the previous curves simultaneously.
- The descent by car takes under twenty minutes — many visitors drive up, stop at every viewpoint, drive back down, and repeat.
Trout and polenta at highland restaurants in Bom Jardim da Serra before the descent.
Sopa de capeletti and vinho colonial at Italian-heritage eateries in the Planalto Serrano.
Hot pinhão and café at the mirante (viewpoint) as fog rolls through the hairpins below.
Mount Meru
Tanzania
Kilimanjaro's volcanic neighbour where giraffes graze the lower slopes and the summit pierces cloud.
Tomanivi
Fiji
Cloud forest so thick the trail vanishes, Fiji's highest peak at 1,324 metres above the canopy.
Mount Yasur
Vanuatu
Molten rock spits skyward every few minutes from a crater you can walk to at dusk.
Jebel Shams
Oman
Arabia's Grand Canyon — a kilometre-deep chasm where vultures circle below your feet.
Itacaré
Brazil
Atlantic Forest waterfalls tumbling onto empty surf beaches along the old cacao coast.
Serra do Cipó
Brazil
Campos rupestres — ancient stone meadows found nowhere else on Earth — carpeting a mountain spine.
Lençóis Maranhenses
Brazil
Thousands of rain-filled lagoons between white dunes stretching to the horizon like another planet.
Jericoacoara
Brazil
Windswept dunes where the sun melts into the sea from a natural stone arch.