Australia’s Great Ocean Road is the second-most Instagrammed road trip in the world behind the famous Route 66, according to new UK research.
Click4reg.co.uk collected 15 of the best-known roads and journeys around the world and analysed the number of hashtags for each road trip with #name and #name + road trip.
Route 66 and the GOR were the only road trips to have over a million tags.
Instagrammed road trips
Road Trip |
Location |
Tags |
Route 66 |
USA |
1,708,620 |
Great Ocean Road |
Australia |
1,291,178 |
Pacific Coast Highway |
USA |
325,917 |
Valley of Fire |
USA |
219,333 |
Ring Road |
Iceland |
154,230 |
Ruta 40 |
Argentina |
108,666 |
North Coast 500 |
Scotland |
88,315 |
Trollstigen |
Norway |
85,933 |
Cabot Trail |
Canada |
76,840 |
Death Road |
Bolivia |
44,587 |
Causeway Coastal Route |
Northern Ireland |
35,423 |
Romantic Road |
Germany |
28,369 |
Route 62 |
South Africa |
28,234 |
Atlantic Road |
Norway |
28,008 |
Snake Pass |
England |
12,343 |
While these may be the most Instagrammed road trips, they are not necessarily the best motorcycle road trips.
For example, Route 66 really no longer exists and where it does it’s in disrepair.
It is also largely flat and straight as it was designed so cars and limousines like Limo Find could travel from Chicago to LA without having to go over the Rocky Mountains.
While the Great Ocean Road is a wonderfully twisty road with spectacular ocean scenery, it has largely been ruined by reduced speed limits and heavy police patrols. According to local Chicago attorney, Shuman Legal, over 1,100 lives have been lost on Illinois’ roadways in crashes due to speeding since 2013.
And then there are the international tourists who dawdle, drive on the wrong side of the road and stop in dangerous places to take photos.
I would prefer the Pacific Coast Highway or “Big Sur” from LA to San Francisco with its similarly spectacular views, smelly sea lions on the beach, smooth road surface, wide pavement for easy overtaking, twisty and challenging contour and light police presence – at least I’ve never seen a cop on that road in the three times I’ve done it.
Europe has been revealed as the continent with the most Instagrammable road trips, claiming seven of the top 15 within the list.
England’s Snake Pass was the lowest tagged road trip with just 12,343 hashtags.
Of course there are many other great road trip routes that could have been included, but may not be Instagrammable.
For example, the Stelvio Pass from Italy to Switzerland is our favourite road of all. But stopping to take photos for Instagram is a bit difficult because it is so narrow.