Five roads in Northern Greece worth a full tank

There's a video we've all seen: a drone over the Stelvio, 48 hairpins, golden light. What the video doesn't show is the queue of motorhomes, the motorcyclists on a mission, and the cyclist defending the centre line with the passion of a union rep. Our roads have none of that. They have something better: they're empty. Northern Greece hides driving routes that in another country would have their own merchandising - here they get, at most, a canteen truck and a shepherd giving you a puzzled look. Five of them, tested with our own fuel.

1. Cholomontas (Halkidiki) - the morning coffee road

The road that taught us what a morning drive means - from Polygyros towards Arnaia, rhythmic second-and-third-gear corners through beech forest on good tarmac. We've lived it with a matte blue M4 and a black 718 on a dawn we won't forget, and the rule always holds: before 09:00 the road is yours; after that you share it with the day-trippers. Mandatory finish at Arnaia's square. Coffee after a good road has a different density - it's measurable, we've verified it scientifically across dozens of weekends.

2. Kaimaktsalan (Pella) - the Greek Alps, minus the motorhomes

The biggest staircase in Northern Greece: from Agios Athanasios you climb towards 2,000 metres through back-to-back hairpins, the scenery turning alpine while the altitude quietly eats your naturally-aspirated horsepower - roughly 3% per 300 metres, documented with pain. Spring and autumn are the ideal window. In winter the road lives for the ski centre, with everything that means for traffic and snow chains. Palaios Agios Athanasios below is one of the loveliest overnight bases - stone, fireplaces, and a morning start with a view.

3. Metsovo - Katara: the road the Egnatia killed, thankfully

Before the Egnatia motorway, the Katara Pass was every truck driver's nightmare and the reason Ioannina-Thessaloniki took half a day. Today, with all the traffic down in the tunnels, the old road sits nearly empty at 1,700 metres: open, fast, clean corners with sightlines, and the Pindus range all around. The trick: go via Egnatia, come back over Katara - the tunnel-to-ridge contrast is half the experience. In Metsovo: hilopites and local cheese, non-negotiable.

4. Nymfaio - Aetos (Florina): small, technical, underrated

Nobody goes to Florina 'for the road'. Wrong. The climb to Nymfaio is narrow, technical, constant work at the wheel - you never reach fourth gear and you never miss it. At the top, one of the prettiest villages in the country: stone-built and unexpectedly cosmopolitan. Combine it with a descent towards the Prespa lakes and you get a full driving day, at the end of which you won't know whether you came for the corners or the scenery. Correct answer: yes.

5. Paranesti - Tholos (Drama): the road that shouldn't exist

The least known of the list, and the most special. It follows the Nestos river through one of Europe's most untouched forests - it isn't a fast road, it's a journey: a ribbon of tarmac where the map shows nothing but green. It's our 'slow car, fast road' phenomenon in reverse - out here even the Jimny would be plenty, just like on the Great Ocean Road. Fill up in Drama or Paranesti. After that, nothing - and that's the whole point.

Our rules

Start early - every road above is a different road before 10:00. Fill up before the mountain, because 'I'll find fuel further up' is our national myth. And the big one, the thing we say in every article and always will: the road is not a race track. The limit isn't your car - it's the blind spot of the next corner, and whatever might be in it. Which road did we miss? Send us yours - with this series we intend to map the whole of Greece, and the next route could be yours. Maps: groundspeed · route data © OpenStreetMap contributors.