
January is a long month, even longer when your car has been safely hibernating in Windrush’s secure car storage facilities. If it feels like a lifetime since you were last acquainted with your beloved motor, you’ll need no excuses to get your car on the road again. Just in time for 14th February, we’ve compiled a handful of romantic road trips with special places to stay and eat.
1. The Cotswold Romantic Road, Gloucestershire

Drive the UK’s most romantic road in Lower Slaughter
This circular route takes in the best of the Cotswolds countryside and passes a stone’s throw away from our Cotswolds car storage facility. There are various interpretations of what this route entails but the original ‘Cotswold Romantic Road’ gives you a circular driving route, starting and finishing in the Regency town of Cheltenham.
True to its name, this romantic road trip takes you through dreamy Cotswold chocolate box villages such as Winchombe, Broadway, Chipping Camden, Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water. It’s a shortish route, but with so many areas of interest along the way, you can take all the time in the world.
At Winchcombe, you could take in the grandeur of Sudeley Castle, once home to Lady Jane Grey and Katherine Parr, or stop at Broadway to take in the views of the iconic Broadway Tower. Back on the road, factor in a pitstop at Sezincote House, a 200-year-old Indian Mogul palace set in a romantic landscape of temples, grottoes, waterfalls and canals reminiscent of the Taj Mahal, before detouring for something altogether more ‘Cotswolds’, with lunch at the fashionable Daylesford Farm.
Once you’re refueled, drive through the ‘Slaughters’ , making sure to slow down through Copsehill Road in Lower Slaughter, voted ‘the most romantic road in the UK’ by EnjoyTravel. Back in Cheltenham, spend the night at No 131, The Promenade, a sumptuous Georgian boudoir of a hotel and the place to park your motor of an evening.
2. The Cheddar Gorge road, Somerset

The Cheddar Gorge road takes you through England’s deepest natural canyon
The Cheddar Gorge Road, also known as Cliff Road, is considered one of the most scenic roads in Britain. Situated just 10 miles south of Bristol, it was named the ‘best driving road in the UK’ in 2018. Good-looking and curvaceous, the B3135 winds its way across 14 miles of Somerset countryside and features 22 dramatic bends.
The first section follows the contours of one of the country’s most spectacular natural landmarks, the Cheddar Gorge. Carved out by glacial meltwater during the last Ice Age, the limestone cliffs of Cheddar Gorge form England’s deepest natural canyon. At almost 400 feet deep and 3 miles long, this is England’s largest gorge, in places towering 138m above the twisting B3135.
Care is needed when cornering here, especially in winter, as there are twists and turns aplenty, with steep cliff faces on either side of the road. The placement of your car is vital – think agility not power. After four miles or so, there’s a change in intensity as trees take the place of rocks and tight turns unfold into sweeping bends. Take your time to sit back and enjoy the view before entering the final stage featuring long straights and gentle gradients.
The total journey time is around 40 minutes but it’s well worth it, especially if you combine the drive with the chance to explore Somerset’s achingly hip watering holes. We recommend stopping for food at The Newt, a 17th-century manor house that is now regularly voted one of the best hotels in the UK. Then continue your journey to Bruton, dubbed ‘the coolest town in the west country’ by Condé Nast Traveller. For a small market town, Bruton has an unfair share of exceptional places to stay and eat, but we’d say make a beeline for At the Chapel, the hotel/restaurant/gallery that’s the beating heart of Bruton’s scene.
3. Cat & Fiddle road, Cheshire/Derbyshire

The Cat & Fiddle Road is not for the faint-hearted
This notorious road on the edge of the Peak District will certainly get your pulse racing. That’s because this fast and twisty 10 mile section of Tarmac that links Macclesfield in Cheshire to Buxton in Derbyshire is also regularly voted one of the UK’s most dangerous roads.
Not surprisingly, it’s a mecca for motorbikers and cyclists, but can also be teeming with tourists and heavy goods vehicles especially in the summer season. Perched at 515 metres above sea level, it is open to the elements and can be treacherous in winter. If you decide to tackle this beast of a road, then do exercise caution and stick to the speed limit – the number of speed cameras now posted along the route will be a constant reminder in any event.
So you may be wondering why have we included the Cat & Fiddle as a romantic road itinerary? Well, it featured in a car chase scene in the 1987 James Bond film, ‘The Living Daylights’; it passes by England’s second highest pub, the Cat & Fiddle, where you can stop for lunch, and it deposits you at the gateway to some of the country’s most breathtaking scenery within the Peak District National Park.
The route ends at Buxton, deservedly renowned for its beautiful Georgian and Victorian architecture – much of it linked with the 5th Duke of Devonshire’s ambitions to create a spa town to rival Bath back in the 18th century. Take the waters in the magnificent new Buxton Crescent Hotel & Thermal Spa Hotel, a Grade I listed five-star hotel and spa with rooftop pool, or continue your journey to Wildhive Callow Hall, a relaxed country house hotel with treehouses, voted one of the UK’s most romantic hotels by ‘The Telegraph’.
4. York to Robin Hood’s Bay road, Yorkshire

Robin Hoods Bay on the North York Moors National Park coast
At just over 50 miles, this is the longest of our romantic road trips, with roads that sweep across North Yorkshire’s open moorland via Viking towns and gothic haunts to the picturesque coastal town of Robin Hood’s Bay.
Your starting point is the beautiful walled city of York. With Roman roots and a Viking past, this compact city makes a good base for exploring the area and is home to a number of award-winning restaurants, notably those under the stewardship of Tommy Banks, such as the award-winning Roots.
On leaving York, head to Castle Howard, whose approach is considered to be one of the most dramatic in England. Continue your journey towards the North York Moors via two more Tommy Banks eateries – the two-Michelin-star Black Swan at Oldstead and the Abbey Inn, a historic country inn with rooms overlooking the romantic ruins of Byland Abbey.
Pretty Helmsley is your next pitstop before you reach James Herriott country and the North York Moors National Park. Covering an area of 554 square miles, it’s where you can really get a sense of being on the open road. At this time of year you’ll have the road to yourselves, bar a few wandering sheep, but even in the height of summer – when the moors are painted in glorious pink and purple heathers – there’s still a sense of spaciousness which is so rare to find in England today.
The North York Moors extend all the way to the coast where you’ll come upon the pretty fishing village of Robin Hood’s Bay (RHB to the locals). It’s worth getting out and stretching your legs here to take in the sea air before jumping back in the car and driving to your hotel for the night at Grantley Hall, Ripon. Yes, there are places to stay closer to where you are, as well as in York itself, but this hidden jewel is well worth the extra effort. With numerous awards for the Michelin-starred Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall restaurant, it is the recent recipient of Condé Nast Johansens Awards for Excellence 2025 Winner of Best Hotel Spa, and is featured in LA LISTE 2025 for the world’s best restaurant selection.
5. Box Hill’s ZigZag road, Surrey

View from Box Hill across the Surrey Hills
Just 40 miles from the capital, this makes for an easy day road trip from Windrush’s London car storage facility. The stunning North Downs in Surrey are your playground for the day with this rollercoaster of a road being the main event.
At just over 4 miles long, what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality: Zigzag road is a wonderful piece of engineering that twists and turns its way up a hill side with an average gradient of 4.9%. Although on a much smaller scale, it has even been compared to Alpe d’Huez in the French Alps.
Once you’ve had your play, extend your drive by visiting nearby Leith Hill where you can stop to climb all 78 steps of the spiral stairs at Leith Hill Tower. On a clear day, from the top you’ll have sweeping views of the English Channel to the south and the clock face of Big Ben in Westminster to the north.
For the ultimate romantic road trip, finish the day by visiting the pretty village of Shere, once voted ‘one of the coolest places to live’. This quaint Surrey village was made famous by not just one, but two Hollywood blockbuster films – here you can recapture the closing scenes of romcom ‘Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason’, and for the true romantics out there, play out Cameron Diaz and Jude Law’s holiday romance from 2006’s feelgood film, ‘The Holiday’.
You could of course then head back into the capital but why not extend your playtime by staying the night at Beaverbrook, a quintessentially English estate overlooking the Surrey Hills, and the former home of celebrated publisher and backstage politician, 1st Baron Beaverbrook.
Need help planning a road trip?

At Windrush, we offer more than just secure car storage. We work hard to ensure clients can enjoy their cars however they want, whenever they want. That’s why we keep all our cars on the button and ready to go and think nothing of transporting your vehicle to meet you so you can enjoy a road trip without the hassle. Just get in touch to find out more about our six star service.