Also known as Death Road, the North Yungas Road is often touted as the most dangerous road in the world. Built in the 1930s by prisoners of war who hacked a flat path into the side of a mountain, most of it is still unpaved and lacks guard rails. To add to the excitement, most of the road is only wide enough for a single vehicle to negotiate. To enable drivers to more safely navigate the treacherous route, the usual rule about driving on the right is flipped on its head. This allows the driver of the outside vehicle a better view of the terrifying drop-offs—of up to 2000 feet—just inches away from their front wheel, and a better chance of avoiding a rapidly approaching view of the bottom.

Wet weather in the winter seasons brings the possibility of mudslides and rockfalls, not to mention random waterfalls spilling over the road and turning the surface to mud. 200-300 people are killed on this road every year, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a popular route for thrill-seeking downhill mountain bikers, who are drawn by a nearly continuous 40-mile downhill stretch. One man’s deadly commute, as they say, is another man’s holiday.

The Sichuan-Tibet Highway was opened in 1954 and connects southwest China with Tibet. The road is largely unsurfaced, and traverses several mountain passes on it’s way from A to B, which gives rise to a number of problems for the casual traveller, including getting frequently stuck in the mud, getting into fights with other drivers in the traffic jams behind cars stuck in the mud, and getting altitude sickness from being 5000 meters (three miles) high, which is much further away from sea level than most oxygen can be bothered to climb.

The road extends for over 2140 kilometers (1330 miles) and in order to climb the numerous mountains in its path, has resorted to innumerable hairpins and switchbacks, which combined with steep slopes and bad weather, results in frequent mud slides that can sweep vehicles into oblivion. Plus, it totally looks like a tapeworm when viewed from up high, making it both dangerous and disgusting.

Should you decide to brave the route, and assuming you are well prepared, you will be rewarded with unsurpassed mountain vistas and a tourist experience that leaves all others in the shadows…or despite your best laid plans, you could still just get stuck in the mud for days with a splitting headache from lack of oxygen.

Fairy Meadows Road wins prizes for the most inappropriately picturesque name for a deadly road, and also the most misleading. That’s because, although you can start your journey up this nearly 10-mile route in a robust four-wheel drive vehicle, it gets so narrow that by the end, even a vehicle can’t get through and you must finish the journey on foot.

Fairy Meadows Road is the approach route for anyone planning to climb Nanga Parbat, Pakistan’s second-highest mountain, so at least most of the travellers won’t be fazed by the height, or even the hike. But even so, the barely maintained road tiptoeing above treacherous drop-offs, with no guardrails whatsoever, must have even the most experienced mountain climber doing a few unplanned butt-clenching exercises. And what’s more, it’s technically a private road, meaning there are tollbooths. People pay to almost die on this road! Hardly the thrill-a-minute most of us would want to fork over money for.

High mountains and gravel roads aren’t the only way to create a dangerous road, and like Skippers Canyon Road in New Zealand, England’s A44 is far from remote. In fact, the A44 is a relatively well-maintained, well-travelled road in the middle of a developed western nation. However, it’s also frequently narrow, winding, and covered in fog.

Starting in Oxford, and running west to Aberystwyth in Wales, the A44 is a major route for all kinds of traffic, including daily commuters, truckers, boy racers, farm vehicles, and everything in between. Speeds vary from 30-70 MPH, and while some sections have extra lanes for passing, most of it’s almost perfectly designed to create tailbacks. This leads to impatient drivers taking risks, attempting dangerous passes, or simply driving too fast which, when combined with the not infrequent bad weather and fog, results in frequent (as in, near-daily) accidents. At least there are no armed bandits … just the unarmed, fast-motorcycle kind.