Wing Mirror Diplomacy: The British Roads We Love (and the Ones We'd Rather Forget)

There's a special kind of silence that falls in a motorhome when the road narrows and the hedges close in. It's the silence of the driver recalculating, the passenger sucking in a breath, and both of you silently wondering whose bright idea this was.

After a lot of miles — and more than one folded wing mirror (not ours, we hasten to add, but we've heard stories) — we've got opinions about which British roads deserve your motorhome and which should be quietly avoided. Here they are, with feeling.

The Good List: Five Routes Worth Every Mile

1. The A487 and A496, West Wales

The Llŷn Peninsula and the Cardigan Bay coast prove that a coastal road can be dramatic and generously wide. The A487 from Aberystwyth down towards Cardigan rolls along with proper sightlines, plenty of passing opportunities, and views over the sea that make the passenger's job — navigator and snack distributor — an absolute pleasure.

2. The A39, Somerset and North Devon

"The Atlantic Highway" sounds like marketing, but it mostly earns it. From the levels of Somerset down through Exmoor's fringes to Barnstaple, it's a proper A-road: wide, well-surfaced, and threaded through some of England's most underrated scenery. Exmoor's hairpins near Lynmouth are the spicy exception — take the coast section slowly and it's magnificent.

3. The A82, Loch Lomond to Glencoe

If we could bottle the feeling of driving the A82 up the length of Loch Lomond and into Glencoe, we'd retire tomorrow. It's a main road, properly maintained, with laybys that actually exist — and the scenery is about as good as Britain gets. Rannoch Moor at dawn in a motorhome, kettle on, is the whole reason we're in this business.

4. The Cotswold 'B-Road Backbone'

Hear us out. The Cotswolds have a reputation for lane-related trauma, and the tiny village cut-throughs deserve it. But stick to the B-road spine — the B4066, B4068 and A429 corridor between Cirencester, Stow-on-the-Wold and Broadway — and you get honey-coloured villages without the escapology. The rule: if a road has a name like "Narrow Bottom Lane," the satnav is lying to you. Use the A and B roads, park at the town car parks, walk everywhere else.

5. The A174 and A595, Cumbria's West Coast

Everyone drives to the Lakes from the east. Come from the west instead. The A595 threads between the fells and the Irish Sea with barely a caravan in sight, and it hands you the Lake District's best bits — Wastwater, Ravenglass, the Eskdale valley — without ever negotiating Keswick's car park chaos.

The Avoid List: Three Roads We'd Rather Not Meet Again

1. The Quiraing and Old Man of Storr approaches, Skye

Skye is wonderful. The single-track roads funnelling tour buses, hire cars and campervans towards its most famous viewpoints are not — or not for the inexperienced, at least. In high summer you can spend an hour in a queue of traffic on a road barely wide enough for one vehicle, with passing places occupied by parked cars. Go in October, or save Skye for your second trip.

2. Satnav's Favourite Shortcut Through Rural Norfolk and Suffolk

East Anglia looks flat and friendly on the map. It is not friendly to anything over two metres wide. The lanes of the Norfolk coast hinterland — the ones the satnav confidently selects as a "faster route" — are single-track with no passing places, no verges, and hedges that strip paint. We know of one driver who met a tractor, reversed for a quarter of a mile, and gave up on holidays entirely. Set your satnav to "avoid narrow roads" and stick to the A149.

3. The Hardknott and Wrynose Passes, Lake District

This one isn't an opinion; it's a public service announcement. Hardknott Pass is the steepest road in England, with hairpins approaching 30% gradients, blind summits and — at the top — a Roman fort to distract you at exactly the wrong moment. In a car, it's thrilling. In a motorhome, it's a genuinely bad idea, and some rental agreements exclude it outright. The views are available elsewhere in Cumbria, we promise, without the mechanical drama.

The Golden Rules of Narrow Road Survival

Wherever you roam, a few habits will save your paintwork and your marriage:

• Reverse willingly. If the other vehicle is bigger or closer to a passing place, back up. It's not a competition.
• Trust the passenger. The person outside the vehicle judges gaps better than the person inside it. Listen to them.
• Fold the mirrors on anything that looks tight. Five seconds of effort versus a wing mirror hanging by a cable.
• Ignore the satnav's ETA. It doesn't know you're driving a 3.5-tonne vehicle down a lane built for a cart. Arrive when you arrive.

Britain's roads are some of the most varied and beautiful in the world, and a motorhome is the best possible way to enjoy them — provided you pick your battles. Drive the wide ones, walk the narrow ones, and never, ever trust a shortcut.