Otztal Glacier Road, 2830m (9285ft) – the second highest paved road in the Alps and theoretically open all year (except when we were there). Still great, but you need Winter or All-Season Tyres.

Surprisingly, most mountain roads stay open throughout winter, including here the very highest of them all: Otztal in Austria – 2830m, 9285ft – where scenes from James Bond’s Spectre were filmed earlier this year. See more.

The winter closure of France’s sporty 2360m Col d’Izoard – a favourite of sports car makers, with a unique lunar landscape – marks the end of 2015’s extra-long mountain driving season.

Figure of Eight: just off the A2 motorway near the Gotthard Tunnel in south central Switzerland are five major, storied, famous mountain roads which can be driven in a continuous loop: Gotthard (and Tremola), Nufenen, Grimsel, Susten and – last but not least, depending on which way you drive it – Furka. Start early, get lucky with the traffic and it’s possible – and highly recommended – to do it all in one day (FYI Andermatt, above, is the north stretch of the Gotthard Pass, aka Schollenen Gorge; Oberalppass heads east from Andermatt (the Figure of Eight roads are all west); Goschenen is the main road which runs parallel to the A2 motorway, very handy with big queues to the Gotthard Tunnel). See this overview on the logistics of driving the whole route.

Norway’s Lysevegen Road. Twenty seven hairpins.

Switzerland’s Julier Pass. ‘An easy way above 2000m’.

Switzerland-Italy Simplon Pass. ‘Most beautiful mountain pass motorway (except when we were there)’.