Say "Surrey" to most people and they picture the M25, a commuter train, and a Waitrose car park. Fair enough. But that reputation is the best thing that ever happened to the county's driving roads, because it keeps everyone looking the wrong way. Forty-five minutes from central London there's a web of single-track lanes climbing through beech woods and dropping into hamlets that don't appear on anyone's weekend plans. The Surrey Hills are a designated National Landscape for a reason, and the roads that thread through them are some of the most underrated in the south of England.
Most "best driving roads in Surrey" lists give you the same three names and stop. This isn't that. We'll get the famous one out of the way honestly, then spend the rest of our time on the lanes that don't get photographed.
In this guide
The one everyone knows — and why it's still worth it
Let's not pretend Box Hill doesn't exist. The Zig Zag Road that climbs out of Dorking, past the Burford Bridge Hotel and the legendary Ryka's café, is a genuinely brilliant stretch of tarmac — a set of tightening hairpins that rewards a smooth line and punishes a clumsy one, finishing at a viewpoint that looks clean across to the South Downs. Ryka's has been a cornerstone of British motorbike culture since 1920, and on a dry Sunday the car park is a rolling motor show.
That popularity is also the catch. By ten on a weekend morning, Box Hill belongs to cyclists, coachloads, and a queue of cars doing fifteen miles an hour. The road is too good to skip, but the trick is timing: go early — properly early, first light in summer — or go midweek, and you'll have the hairpins to yourself with the woods still dripping and the views hazy and empty. Drive it once, enjoy it, then turn off. Because the real Surrey is what's hiding in the lanes either side.
Ranmore Common Road: the ridge nobody mentions
Head west out of Dorking and climb onto Ranmore Common and you're on what many quietly consider the best driving road in the area — and almost no tourist has heard of it. The lane runs along the top of the North Downs ridge with farmland falling away on both sides, then throws in a couple of hairpins so tight they genuinely surprise you the first time. It has the views of Box Hill without the crowds, the kind of road where you crest a rise and the whole Weald opens up in front of you. Take it slowly the first time; the bends don't announce themselves.
The Friday Street and Leith Hill tangle
South of the A25, between Abinger and Coldharbour, is the densest patch of hidden road in the county. This is where Surrey stops feeling like the commuter belt and starts feeling like somewhere genuinely remote.
Drop down the lane to Friday Street and you'll find a tiny hamlet wrapped around a still mill pond, hemmed in by woodland, the sort of place you'd swear was two hours from any city. From there the roads climb toward Leith Hill, the highest point in south-east England, crowned by its Gothic tower. The approach lanes are narrow, wooded and steep, the canopy closing overhead so the light comes through in patches.
And then there's Coldharbour Lane itself — a long, challenging climb up a wooded gully with high banks on either side, twisting for several kilometres up to the village of Coldharbour, one of the highest in the South East. It's a road that demands your full attention and gives back that rare feeling of properly driving rather than merely steering. Coldharbour is also where you'll want to stop (more on that below).
The Greensand lanes: Holmbury, Peaslake, Shere
Carry on south and west and you reach the Greensand villages — Holmbury St Mary, Peaslake, Ewhurst, Shere and Gomshall. This is back-road country at its best: lanes that link one honey-coloured village to the next, rarely straight for more than a few hundred metres, threading between hedgerows and bracken-covered hills. Shere in particular is almost absurdly pretty — a ford, a church, a cluster of timber-framed houses — and the surrounding lanes reward aimless wandering more than any fixed route. Peaslake sits in the middle of the Hurtwood, all pine and sand, and feels more like the New Forest than thirty miles from the capital.
There's no single "best" road here, which is exactly the point. The pleasure is in stringing the villages together and letting one lane spill into the next.
Newlands Corner and the Downs climbs
If you want a view to aim for, Newlands Corner on the A25 between Guildford and Shere is the obvious one — a broad panorama south over the Weald, managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust, and a fine place to stop and let the engine tick. The lanes that climb onto the Downs around here — the steep little roads up onto the chalk — give you a proper sense of the ridge the whole landscape hangs from.
Where to stop
A good drive needs a good reason to pause, and the Surrey Hills are well supplied.
Ryka's, Box Hill — the institution. Bikes, big breakfasts, and a wood-fired Pizza Shed now running Wednesday to Sunday. Even if you're escaping the crowds, it's worth one bacon roll for the atmosphere alone.
The Plough Inn, Coldharbour — the reward at the top of Coldharbour Lane. A proper country pub with its own on-site Leith Hill Brewery pouring real ale brewed metres from your table. Deep in the hills, hard to reach, exactly the sort of place this kind of driving is supposed to deliver you to.
A quick honest note: lanes around Friday Street and Abinger have lost a pub or two to conversion in recent years, so check opening times before you build a day around any single stop. The hills change slowly, but they do change.
A few words of courtesy (and survival)
These roads are narrow, often single-track, and shared. Expect blind bends, gravel washed across the tarmac after rain, horses, walkers, and a great many cyclists — Surrey is the spiritual home of British road cycling, and Box Hill carried the 2012 Olympic road race. Drive accordingly: ease off on blind crests, pull in to let oncoming traffic by, give riders room. The whole appeal of these lanes is that they're unhurried. Treat them as a place to slow down, not a place to make time, and they'll give you far more than any dual carriageway ever could.
Go in autumn if you can. The beech woods around Box Hill and Leith Hill turn the colour of old copper, the lanes fill with leaves, and the crowds thin out. It's the county at its quiet best.
Let the road do the choosing
The honest secret of driving in Surrey is that the best route is rarely the one you planned — the magic is in the turning-off, the lane you took because it looked inviting, the village you found because you ignored the sat-nav telling you to rejoin the A25. That's exactly what brieflylost is built for: tell it you want the scenic way through the Surrey Hills and it strings the back roads together for you, keeping you off the motorways and main drags entirely — with full turn-by-turn navigation. If you're weighing up the options, see how brieflylost compares to Google Maps and other route planners, or read the wider guide to UK scenic drives.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best driving road in Surrey?
The two most celebrated are the Zig Zag Road up Box Hill near Dorking — a famous set of tightening hairpins — and Ranmore Common Road, a quieter ridge route west of Dorking with surprisingly tight hairpins and views across the Weald. Box Hill is the icon but gets very busy; Ranmore Common gives you similar driving with far fewer cars. For genuine remoteness, Coldharbour Lane's wooded climb up to Coldharbour village is hard to beat.
Where are the best scenic drives near London?
The Surrey Hills, a designated National Landscape around 45 minutes south of central London, hold some of the best scenic driving close to the capital. The lanes around Box Hill, Leith Hill, Ranmore Common, Friday Street and the Greensand villages of Holmbury St Mary, Peaslake and Shere offer wooded climbs, ridge roads and pretty village routes within easy reach of the M25.
Is Box Hill worth driving?
Yes — the Zig Zag Road is a genuinely brilliant set of hairpins finishing at a viewpoint over the South Downs. The catch is popularity: by mid-morning at weekends it fills with cyclists, walkers and slow traffic. Drive it early in the morning or midweek and you'll have it largely to yourself, then turn off to explore the quieter lanes either side.
When is the best time to drive in the Surrey Hills?
Early mornings and midweek are best for quiet roads, and autumn is the most beautiful season, when the beech woods around Box Hill and Leith Hill turn copper and the crowds thin out. The lanes are popular with cyclists and walkers year-round, so an early start is the single easiest way to enjoy them at their best.
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