What is the meaning of "the long way around" in the following sentence?
Example:

The road's blocked — you'll have to drive the long way around.

If you don't know how to explain it, I would appreciate a synonym.

Question

What is the meaning of "the long way around" in the following sentence?
Example:

The road's blocked — you'll have to drive the long way around.

If you don't know how to explain it, I would appreciate a synonym.

Answer

just means an alternative ( and longer ) route.

Answer

It is assumed that you were originally taking the shortest way possible to get to your destination.  If that route is blocked, then any other route is longer.  Ie. you will have to take a longer route.  Most of the time when someone says something like this, they know the area they are in well, so they already have another route that they know is longer in mind.  If they don't know the area, they would probably say that they will have to "go around" the road block.

Answer

It means that the road that is blocked would be shorter But since you can't use that road it will take you longer to get there.