Maximum Length Of Variant Or String

I have looked into the maximum length of a variant/string in vba and it appears to be 250 characters. I am running a macro which first lists all excel files in a folder, returning them to a sheet, then using a loop statement opens each one in turn extracting the information to a second summary sheet before closing it. The file path to the folder is ridiculously long and the macro stumbles. I used the =LEN(A1) formula to check if the file names were too long for the string, but the maximum file name length was 226 characters. I've tried both String and Variant to collect the file names but both have the same effect.