bank holiday weekend, what day to travel?.

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

hi, we are going away for this kids whitsun hols but its the bank holiday weekend i belive. will it be busy travelling down the m5 on the friday or would i be better going on the thursday?.

do most of you go away on the friday if its a bank holiday?.

thanks

jo-anne

 

[emmerson2]

I'd suggest overnight on Thursday if you can, depending on where you're coming from. We like to go to bed about 7pm the night before, then leave home around 3am. Doing it this way, we still have a good sleep , and don't lose a day travelling.it only works if your journey is more than 5 hours, though, otherwise you arrive too early!

 

[joeby]

i can only speak for myself ,but i prefer to go on a thursday and come back on a tuesday if i could only go on bank holidays ,but now i much prefer to go when every one is coming home

 

[taylor.paul]

As alredy said its better to travel Thursday, however we have 2 children at school so we always get ready for when the kids come out of school and leave then 3.10 (kids change in the car) we travel from Birmingham and are always on route to south of Bristol M5, we dont get stuck in to much traffic but if we leave after 4.00 it adds at least 2 hours to our journey!!!

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

hi thanks for your replies, i forgot to say. we are travelling from coventry to somerset.

do you think i would be better travelling on the thursday then?. we are not due back until 3rd june.

jo-anne

 

[JeremyClarksson]

Living in Bristol I guess the worst part for holdups on your route would be the Bristol area.

On a normal Friday night the junction with the M4 is pretty bad at rush hours and on a BH weekend this is likely to be worse, but this mainly affects the M4 from London not so much the M5.

We frequently do the rest of your route down to Exeter etc and that is not so much of a problem.

If you can get past Bristol before 3p.m. and if there are no accidents (more likely when busy) I would not expect more than a half hour delay purely due to heavy traffic.

It would be quicker overnight or on Thursday but we would only have the extra night if we wanted it.

We will be traveling the same route to Cornwall on Friday morning and I do not expect significant problems - late afternoon early evening is likely to be a different story.

Early even

 

[JeremyClarksson]

I should clarify I would class "getting past Bristol" as being south of the Avonmouth motorway bridge.

There have been contraflow/restrictions operating on some sections of your route in the last month or two, they have a habit of operating speed cameras in the 50mph areas - so be careful.

 

[Marc1]

The earlier you can travel before a bank holiday weekend has to be an advantage.

Marc

 

[MichaelT]

we're travelling from Birmingham to Somerset on fri but were planning to leave approx 10am on fri morning so was hoping to miss the afternoon rush or is it better to leave earlier?

 

[JeremyClarksson]

MichaelT

I would not expect to be held up very much at the time you mention.

Most of the major holdups in the area happen westbound on the M4 between the M32 turn off and the Almondsbury M4/M5 intersection and that is normally mid afternoon on.

You will get slowed down by the roadworks that always seem to be happening somewhere between Almondsbury and Clevedon on the M5 - but not excessively.

Accidents excepted of course!

I will be joining the M5 at W-S-M at appx the same time you would be passing.

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

hi everyone booked another night so going down on thursday with the in-laws. they will staying approx 10 miles away but we do get on. cant wait.

have a good holiday everyone.

jo-anne