Best Time to Travel

[pensioner]

We are planning to travel south to to the Cornwall area in the near future.

Is there a best time for travelling, or best day/night for this, is one day better than another.

I ask because listening to the travel reports on radio 2 there seems to be accidents day and night on most of the motorways.

I used to travel regularly up an down the M6 and M5 but it was never like it is now.

 

[Craigyoung]

Hi pensioner , from where you are traveling from (Cheshire) if I'm correct , I would set off about maybe 5 or 6am , it's about 6&1/2 hour drive for you , most sites won't let you on till 12ish anyway unless you can get in earlier where I would do a midnight set off drive , very quiet on roads .

We drove to Dover through the night year before and I was the only car on the M25 at 2am !! We are driving down in a few weeks also to St Ives from Newcastle area on the Friday afternoon but stopping half way at Sheffield for the night and an early getaway the Saturday morning .

Which ever you do , enjoy .

Craig B)

 

[Dustydog]

For all our long distance trips we leave about 4.00am. Nothing more refreshing than watching the sun rise.
Arrive somewhere near the final destination for breakfast and a rest.
Then arrive o site as soon as allowed.

 

[pensioner]

Thanks guys,,,I know what you mean about watching the sun rise Dustydog,,I can recall the many times I've seen it whilst on the A419 or A346 on my way back to barracks on a Monday morning,,,really starts the day well.

 

[gravesyt]

Hi Pensioner we regular travel down to Cornwall towing the van from Cheshire we normally leave between 10 -12 night before so I can have a kip we normally get to 30 min from the site we are staying and pull in and grab about 3-4hr sleep before arriving on site there are plenty of good lay-bys to pull in to on the A30 or there a new fuel station which charge £10 we only do it that way because all the site we go to let us on between 7-8 am by time we set up we haven't lost a day

 

[Hutch]

I would never (Normally) leave home before 8 am and would plan to get to a site by 4pm, orherwise have a nightnstop.
But sayinging that got to Dover in April at 02 30, for a 4 am ferry. Only to be asked , do you want the next one in ten minutes to Calies? The dogs didn't even manage a pee before we borded. But had a kip in an Aire 100 miles south as the sun wasnrising, beautiful.

 

[Thingy]

Cornwall is a very regular destination for us, and we travel from Derbyshire.

Our route is M1, A 42, M42 to M5. We usual travel early evening, between 1600 and 1800 hours. Occasiionally we stop on Bridgewater Services overnight if going straight on to Cornwall, but we find Exeter CC site (Kennford racecourse) is an ideal stopover. Its cheap and cheerful and gorgeous up there. We usually time it to arrive on the late night area which is huge btw, and move onto the site early morning for a day or two. Exeter is very easy going for arrival and departure times and its in an ideal location for a Cornwall stopover. In fact, we are doing just that this month for three days before moving on to Merrose Farm at the end of the month. I usually aim to travel midweek as I find thats the best time for traffic (evening hours) but this year is a Sunday night. Exeter for us is around 4.5 hours without pushing it and inc coffee stops.

From there we pick up the A30 into Cornwall.

 

[Raywood]

I know a lot of people drive through the night but do be aware that it has its drawbacks and tiredness can be one if you are not used to being up at that time. I would not stop you doing it but make sure you get a good rest before setting off and beware of tiredness. If you feel it coming on stop and rest as your life is worth more than the chance of arriving a bit earlier..
If you have two drivers so much the better as the other should be able to take a nap and be fresh to take over if needed. Do stop for a rest as needed although services could be full of lorries parked up for the night.
Good luck.

 

[Thingy]

Well said Raywood, hence in our case the numerous coffee breaks. It is a fact though, I spent a lot of time night trunking and even with that sort of experience, its easy to get caught out. If you do feel tiredness coming on, stop. Dont wait until it gets worse, it could be too late.

 

[Gabsgrandad]

Us, - Sundays if we can , Saturdays 2nd. choice, providing we're not going to Cornwall, it's midweek then. Don't do 'nights' now, used to do when kids would sleep through it, but that's 35+ years ago, night travelling was getting popular and busy then, so I bet it is now?

 

[Robtel]

I used to travel regularly up an down the M6 and M5 but it was never like it is now.

Know what you mean, we first started to travel to the West Country way back in early 80s and although it could be busy at times we find, that even with road improvements ,it has got much,much busier. My favourite time for driving always was overnight and is still the same now. On Friday night we travelled down from Central Scotland to Devon, left home about 8.30pm arrived at site ( with prior agreement) at 7.30am. Took our time, frequent rest stops and really problem free compared to recent day time journeys over the past few years. The M5 seemed to have numerous lane closures, they must have all the traffic cones in Britain on the section north of Birmingham, not sure if it was only night closures or not but will find out later this month on the return journey which unfortunately will be during the day.

 

[swpostie]

My grandparents used the Motorail service from Newton Abbott to Scotland a number of times, driving back.

I don't know whether the service took caravans but what a pity it finished!