Hello Chris, we have travelled with the van to cornwall loads of times and found that as long as we set off late on friday we missed all the usuall traffic problems. having said that the only real places you are likely to get problems are at indian queens and the small amount of single lane road through the railway bridge. I have a policy of stopping for a break at round about every 100 miles and from stockport this distance gets you just on to the M5 but i strongly advice you to give the first service area on the M5 a miss, it stinks of pee from the truckers and is filthy, much better to go to the next one. with the van on we only stop at these motorway service stations for somewhere to park as we make our own food and drinks in the van (don't get caught with the cooker on for the kettle)we then stop at the last services on the M5 before a final stop on the A road in to cornwall. regarding fuel we have never had to fill up on the way, even my discovery did the trip on 3/4 of a tank so i filled up a few days later its a lot cheaper than the motorways, last time i went with my galaxy diesel i got to newquay on 2/3 of a tank. you will struggle for loos once off the motorway but its only 100 miles to the heart of cornwall so in an emergency you could just use the vans loo. have a great time in st mawes its lovely. we're off to anglsey on sunday for a week then in 5 weeks we go to the isle of white for a fortnight so we also have a fair bit of travelling to do in the next two months.
