Best Driving route to Cornwall? Any tips welcomed :)

[vanthorne]

Hi all - a bit trepidacious about the 5 (or 6 hour?) hour car journey to Cornwall that is coming up and never driven that way/far before with kids.

I was wondering if anyone has a good tip on best route to take (or roads to avoid!)...we need to end up near /Looe/Liskeard (off A38) and need to get there by late afternoon (between 4 & 8pm) on a Friday.

For example looks like there are 2 roads heading in that direction - A303 or A35 for starters and wondered which might be best.

Also any advice on short stop off for kids to stretch their legs on route (which I thought might be a challenge if we are doing motorways/A roads most of way).

Thanks in advance for any help/tips you can offer to a novice of this area of England!

[womanofdulwich]

id try and leave london before 1030 but after 930 am. 6 hours is the quickest I would think. we would do A303, but it can get very heavy with traffic- especially if there are any festivals nearwhere you are going.

[Moos]

Would you get more responses in the Lounge, do you think?

[vanthorne]

Yes wasn't sure which section - will post the same question in that lounge section as not sure how to move the thread?

Cheers for tips so far

[Yak]

Def a303 rather than a35 but watch out for stonehenge! In terms of stop-offs, there's the hawk conservancy near Andover if you want / need entertainment. The solstice services just before stonehenge have baby changing facilities in the co-op shop. Further down the services at Exeter where the a30 joins the m5 are alright.

I drove down last Monday with an 8 wk old to just beyond Exeter. I left at 10, did feed & nappy change at solstice services from 12 til 1, and arrived just before 3. I think you'd be looking at a couple more hours from Exeter to Liskeard. But once you hit the m5/ a38 at Exeter you avoid the worst of the bottlenecks.

[mrs f]

303 or the m4 even... Have done both & the m4 is often speedier but the 303 nicer but can get congested, especially around Stonehenge (but often only for rubber necking!) it's taken us about 6 or so hours before, sometimes longer...

Please let us know how it goes, Im going down solo in a few weeks but think I'm going to take the train (still 5 hours!)

[dollydaydream]

Like Mrs f said there is two routes M4 and M5 to Exeter and then cut across or A303 nice scenic route but I would leave as early as you can then have a leisurely stop when you have got out of London. We have been travelling to Cornwall for 30 years for holidays and the biggest problem is always getting out of London!!

[Sol]

Never being there, the long drive with kids put me off, our friends took 12 hours once coming back, they got stuck in traffic.

[tiddles]

we always do M4, M5 then A30 rest of the way. We always used to drive at night so the kids would sleep!! Plenty of service stations for pit stops. The A303 has been a nightmare with huge bottlenecks at particular points. That is just our experience.

best of luck

[vanthorne]

Thankyou everyone for your invaluable pointers.

Sounds like A303 might be best avoided as we want fast route rather than scenic- esp I think at this time of year with festivals etc.

(A303 might be a good option perhaps in the off season).

Mrsf, Tiddles, dollydaydream- question re linking up to M4...

M4 is really far west to join up to..considering we all live in south east london.

Do you generally head straight thru west london to get out that way to join the M4. Or perhaps...to avoid a lot of london..just get onto the M25 as quick as possible...(perhaps head East from here to join it at Swanley) and then around the M25 in clockwise route to head West.

Seems like one of our major headaches will be just getting out of London as you say...don't fancy trekking thru west london to pick up the M4 if poss?

Thanks again all for your help. I hope we don't come back feeling like 'Sol' who has been put off.

[dollydaydream]

We travelled out on the South Circular over Kew Bridge and then there's a left sign for the M4 along side Kew Station tiny road, one way if you missed this turning then just turn left at the roundabout, it's all sign posted for the M4 west.

Good Luck!!

[mrs f]

I've never been via the m25. Either south circular to kew or out of rush hour up to vauxhall then chiswick, this is the quickest route but out of hours only! It usually takes about an hour to get to the start of the m4.

You should be ok getting down, leaving London is a pain & it's the only time I wished we lived in south west London, but it's worth it to be in Cornwall! My family are down there so we regularly make the trip & my mum is always up & down & the majority of time the journey is fine, I can only think of one time after Christmas where it was a total nightmare & that was the 303... So you would be seriously unlucky to have a nightmare journey.

[vanthorne]

Many thanks - this has given me a lot of confidence. I will let you know how it goes when I get back. Cheers

[pebbles]

I would do vauxhall bridge and then turn left to earls court and the left onto a4 which leads onto m4. We have tried both routes but now stick with m4/m5 as does seem to be quicker on the most part.

It'll be well worth it - love Cornwall

[Grotty]

M4 then M5 then A30 - no contest - have had horrific traffic jams on the smaller roads...

[vanthorne]

Thanks so much. Good tip as well for the vauxhall bridge approach to m4 thru London. I must have been crazy to consider m25 to get around to m4 which would prob take forever.

[Pocket]

AVOID AVOID AVOID the A303: you'll lose the will to live as you trundle between dual and single carriageway, getting stuck behind 98 year olds driving at 30mph, tractors, lorries and the legendary tailback along Stonehenge. You won't see any scenery because you'll eyes will be puffed raw from weeping in frustration.

Completely recommend M4 to Bristol, then M5 to Exeter. If you are going South (i.e. Liskeard / Looe) don't go A30, but A38 through Plymouth and over the bridge into Cornwall.

Edited to add: Vauxhall, Earls Court, Hammersmith, Chiswick, M4 way out of London.

Enjoy.

[Yak]

Think I need to change my route! Will try m4ing it out of London next time :)

[njc97]

Just back from Cornwall. We left at 6am to avoid London traffic, then A303. Even at that time we got stuck in traffic jam on M25.

A303 not that bad - most of it is dual now, but M4 perhaps quicker. And for all the frustration about traffic on A303, I get more wound up by shit middle lane drivers on m4 on stretch between Reading and London.....

[vanthorne]

Hi all,

A bit of a report on how things went. Unfortunately things didn't get off to great start as ended up leaving smack in the middle of the day at 12.30 (don't ask!- partner lost favourite driving cap and had to find it ..then decided oil, water, petrol needed attention...hmm) so hit lunch time traffic going thru to vauxhall bridge.

Our entire trip took 7.5 hours with about 1 hour all up in stops...so 6.5 hours driving time I suppose not bad considering the time we left.

The splits were about:

East Dulwich to M4 start: 1.5 hours (I'm sure this is normally faster earlier in the am).

M4 to M5 Start: 2 hours

M5 to start A38: 1.5 hours

A38 to destination (near Liskeard/Looe) : 1.5 hours.

We decided to take the alternative A303 route on the way back and left Monday mid morning- we found the A303 surprisingly good (no blockage at Stonehenge- yeah!)...we also took the south circular back (A205) which wasn't too bad either at rush hour 5pmish. We made it in 6 hours driving time.

The splits were:

A38 (near Liskeard) to M5 start: 1.5 hours (as per forward journey)

M5 to A303 start : 30min

A303 to M3 start: 2.5 hours (30min rest stop not included).

M3 to East Dulwich (via A205) 1.5 hour

We liked the A303 route the best really for the scenery, but agree that the M4/M5 route is probably slightly faster if you area heading to vauxhall and M4 out of rush hour. Impressed that some people can do the trip in 5 hours or less.

It was good to try both routes so thanks to everyone for their help...now all we need to do is move to west london so we can get out of London quicker- either that or head to Kent beaches next time :)