M6 journey breaks

[kenandbarbie]

Driving from lancashire to London, where would you stay for a night with little kids to break up the journey? Not too far from M6. Hotels? Activities? B and Bs? Hit me with your recommendations.

Anyone? My thread title is obviously shite.

Depending on what time you set off, do you really have to stop over on the way?

Which part of London would you be coming from?

Ooops I see its opposite direction! Hmmmm. You could stop off for Warwick castle? How old are they?

We might not have to stop, as it's north London we're heading to, but it could be too long because of ages - baby will be 6 months, then others 6 and 8 years.

Google says it's a 4 hour journey, based on Lancaster to Colindale. I think I'd just set off at 9 am or just before and plan to have lots of breaks and hopefully get there before mid afternoon.

I'd also keep an eye on traffic, because if the M6 is especially awful, it won't take much longer to do M62/M1 or even the A1.

No need to stop over, that would be prolonging the agony!

Don't stay over for that short a trip.
Keep an eye on traffic and use the m6 toll if it looks faster.

I'd attempt only one stop, 6 mo should sleep most of the time. Time your stop whenever they wake up, just pull into a services. The longer the first part of the journey, the better.

I regularly drive from Lancashire to Kent and have done so since my eldest was 2 months old. No need to stay over night. I just stop as I need to for drinks, food and leg stretches at the service stations.

But isn't there advice about the length of time a baby should be in a car seat?

Isn't there advice on the length of time a baby should be in a car seat? That seems to be the limiting factor here.

Oops, it hadn't posted and there it is again.

Take the M6 toll. It is worth the money. The services on that and the ones at Oxford are both decent and at good gaps.

I think the advice is for newborns and 30 mins. By six months they have much stronger neck muscles and won't stop breathing due to being in a car seat.

You can buy lie flat car seats if you are really concerned about this.

Eeek I clearly didn't know that advice when we googled up and down the M6 with ours when they were newborns nearly 20 years ago

Tatton Park is a National Trust just 3 miles from junction 19. There’s parklands to explore, a rare-breeds farm, woodland play trail, adventure playground and a maze. The Gardener's Cottage tearoom is a pretty place to chill, or opt for the "Baby Deli" at the Stables restaurant. Stock up on old-fashioned sweets at the Tuck Shop to fuel the rest of your trip.
On the return journey, stop at the Trentham Estate, just a couple of miles from junction 15. The Italian gardens are beautiful. They've jazzed it up with a"monkey forest", an adventure playground and a lakeside walk with fairies to spot. Other clever additions include a 1km barefoot walk – yes mud, bark, hay and pebbles (but showers at the end) and a "hide and speak" hedge maze with special talking pipes. There are plenty of places to eat.

I would hope the baby went to sleep quickly, feed them just before putting in the car and just aim to power through until they woke up or you’d been on the road 2.5hrs, 3hrs Max then stop at the first Services you get to.

I’d definitely aim to be south of Birmingham before you stop. Then have an hours break at the services and you should only have a couple more hours at the most in the car after that.

I do that journey quite often.

Ikea Birmingham is half way that is the one that is errr J9 I think not the small city centre one.

I think you’ll be fine to do it in a day. We regularly do Lancashire to Bournemouth which is 300 miles and never stop over night. We often drive during the evening and stop off at services. Dc are 6 and 3 now and we’ve been doing this since dc1 was a baby.

No need to stop over anywhere, just do regular breaks. At six months the baby should be okay for longer than 30 minutes in a car seat.

We've done this journey a few times with a 1 year old (from when he was 2 months) when he was smaller we would stop at services half way, now he's older we set off at bed time (with him washed and in pjs) and he sleeps the whole way - it's bliss! (Compared with the time we drove during the day on a bank holiday and it took 7 hours and the baby cried for most of the journey!)

I remember one epic evening journey when the youngest was overtired and didn't sleep so squawked the whole way 🙈 that was a long 4 hours...