How far are you willing to travel for a day out?

[MsWalterMitty]

I love in the countryside with lots of windy roads and very poor public transport links.

I wonder whether my thinking is skewed due to the windy roads. But for a typical day out with the kids, say on a normal weekend I am happy to drive up to 45 mins in the car to a destination... this is approx 15 miles due to the roads. So I’d say less than 20 miles is my norm.

Anything more than that would be a special occasion/very rare. Bit anything more than 30 miles I would want to be stopping over!

Sorry for typos. Hope you get the gist!

Up to about 2.5 hours each way to be honest - depending on the destination. But I like driving and not everyone does.

I've travelled over 100 miles each way for a day trip. But usually up to 90mins or so. 45mins each way is children's club level of travel.

1.5 hours each way.

2 hours each way, by public transport as I don’t drive

Around 90 minutes drive, anymore and I'm booking a Travelodge.

more than 30 miles I would want to be stopping over!

Really?

I do think that’s pretty unusual. And in my experience the further you live from stuff the further you are willing to travel - because you have to drive to get anywhere you get used to a lot of driving.

Personally I’d travel up to 2.5hrs each way for a day out - if it’s special/someone I wanted to see a lot etc. I’d only stay over if it was an evening event or a full weekend.

I travel 45 mins/25 miles to my dad’s house all the time - sometimes just for a quick cup of tea. He’s the same. So I get an extra 10 miles in for your timings. Are ALL the roads windy? Don’t you get to bigger better roads at some point?

Yes your thinking is skewed.

45 minutes is nothing for a day out. If you are limiting yourself to days out within 15 miles of home, that's not much. Especially as "winding roads" infers a very rural location.

My parents live 75 miles away, seeing them is a "day out" as they don't manage well with overnight guests. Happy to drive up to a couple of hours for a good day out, and the same back. But that would be a whole day out, leaving at 9am, back in the evening.

90 minute each way

For a crackerjack day out I suppose I would travel further.

I’m genuinely surprised by these replies! I think my thinking is skewed!

I live 20 miles away from the nearest motorway and the nearest A road is 6 miles away, accessed by a windy road from home, but often I’m only ever on that A road for a few minutes before I’m turning off on to another windy road.

Most of our family interests are outdoor activities, which is all we have locally. It’s a very popular tourist area/National Park so lots of lovely (expensive) cafes/pubs/activites but we often make packed lunches.

My family love 132 miles away... it takes 2.5hrs s as once I’m put off my country I’m on the M6. But I’d be expecting to stay for atleast 3-4 nights!

Have and would quite happily travel 200 miles each way.
Music on, car snacks and maybe a podcast its quite a fun adventure.

I think your thinking is skewed - but it's not due to the winding roads!

I live somewhere very rural. It is a 70 mile round trip to my nearest Asda, for eg. Normally, people who live somewhere remote accept that a day out somewhere will involve a considerable drive, purely because it's very rural where they live.

I'd reasonably expect a 3 hour drive to do something 'exciting' for the day - and 3 hours back again.

I find it odd that you wouldn't as this must make life very limited.

To get to the beach for us is a 1hr45 absolute minimum. I mean, I would travel up to an hour for e.g. a morning or afternoon out, anything over that it’s a full day trip. But I wouldn’t not go. Don’t you just feel really hemmed in?

Yeah my parents live 2.5 hours away from us. Sometimes we’ll go and stay over but sometimes we’ll just go for the day, and that’s with a toddler. They also frequently drive to see us for the day. I can’t imagine limiting myself to such a narrow circle of distance to be honest

2.5 hours would be about our limit, but we tend to stay within about 90 mins generally. We visit relatives 2 hours away there and back in a day.

45 mins is still counted as fairly local and is routine for DCs sports and activities.

SE England, close to main A roads and about 20 mins from motorways.

I like time being out to exceed time driving, so I'd happily do e.g. 2 hours each way as long as the day out was over 4 hours

What you are used to can seem very normal.
We can be on the A1 within 20 mins, or the M18 in 10 minutes. So can travel quite far in a short amount of time. It takes longer to get to the supermarket than the motorway.
After living abroad for 4 years, we kind of like hopping on the motorway and driving for 2hrs or so to see people for the day, because we don't have to plan it weeks in advance.

I'm also in a rural location (except there are no motorways at all in my county!)

For driving, an hour or about 20 - 30 miles is usual. Otherwise I'd never leave my small town! I'm happy to drive up to 2 hrs for special occasions, 3hrs is staying over territory.

An hour or so maximum. Usually more like 30 minutes.

For a 2.5 hour journey you can leave at 8.30, arrive at 11. Spend the whole day there leave at 6.30 get home at 9.
That's reasonable. Not something I'd want to do every weekend I grant you. But would do so to see family every now and then.

@Meloncurse

I like time being out to exceed time driving, so I'd happily do e.g. 2 hours each way as long as the day out was over 4 hours

I think this is basically my calculation too, for travel over an hour.

I would regularly drive up to an hour for a day trip. Sometimes we'll drive further for something special. We used to drive 1hr45 to PIL for the day, but now they have a bigger house we usually stay for 2 nights. We are near good roads though, so are doing far more miles.

Couple hours I'd happily travel.