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!

Very regularly drive 1.5 hours each way for a day out.

Driving I can’t be bothered to go too far, maybe 30-50 miles tops. By rail or plane I’d do a lot further, e.g. London is 250 away and I’ve done that as a day trip many times. Anything over about 60 miles by car and I’d want to book a hotel and make a weekend of it.

We regularly (at least monthly) drive 90 miles each way- 1hr 45 ish to go to a specific park for the day/ 5 hours. Often drive 1h 30 mins for a day out. Longest recently was to a theme park - 3 hours each way. Kids 8. Live in large city, but don’t drive for work; think I’d be less happy driving at the weekend if I also did hours in the car on weekdays

I probably wouldn’t want to drive more than about 90 minutes each way for a day trip; 2 hours if it was something I really want to do.

Will do longer train trips, though (& my commute is pretty much 2 hours each way - would not do that as a driving commute) - no real maximum, provided I had enough time where I was going.

Up to 3 hours each way. I'm extremely rural though and 25 miles to nearest town and 110 to nearest city/attractions

During school holidays I'll travel 1.5-2hr for a day out. But I'm 10 minutes drive from a motorway and I can go 60-100 miles in that time.

I wouldn't travel for over an hour for a day out at the weekend. But again that's a lifestyle limitation.

Ds is a swimmer. He swims Mon-Sat. So we have Saturday after morning training and Sunday. I'm too tired to be travelling for full days out and have too much life stuff to do!

Having said that we have driven 45-90 minutes each way for swim meets at a weekend but if it's a whole weekend we stay over.

I'll happily travel about 2 hours for a normal weekend sort of day out. Unfortunately DH won't come with us if it's further than about an hour (and even then, not if it's to visit my family, lol).

For a "special" day out I'd be willing to go up to 3 hours away, which would get us to quite a lot of places tbh.

Up to two hours each way is probably the limit before it is a bit too much travelling in one day.
In London travelling to lots of other parts of London itself can easily be an hour so I think that makes longer trips more normal. When I lived in a more rural area I would have been less inclined to drive an hour away. But perhaps the world is just getting smaller.

I wouldn't really want to do more than 90 minutes each way. But I would happily drive 40 minutes for a morning or afternoon out, or just to pop to something after work. I've done a 50 mile drive each way for dinner of an evening before, but it's a quick 50 miles.

For an occasional visit I'd do maybe 3 hours each way in a day but I try and avoid it if possible.

Special day out up to 1.5 hrs. We have done longer for family parties where we couldn't stay a night either side but prefer not to. Normal weekend day out less than 45 mins usually

I’m not far from the M4 which opens up almost the width of Wales and England and once you’re on the M4 it’s a lovely motorway and a very scenic route so a few hours there and back is no bother.

If it is a day out not involving the motorway then I/we wouldn’t travel as far.

Probably 90 min for a day out.
My inlaws are about 80 min drive and it's not a problem to go for the afternoon/eve but in some ways I think that's easier because I know the way.(its largely on motorways)

I dont think I'd want to do 2 hrs each way. We live about 1.45hrs - 2 hrs from the nearest beach so we dont tend to go for day trips. My DC often feel/are car sick on long journeys and it just wouldnt be enjoyable.

I feel unusual on MN as I am often surprised at how far people are prepared to travel each way, often with very small children and sometimes quite patronising and scoffing to those of us that think 2 hrs each way is a long journey

@MadMadMadamMim

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.

My nearest supermarket is 17 miles away so I do ‘t bother with it and just use the co op in the local village.

I feel that we do everything we want/need to do within our driving time. We’re very sporty/active and live near mountains, lakes, cliffs and the sea.

I used to live in Australia and travelled fir work, 5 hours away was a short trip for three days work.
It's just a different mindset, and tbf, that was on clear, straight roads.
90 minutes here will involve either a busy Motorway, or bust twisty country roads.

We drive rarely as went car free, so only book one occasionally. But would do 2 hours each way, on trains we have been known to do 3+ hours each way for something we really wanted to do. But driving is more tiring than trains.

We are early risers though, out the door by 7:30am is no problem, so could be somewhere by 10am.

For us it's 2 hours to the beach, and almost 3 to DH's family (can't stay over as I'm allergic to their pets). But that's on major roads (dual carriageway/motorway). It's much more tiring on windy roads - we travelled across Wales recently, and the SatNav took us on single track roads (next time we'll check it more thoroughly!) and DH was exhausted afterwards, despite the entire day involving less driving than a trip to his family.

We drive to family 2 hours each way regularly and only spend the day there.

I’m 15 miles from a motorway. Also lots of windy lanes. I’d travel 90-120 minutes for a day out.

Agree that it's nothing to do with the winding roads. You just don't want to go anywhere.

Your choice. If it's "too far" to drive 17 miles to the supermarket then you're making the compromise of reduced choice in the local Co-Op.

It's hard to work out if you have convinced yourselves that you're a sporty and active family because you're just not prepared to travel further for other activities, or whether you are truly as content as you say never venturing more than 20 miles from home.

Personally, I would be bored rigid. We live in a fabulous, diverse country and why wouldn't you want to experience all it has to offer?

Probably about 90 mins if it’s just me driving, 2 hours or so if there’s two of us. That is enough to get us to the coast. I’d do longer than 2 hours for something special but not just a “let’s go to this forest/beach/whatever”.

It isn't about distance for me but if we are having a beach trip (1h 30m to our preferred beaches) I'd sooner gor for the weekend - it is so much effort for one day!!

@BroccoliFloret
I do find the winding toads tire me so definitely lessen the time I'm prepared to drive.
I'm perfectly capable of it, if I need to, but I'd rather not if there's other things to do closer to home.

I once drive from East London to Bruges for a day trip.

We live rurally and my favourite place for a day out is a 90 minute drive away.

For a 'normal' day trip, up to an hour really.

A bigger/rarer day trip - a zoo maybe - couple of hours, still there and back in a day.

For a one night stopover we've driven 5 hours to get there (big theme park). Up at 4am, leave at 4.30am and dc sleep again in the car, arrive before 10. Then sleepover and travel back the next day.