London to Penzance/St Just: do we really need to drive through the night to get there, now the schools have gone back?

[OfftoPenzance]

Hi All,
On Saturday – the busy, busy change-over day! – DH and I have to drive to Cornwall for our (pre-booked) holiday.

We’re starting from London, so it’s M4/M5 then the A30 all the way to Penzance, then St Just near Land’s End. We’ve been before, so we’re familiar with the route.

Reading posts from earlier this summer, it sounded like we’d have to avoid the roads completely from 10 am to 4 pm. It takes us about 7 hours to get there usually, so this would have meant leaving about two in the morning. DH is pretty keen on this idea, but I’m not!

Frankly, neither of us see so well in the dark these days, and leaving so early means we’ll arrive exhausted 9 am then not be able to get into our accommodation until 3 pm. (We’re working on Friday, so can’t leave then.)

So now that the schools are back and the main tourist season is over, does anyone who knows the area/the route think we might be OK leaving London at 7-8 am on Saturday morning?

As soon as we've recovered from the journey to St Just, we’re looking forward to stomping across the moors, where we’re going to try and locate the Tinners Way (there must be a decent map of it somewhere!), buying lovely stuff to eat from the local shops (I hear there’s a new locally made Cornish ice cream parlour in St Just) and watching the sunsets from Cape Cornwall. We've got the Minack theatre booked for the 39 Steps.

Do you live in/holiday in the St Just area? What are your favourite things?

I live in Penzance. It is much quieter this week and I think you will be fine leaving in the morning. Hope you have a lovely time. How about visiting Zennor - especially if you like icecream - The MooMaid cafe is brilliant and the icecream made in the village.

We are usually on the road at 5:30 by the absolute latest to do that journey, usually do it in about 3.5 hours rather than 6/7 hours if we accidentally oversleep and leave at 7!
So much to see and such nice places to walk when you get there.

Great! Does this mean we don't have to get up at an unearthly hour of the morning to get in the car park if we want to go to the beach? (Porthmeor Cove rather than Sennen)

And we want to drive to the Lizard at some point - are the local roads (ie the A394 to Helston) clearer now?

Still think we might not do a day trip to St Ives this year tho...

Bumpity-bump... any other fans of the St Just/Cape Cornwall/Penzance area?

Yes the roads are clearer and day to day travelling is easier. Don't know about beach car parks - guess these are also expected to be quieter - if you are swimming check life guard cover as some are standing down. St Ives will also be quieter.

My DM, who lives in Penzance, has been complaining over the summer that it's been taking her as long as 40mins to get from Sainsburys roundabout to Tesco roundabout (0.4 miles for those who are unfamiliar with the A30 into Penzance). I've not heard anything about it in the last week or so, so hopefully it's

quietened down a bit now!

"We are usually on the road at 5:30 by the absolute latest to do that journey, usually do it in about 3.5 hours rather than 6/7 hours if we accidentally oversleep and leave at 7!"

3.5hrs to do around 300 miles??? Errrr...

It wasn't as bad as made out in my opinion. I drove to Devon on changeover day (and back on changeover day) and was only an extra 15 minutes. Once you are past Bridgwater it's all fine.

For the motorway bit obvs. I'm not sure what the Cornish roads are like but I would just stop off if it's bad.

I have nothing useful to add, except I'm a bit jealous and I hope you have a lovely time!

Thanks all!

Gosh.. 40 mins from Penzance Sainsbo to Tesco (practically next door to each other) - that is so-oo bad! Glad to hear things are easing now.

I hear St Just Co-op has had a refit, so we're going to go there instead of joining the 'Just Down From London on Sat' Sunday Tourist Scrum at PZ Sainsbos.

There is a Sleeper train that goes from London to Penzance you know?

Just such a shame there isn't any trains you can take cars on (besides Eurostar) anymore. We'd travel loads more of that was the case!

We drove from outside North London to Newquay on Saturday. We left at 10 am and took 7 hours - with a stop at Solstice for lunch, and a coffee mid afternoon. The worst part was round Stonehenge, where the road goes from two lanes to one, but it was a leisurely drive for us.

We went to The Lizard today. We have never been here before, but the traffic was by no means heavy on the A30. There were plenty of tourists at The Lizard and a few at Mullion Cove, but nothing like what we imagine the school holidays were like!

Lucky you. I live in the south west so cant comment on the drive down ....but I love walking the sw coast path. The bits between St Ives and Zennor or anywhere around the Lizard are stunning. If you like Pasties then Anne's Pasties in the Lizard will blow your mind. Some great crab and lobster in Porthleven (The Lobster Shack crab sandwich is...wow).

What is 'changeover' day?

PS - Saturday was probably the last change over day of the school summer holidays - I doubt it would be as busy as that now?

What is 'changeover' day?

Ime, most holiday cottage lets run either from Friday or Saturday - so that is the day, the changeover from one set of holiday makers to the next set occurs; and they are all on the move!

I went down to Penzance last week, during the school holidays and live south of London. We set off at 8am and arrived 4 having stopped for 45 mins for lunch and got stuck in traffic by Stonehenge. Way back leaving at 3pm was a similar time. We were expecting it to be hideous but it wasn't at all!

No advice but this post brought back memories of a great trip to St Just and Cape Cornwall. Loved St Ives. Enjoy your trip.

I bet you will be ok leaving at 5am, not 2am. Good luck

Can you split the journey up? Drive a few hours on Friday after work and stay in a travelodge / Premier Inn and then drive the rest of the journey on Saturday morning. Even if you can't check into the hotel you won't be exhausted and can enjoy your first day doingsomething instead of catching up on sleep.

I would leave early, say 5.30/6 and then it should probably be ok. Even out of season it’s a journey that can be slow. You can also leave at 10am but it will probably be a long drive. If you embrace that it’s not such a problem. We drove down in June, leaving about 6.30pm. A couple of issues and a detour meant it was 6ish hours (on a usual 4-4.5 hour journey). On the way home we left at 0730, but stopped a little too long at mid Cornwall services and that slowed us right down. The return journey was 9+ hours because we ended up having a good old stop in Lyme Regis.

Traffic in Cornwall in June was ok - busy but ok. The Moomaid Cafe in St Just is lovely and it’s worth trying to visit Levant if you have NT membership. Porthcurno beach was not too busy most of the time.

We always leave in the early evening (from the Midlands) and get there around midnight. That usually takes us to the the quietest time to hit the M5 around Bristol and then the A30 through Cornwall.

The Square deli in St Just has amazing bits and bobs to take to eat on the beach. Lovely new ice cream parlour there too and a couple of new-ish independent cafes. The dog and Rabbit and the Cook Book are especially good. The last time we went (in June) the town centre was heaving but we still parked ok. Could only get in the overflow car park at Sennen Cove, but if you go early enough you would be able to park at the beach one. It was really busy in St Ives then but so much less busy around St Just. You could always get the bus to St Ives though if you want to go, it's a really fun ride!

I think you'll find it busy enough to feel holiday-ish without being heaving. We were there this time last year too and it was really lovely. Enjoy!

We are in west Cornwall right now. Our friends had a shocker of a journey on Saturday - nearly 9 hours, they left mid morning. I’d leave early, maybe 7.