What's the longest car journey you can manage?

[blinkboo]

Sorry if this is a boring question!

I hate car journeys with a passion and pretty much refuse to do anything over five hours without breaking it overnight.

Am I alone in this? My DH thinks so and I have noticed that others seem more tolerant. Should I get over it?

I had to do seven hours a few weeks ago and it was a killer. Unfortunately it was supposed to be 3hrs!

DH commutes 4hrs each way at the moment, will increase to 5.5 soon but he's looking at train instead for at least some weeks (he finishes work on a Friday lunchtime... if he needs to be back Monday morning he goes Sunday late afternoon but sometimes its later so he can leave Monday morning)

I wouldn't break a 5 hour car journey overnight. We do York to Cornwall in one go (has been 10 hours on a Saturday) although we will stop a couple of times for half an hour breaks.

I just wouldn't want to factor in a hotel cost every time we went away for a holiday - another £100 either side of the fortnight is too much!

5 or 6 hours is my limit too. I hate long car journeys.

We do Plymouth to Inverness ( 2 drivers resting when not driving) kids in the back plugged into devices 🤣

We tend to put a limit of 12-13 hours then stop. (Switzerland to Calais is a one day journey)

Long car journeys don't bother me too much. Maybe no more than 8 hours in one day would be my limit.
I grew up very far away from family so we often had very long car journeys to visit them and to go on holiday. So maybe I'm used to them.

Solo driver, with kids, prob 8hrs max + breaks

Two drivers, 10hrs + breaks

5hrs doesn't take you very far

It depends on the traffic etc as well... stop start, rolling traffic jams etc are more tiring than a smooth journey.

I regularly do 5-7 hour journeys in a day. I think the (planned) longest I have done is 10 hours. It was a return journey though which makes a difference imo.

I have on occasion driven 4 hours each way to a customer in a day with just a quick loo and coffee buying stop on each leg, and its a long day but fine. With company and not being in a rush to get somewhere I'd be happy to be driving for 12 hours. I like driving and listening to audio books/music and so does DH

9 hours is a long drive for us, but we'll do it 6ish times a year.

We quite often do Cambridge to South Devon in a weekend - 5 hours each way - to see my PiL. Dh has suggested doing it in one long day but I've put my foot down.

If I’m not driving, I don’t care. If I am, my leg goes numb after an hour or under so long distance is difficult and I have to stop frequently to loosen it up. Saturday will be fun, I have to do a 5 hour journey.

8 hours by myself. 12 hours if shared

I’m in Canada. Long drives are part of life here. Our closest large city is a 4.5 hour drive. It’s nothing to drive 12-14 hours a day. Mind you, the traffic is nowhere near as heavy, unless you’re in a city. It’s just the wildlife you need to watch out for.

Depends on the car and the terrain. I can pretty easily do 10 hours plus on straight, flat US highways in a spacious American-made car with soft suspension and feel fine. Whereas I used to be absolutely shattered after driving from London to the Scottish Borders in a Smart car and that was only a little over 6 hours.

When I’m not driving, got my phone and audio books 10 hrs. If I’m driving 5.

We did 16 hours non stop once, with a 2 year old. Flights were cancelled and that was the only way to salvage the holiday. It was surprisingly fine, we swapped drivers every couple of hours, the toddler had her iPad, lots of snacks and a few naps.

We did 6hrs to Scotland when I was quite pregnant and on crutches. We did an overnight stop on the way there but drive straight home (well, we had rest breaks obviously).

For some reason once we're on the way back I just want to get on with it whereas I'm more inclined to break it up on the way to somewhere.

We regularly did 4 hrs to see family when I was a kid so that doesn't seem too bad. On my own I think 6-7 hrs is as much as I'd want to do without a substantial break. I had a friend on the south coast and on paper the journey was 4hrs but it regularly took 6 (9hrs was the record!)

Now we have a toddler I suspect my tolerance would be lower but we haven't put it to the test yet!

My SIL is American and although she lived in South Carolina, she would visit her mother in Oregon about four times a year.

I did 15 hours once, 500 miles with rest breaks and a ferry crossing. Never again. Did the return leg with an overnight stay, no worries at all.

I can easily do 3-4 hours with only a quick pitstop, but not every day!

Fairly often drive to PIL- around 3hrs to ferry (no stops) then 2.5hrs ferry then another 5hrs (Includes 2 stops for toilet breaks and maybe a sandwich). No point splitting with overnight stay as that eats into time with family.

If regular commute then 1.5hrs each way would be absolute max and for as finite a time as possible.

Each summer we have a week away that's about 6-7 hours each way.

We enjoy the journey, DH and I take it in turns driving.

Generally we set off first thing. Stop as needed for coffee/wees.

Then have a favourite town to stop in for lunch so we have an hour or so wandering and getting lunch. Then it's less than two hours to our holiday home. Only stop if we need to on that leg but it whizzes by as the scenery gets so pretty for the last hour.

When DC were younger I'd take a bag of surprises and toys they'd not played with for a while. But now they're happy with chatting and we take it in turns to choose songs on Spotify. Always have a couple of films on iPad as a back up. (Give DH and I an hour of quiet in the front too.)

I hated hated car rides as a child as my dad wouldn't stop for the toilet and was the only person in charge of the radio. So I've always been the opposite with my DC so they really love it and that in turn has meant I finally love road trips.

We do 12 hours the way home from my Dad’s, we do have a break when we go in the channel tunnel but the rest is just driving.

Love a car journey. 12 hours to our caravan.