Long drive to Cornwall - survival guide

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We are due to drive to Cornwall from Oxfordshire next week and I am bricking it!

We will have 3 kids under 5 in the back, who are not used to long car journeys, plus cant share the driving with my partner, so theres the worry about getting tired & needing regular breaks.

We are going to aim to set off 5am in the hope to beat the traffic around Bristol. Anyone done this recently that can reassure (or not!)? Or travel tips for the kids?

Ta

Leave at 4am, kids in pjs with blankets and pillows. Have breakfast packed unless you want services breakfast from hell. If you can consider staying over the night before 2/3 of the journey, Taunton is good and Exeter.

Have a change of clothes for the day in a bag for the kids and lots of distractions to keep them entertained when they inevitably wake up due to the light morning.

Have a great holiday and don’t fret too much. Organisation is key!

I thought you were going to say you were coming from Berwick or something! Oxfordshire is extremely doable even if you're going all the way to Penzance.

Only you can answer how much you're happy to drive in one go, I'm personally more comfortable stopping every two hours, which is good for the kids as well. A half hour stop and I'm refreshed. Motorway services are fine (my kids adore WH Smith and a magazine will shut them up for a bit once back in the car.) But we'll often look for a National Trust or English Heritage place to stop for lunch.

For the kids - if your husband isn't driving, the kids are 100% his job, including planning for the trip. We usually download some audiobooks and music they like, play silly car games, put a film on for a bit (we have one of those foam iPad covers and wedge it between the front seats. Wallace and Gromit or Shaun the Sheep are quite good for this sort of car trip I've found.

The kids may also sleep a bit, particularly if you're setting off at 5! Are you travelling on a weekday or weekend? The peak traffic will differ, depending.

Another option is be disorganised and leave late! Then you miss the predawn drivers and the regular 9am starters. We used to leave Hertfordshire at 11:30 and never really had traffic problems.

I've booked a cheap travel lodge or similar at a half way point for really long drives. I realise you can't take the train because you're self catering so a half way hotel stop would be best.

How long is the drive? We come from Manchester to st ives and although it's a long run it's fine. Oxfordshire better surely.

Agree with going early. It's nit the long drive it's the one long bloody a road that's snarled up from 9am. Go early, leave early or very late the night before, save yourself sitting in traffic for ages. The motorway is usually the OK bit.

I do like stopping at a farm shop along that road. Or shopping at mountain warehouse and m&s. 🙄😄

I thought you were going to say you were coming from Berwick or something!

This! Your drive is very do-able. You’ll barely have time to get tired - I would plan for one break so that everyone can stretch their legs, go to the loo, etc. Doing that drive from Worcestershire (so similar distance), we would set off early enough to aim to be through Bristol before rush hour.

Stock up on audiobooks to keep the kids occupied and make sure you have plenty of snacks as well.

What time can you access you accommodation? You don't want to get there and then be hanging around for hours.

We regularly drive from cornwall up to Dover and then onto France or Italy or Germany - with kids. Key for us was getting headphones for the kids, we have ones that plug into the same device so they can watch one iPad. We have sunshade sock things that go over the windows. We have audible books, whiteboards for drawing, a lunchbox full of Lego each. Each child has a pillow and blanket.

We stop every three hours for a break.

Oxfordshire to cornwall doesn't sound too bad, I have done that overnight for a meeting - eg up one day back the next. You don't say how far down into cornwall you plan to drive or which day -/ Friday and Saturday are the worst and I would actually probably travel later in the day. The a30 is usually clearer by the evening. I would also make a good plan for coming back as everyone leaves at 10 and then sits in a queue. I would spend the day doing something and drive later personally.

Breaks wise, darts farm near Exeter is nice, teals farm shop is good, lanhydrock or cardinham woods near Bodmin a good place for a walk/ coffee and stretch of legs. Da bara at Indian queens good for cakes.

Oh, from Oxford you won’t get to stop at the farm shop services near Gloucester.

We regularly do Surrey to Devon and our routine is: pack the night before, up at the crack of dawn, kids are the very last thing to go into the car - in PJs under blankets in the hope they sleep the first stretch. Stop halfway for breakfast, so for you if you’re setting off at 5 I guess that would be around 7.30. Have found in the past that the promise of a McDonald’s breakfast is a useful bribe for the first stretch when everyone is starting to get bored! I try and keep the rule that screens are only allowed in after we’ve stopped for breakfast in the hopes of keeping the car nice and quiet for the first half and encouraging sleep. Also gives everyone something to look forward to for the second bit of the journey!

I love those services!

We tended to drive at night when ours were little and they would just sleep in the car. Have dinner, pyjamas on, load the car and go at 7pm-drive till you are mostly there (11/12) and then sleep in a Premier Inn. We still do it now they’re older actually-DH prefers driving when the roads are quieter.

We regularly took our 3 from leicester to Penzance - we set off at 5am, stopped every 100 miles/2 hours (which a driver should anyway especially if not used to driving long distances) for a decent 30-45 minute break. Lots of colouring books in the car then me making up games like 'who can spot a red/yellow/blue/black car first' or making up phrases from the 3 letters of the numberplate on another car or adding up the numbers on another numberplate etc etc. Had story tapes/cd's as well. We were towing a folding camper too so couldn't go above 50-60mph - exH drove as I was better at entertaining the kids.

We also drive at night and try not to stop - load the car, early dinner, bath, PJs on, story tape so they would fall asleep in the car. I can recommend the Classical Kids ones on Amazon Music (Mr Beethoven Lives Upstairs, Mozart's Magical Voyage) and also the Terry Pratchett Witches Vacuum Cleaner stories - each one is 20-30 mins, short enough to listen and then fall asleep, but not awful enough to drive adults mad.

If driving in the day was unavoidable we would download stuff on an iPad and wedge it between the seats so the kids could watch stuff, like on an airplane.

We've done York to Bude a few times, I'm not going to lie, it's a bloody long way and often took us 9-10 hours with one hour stop for brunch. We'd set off at 5am (always aimed for 4.30 but it never happened!) but always got stuck at Birmingham/Bristol with every other person heading to Cornwall! The problem is that most campsites/properties change over on a Saturday so you're in the traffic with everyone else arriving and leaving.

But... it will be fab when you get there - enjoy!

I drive to Cornwall from North Hertfordshire every year.

Leave about 5.30am, aim for Exeter services, that's our first stop, about 3 ish hours driving.
Coffee, wee, runabout and change for the kids.

Next stop is Asda Bodmin to fill up on petrol, usually cheapest petrol around.
Breakfast stop too.

On to final destination.

I've never found Bristol to be particularly busy by the time we reach it. ( jinxing myself now!)

Checking Google maps it's saying to go the old route instead of the motorway , says it uses 15% less petrol 🤷‍♀️, so may go that way for a change.

Done it that way once, was a nice drive.

I have just driven to Scotland and back from Surrey with my mother who has Alzheimers, my daughter who has asd, very challenging behaviour and two dogs.
Its fine, exhausted but worth it.

plan on 2 stops, be prepared to spend a good hour out of the car. Oxford to Fowey with no traffic no stops is 4hrs so there's an argument to be made that setting off at 4 driving until 7ish you can then break somewhere convenient for breakfast getting the kids dressed etc. Think at least an hour hour and a half. And your in Cornwall ready to do or see something, do a nice activity for 3 hours have lunch, drive your final hour onto the holiday cottage / hotel.

Have a plan for when the journey is not doable. As a family we went to Cornwall once, never again, it was hell.

Chelmsford , Essex to where I can’t not remember other than it wasn’t right to the end of Cornwall. We had a planned overnight stop at a Hotel in Devon on the coast, can’t remember that either.

at the time DD1 was coming up for 6 years and DD2 11 months her first holiday.

well two things happens . We discovered DD2 suffered from horrendous travel sickness and there was major delays on the road. Nine hours to get to first hotel whilst breathing in vomit 🤮 we never did get the smell out of that car.

Journey home was quicker but with stops to clear up vomiting daughter.

What are the check in arrangements? If it's just a key safe (ie you can arrive at any time after the official check in time), I'd do tea time & bath time at home, pop them in their PJs and set off about 7pm. You'll be there by 11pm.
Take stuff with you for breakfast the next day but also arrange for a supermarket delivery for the 7am - 8am slot and then you're set up for the whole holiday.
Alternatively, make a day of it. Find a national trust place or somewhere where they can have a good run around for a few hours and stop there for a while.
I've never understood the whole leave at 5am thing (and one set of grandparents lives 3.5hrs away and the other 4.5hrs away). I'm more likely to be tired and confused that early in the day - as are the DC - and you arrive at your destination but have hours before you can access the accommodation.

I’m driving down to Cornwall to see my sister on Monday. We’re leaving hopefully at 5am so we can be ahead of any traffic and also so we can get breakfast at the much loved Gloucester services. Admittedly, my two are teenagers so I’m only really planning plenty of snacks and a strict rota on who controls the Spotify playlist!

Easy drive!
We do it regularly from Reading down to the pointy bits of Cornwall as have family there.

Granted no kids but DP drives the whole way as hates being a passenger. Usually stop at Exeter for a loo break then crack on. We usually stick an audio book on.

We live in Lincolnshire and leave at 2.30am and get there for 8am ish, one stop. When the kids were little they went in their pj’s and slept most of the way. Pasty for breakfast then onto the campsite.

@isthatwhatyoureallywanted "bath time & pjs at home set off at 7pm you'll be there by 11pm."

this is pretty good advice we always used to do this when we came back from Grandma's (which was about a 4 hour drive). Gentle music / audiobook and they should drop off nicely

Personally I would swerve Bristol (I live there). It only takes one prat to cause an accident and the whole motorway network around the Almondsbury interchange becomes gridlocked.
Have you looked into going down the A34 and picking up the A303?
If you must go via Bristol then may I suggest the Asda by M5 Junction 17? Follow the signs for Highwood Lane as you come off the roundabout. Cheapest fuel in the area and its a 24 shop with cafe.