To drive from London to Edinburgh on 23rd Dec

[Squaffle]

DH & MIL are Scottish, we live in London and alternate Christmases every year between up there and my family who are just outside London. We’ve not been to Scotland for Christmas since 2019 due to covid and so have a huge Christmas planned this year with all the Scottish family which we’re all really looking forward to.

Way before the strikes were announced we booked an Air BnB on the same road as the family member who is hosting Christmas (no room at the inn there), and always planned to drive up from London on 23rd Dec with MIL and DC6 because flying or getting the train with presents etc would be too much faff.

Now that the strikes have been confirmed, I read yesterday that the Highways Agency is saying people shouldn’t travel on 23rd/24th if they can avoid it, expecting 17m cars on the roads and significant traffic. We’re fine with driving long distances, DC looking forward to having sweets and audiobooks, MIL will
probably sleep. I don’t know what the solution is as we can’t really afford to stay anywhere overnight to break up the journey nor to extend the Air BnB booking… we’re already stretching financially to do this in the first place. We don’t have access to the Air BnB until 3pm so an overnight drive wouldn’t work either.

If we leave London at 6am that might help I guess… and we’re planning to take the route that goes up the west to avoid the M1. Are we mad to even consider it?

Your'll be fine if leaving that early ... go for it - just pack plenty of water / food just in case. Also full tank of fuel, screen wash, tyre pressure all sorted a couple of days before ... have a lovely family Christmas :-)

Where in Scotland? Easily accessed from motorway/dual carriageway? Miles up a single track road?

says in the title edinburgh

id drive m1,m6,m74 then m8 to edinburgh

I'm in Cornwall and travelling to the midlands on 23rd to stay with family. Sadly it's the only day we can go, we would usually leave early but my DH is working until mid morning so won't get on the road till midday. Not much we can do.
We'll have DD and our dog so we'll need to do some stops, will take us atleast 5/6 hours to get there if traffic is ok-ish.
You should be fine if you leave early but if you need to travel then you'll have to join all the other people travelling, there isn't much we can do

Just make sure you have food, water etc. for the journey and be prepared to be sat in your car for hours.

I wouldn't do it personally. I'd fly and sort the presents another time if necessary.

It should take about 7.5 hours - more with sensible breaks. I'd take the M1 then the A1 right to Edinburgh. Check theaa.com route planner.

You could try the A1/A19.

it will probably take you just as long to get out of London so leaving after 7pm might save you time in the long run.

M25/M1 to Milton Keynes / cross east to the A1 and you’re away.

I'd do it. It's just a journey. But I'd maybe plan some back roads to avoid the busiest stretches .

It's only about 6 hours. Go for it. Leaving early is sensible.

I'd do it too but I'd go a1. The m6 is hell all the time

Another option might be to leave at something like 4am to miss even more of the traffic? That’s what we used to do about 15 years ago for a similar drive.

400 miles - more like 7 hours, sorry.

Can you both drive? The AA is always quite cautious over Christmas and warning people not to travel. I'd still go.

Sometimes the hype and doom
Mongering is far worse then the reality. Ive often done a 5-6 hour drive on 23/24th and its mostly been fine. Sometimes we have even had an amazing run. If id listened to the news we wouldn't have even left the house.

It will all be worth it when you get there.

if you can bear it, can you start even earlier that 6am? the earlier you can start, the less bad it will be. we did a similar journey once starting at 5am and stopping for a fryup breakfast at 9.

work on the assumption that it will take a lot longer than you expect. allow at least twice the normal journey time. have plenty of food and snacks and blankets and a travel urinal in the car.

don't take risks or drive impatiently. there will definitely be accidents leading to long tailbacks and queues somewhere along the route, but so long as you aren't one of the cars actually involved in one of the accidents, you will get through eventually.

I read yesterday that the Highways Agency is saying people shouldn’t travel on 23rd/24th if they can avoid it,

I had no idea. It wouldn't even cross my mind not to continue with my plans though.

I used to do this journey every year. It will be fine. Leave early and don’t take the east coast A1 route. Always go M6, M74, M8. Leave as early as possible to dodge traffic - 5am even better. Take lots of water, shovel and blankets and full test of tyre pressure, screen wash and full tank of fuel before leaving.

I'd set off early and use primarily the A1 but keep an eye on hold ups.

I travel from Leeds to Edinburgh quite a lot and Google maps actually suggests A1, A66, M6/74 then cross country on the A702 to get back to the southern approach to Edinburgh, rather than only the A1 which is further. The above route is nice because the A66 and A720 breaks up the motorway bits and the M74 goes through stunning countryside.

I think if you set off at 4/5 am and take 2 or 3 breaks for breakfast, coffee and lunch it's going to be getting on for 3 pm when you get there anyway. However you might need to take some food/drinks/snacks or plan carefully where you stop with you as buying all that at services is going to be expensive.

We do Bristol to Motherwell several times a year, so a similar length journey. We both drive so we can swap over if necessary and we don't spend ages at the motorway services- just long enough for a toilet trip and to refuel if necessary.

We also try to avoid rush hour in Bristol and Birmingham so we either leave around 5am or 6pm. If we're doing the latter after a days work we accept that we might become tired so we come off the motorway and find the nearest Premier Inn or similar to grab a few hours sleep.

I’d leave an hour earlier. If you make good time and arrive before 3 surely family hosting Christmas can provide toilet / tea / coffee for an hour or so.

You'll be fine but leave earlier than 6am. Fill up the car the night before, take blankets, a shovel, torches, fluorescent stuff in case of break down and take a few breaks. Have a lovely Scottish Christmas.

Thanks so much for all your responses everyone! That’s made me feel a lot better. It wouldn’t have crossed my mind to worry had I not read the paper yesterday. So much great advice here, thank you all again so much.

The weather is due to warm up next week so what's the shovel for?

To beat away fellow travellers in the scrum for the last sausage roll in Greggs at the services?

It'll be busy. But you know that and can plan accordingly.

We travelled from Portsmouth to Sheffield on 21st July (the Friday) and there were warnings of heavy traffic.

Took us 6.5 hours with a stop instead of 3.45 hours straight it usually takes!

We also chose not to leave at crack of dawn like we usually would for long journeys.

I agree with leaving at 5am. Driving for a few hours and stopping for breakfast and then cracking on. You'll have done at least half the journey before all the traffic starts then and will be prepared for anything else.

Make sure who have plenty of de-icer and stock up on windscreen washer fluid that can cope with minus figures.

Like many other drivers this week, frozen washer fluid caused the biggest problems. The minis 5 stuff just didn't cope