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?

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

This made me laugh! I do like to plan for every eventuality, maybe a mini shovel for this very purpose!

Agree with this

I'd consider driving up overnight tbh. DC and MIL will sleep and you and DH can share the driving and take turns to sleep.

Because UK weather is unpredictable & mainstream news often gets it wrong?
I'm just south of Edinburgh in the Borders. Currently freezing fog (can't see anything outside) & 'snow coming'. It can drift & bank even on main roads.

I did a short trip one Feb about 5 years ago, from home to Beamish (about 80M?). Car broke down (weather bad). AA took 5 hours to get to us (couldn't walk up the A1 as I'm disabled). You never really know what might happen so
Better to be slightly over than under prepared.

OP, I'd start mega early. Take nice car-food (as you'll spend a kings ransom on coffee stops). 'Drive to arrive' & you will be fine. Enjoy your Scottish Christmas.

We are doing that drive. It's fine.

Can you leave at 4am?

Why don't you just go up A1 all the way?

We do a similar journey to this very regularly (a bit longer but S England to Edinburgh). Over the 20odd years we've been doing it my suggestions would be:

To leave as early as you possibly can (we used to wake the kids at about 5 and head off soon after)

Take snacks/sandwiches etc with you. We used to do "wee stops only" because even queuing for a coffee can take ages at service stations

We ditched the M6 after a few absolutely hideous journeys. It's the M1 for us every time now

Hope it goes well

Just to clarify I used to be in the same position and it's a very manageable drive even solo, but I think the strikes will really make it hard. I drove only 14 junctions up the M1 from London last week on the day of the strike and it was terrible, didn't get above 4th gear for 2 hours. There are now roadworks at junction 13 and still got the works on the M6. I thought it'd be better yesterday but was just as bad. So yes I'd still do it but either leave at 4am or at 11pm.

Oh and the A1 is a lovely drive once you get past the car park that is Newcastle!

It will be horrible! But prepare well and you'll be ok. If you really don't want to go overnight, I'd still consider leaving in the wee small hours (2am?).
Pack EVERYTHING you may need including even something for people to see into (like a TravelJohn for example), far more food than you think you might need and loads of blankets. Hopefully it'll be grand and you won't need them. But much better to be ultra prepared!

WEE into, that should say!!!

If you get to Darlington via A1 I'd take the A68 via Jedburgh to Edinburgh. It's a scenic route, less speed cameras and probably quieter. If it's icy snowy avoid as it's covers high ground and gets blocked easily if it snows

My preference would be the train. No stress. Take some presents with you and send others special delivery.

There are strikes on the train

Oh yes sorry forgot!

I've done in reverse. What works for us is leaving at 5am - lift half sleeping dc into car. Have snacks like brioche buns. Stop at 9am for proper breakfast and get dc changed. Then it's a big push.

Lol good one

Also as the strike is on 24th not 23rd leaving 23rd - or ideally 22nd should be lots better.

We drove from Center Parcs (Sherwood) back to Edinburgh. That took 5.5 hours because of awful traffic at Sherwood end and terrible roadworks through Newcastle around angel of north. It was awful and that was a Friday in October. Prepare for 10 hours of driving.

After the last 2 years, I imagine everyone is going to completely ignore what the Highways Agency is called these days and the AA.

Leave early. Plan you stops. Take food, snacks, audiobook downloads and duvets/blankets just in case . Take it steady. A1/A19/A1 isn't too bad now they've taken the roundabouts out of the a1. A19 is orrery steady in my experience - I used to do Newcastle to London quite regularly on Christmas Eve

This has made me laugh, it was literally the point of the thread. The AA are warning not to travel because of the strikes.

@Squaffle we're driving back to London on the 23rd and the possibility of the strikes impacting hadn't really occured to me either. We won't change plans though, I expect we'll get back eventually. But thanks to your thread I'll make sure to pack extra provisions for the kids! Hope your journey goes smoothly.

I'd still do it but but I would personally leave before 6. Could you leave really early around 4am? You'd get most of the trip out of the way before the mega traffic starts. Once up in Scotland, stop off somewhere for a nice walk and lunch before getting to the airBnB.

We use the toilets in the petrol station shop rather than the ones in the main service station building. It only takes a coach to arrive and suddenly there's 50 people queueing for the loo.

DH refuels while I'm in the loo. By the time I come out he's joined the queue to pay. I then take his place in the queue while he pops off for a pee. We're usually back on the road in 15 minutes.

Seeing people mention services - if there is a lot travelling just be aware of service station queues. We came back from Cornwall in the pandemic with the rest of the uk and had to queue on the road to get into service stations.

Have a look at what is around motorway exits and you can normally fine cafes, petrol stations etc quite close by. I often did London to north west on a Friday night with a stop at a Nando's in the midlands