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?

If I were driving for for hours after getting up at 5am, I'd not be settling for some soggy vegetable pasty either!

We are doing the journey on the 24th, although to the west coast instead. We drive regularly and our worst journey once was 12 hours after there were several accidents and motorway closures along the way.

We plan to leave at 7am and hope for the best! Will take lots of supplies and as few breaks as possible.

😂

That's what I would do too. Leave as early as possible. You can surely go to your relatives house until 3 pm.

Surely the family can accommodate you to sit at their house until you can get into your Airbnb?

Have you asked if you can check in earlier? If there are no guests departing that day it may be possible.

In Scotland it’s due to snow and be freezing on the 23rd and the m74 can be particularly bad.

The M6 toll should help you get past Birmingham more easily - otherwise it’s dreadful there…

Leave early. Good luck, hope all the middle lane hoggers are still asleep at home when you travel.

My parents used to drive from northern England to Dover to catch the ferry to France. They used the A1 rather than the M1 as they said it was quieter.

This wasn't at Xmas though.

If you do use the M6 then a good place for a break is to come off at the South Staffs turning, as you come off the roundabout heading for Stafford there is an industrial estate with a pub and a couple of restrarunts.
The pub has a 'Wacky Wearhouse' And if you do get stuck there is a hotel, a premier inn or some other chain.

On the other side of the roundabout there are usually a few cows to look at.

My brother lives in Cornwall, my father is in Lancashire, I'm in Wolverhampton so we have used this as a mid way meeting point when my brother has been travelling north.

I used to do this regularly and tried to leave early AM to avoid the worst of the traffic, think 4AM. I would go A1 with regular breaks to stretch legs.

Oh you’ll be fine! We make the London-Edinburgh drive a lot. Normally about 7 hrs but I’d add a bit on to that in light of the traffic. As others have said have the car well prepped (especially for cold weather), and have lots of snacks (and possibly a she-wee type situation for the kids in case of a v bad traffic jam).

Ha ha ha. Getting out of London could take 2 hours, and if they are going to the other side of Edinburgh that could take an hour going through or around the city on the Bypass. I'd reckon it's a 10 hour run, at best.

Thanks all, this is so helpful, will definitely descend on family if we arrive early and will look in to early check-in as well. I chatted to DH after my last post and he also says thank you to you all! We’ll be sharing the drive, will leave as early as we can (6am very latest), prepare for the worst and hope for the best!

I wouldn't. I love a good long drive, love driving generally, but I think on that day it will be a nightmare.

Yesterday I spent 8 hours driving from Surrey to Nottingham to pick up ds1 from uni, and back to Surrey. I left at 6am, m1 was bad, 2pm home. On the way back m1 was bad, m25 crawling.

All very well saying that you'll leave at 6 am, but that means you're hit some of the major roads mid-morning, lunchtime and mid afternoon and I don't think it will be much fun.

By the way the 3 motorway service stations I stopped at had run out of screen wash, big containers of water, and in the shop part, little bottles of water.

@Oblomov22 yep, think it’s going to be dire but not worth cancelling Christmas for… I may well eat my words but I’m remaining optimistic for now! Sorry you had such tough journeys, must be lovely to have DS home :)

Done this loads. It’s totally doable.

make sure you have your car ready (inflated tyres, spare screen wash concentrate), your people stuff ready (flasks, blankets, sensible outdoor clothes and more snacks and food than feels reasonable) and don’t put yourself under time pressure - you’ll get there when you get there. Make sure you’ve got contact details for air bnb host so you can let them know when to expect you.

Unlike others, depending on where you are in London, I’d go m11, A1(m) and A1 all the way up. It’s pretty much a moving queue from Morpeth but it’s fewer miles and fewer big cities to get stuck in (you don’t get caught in the northwest conurbations’ traffic). It’s also reliably kept open if at all possible, unlike the A68.

have a nice Christmas!

I'm doing the North London Newcastle run the same day (likely to be DF's last Christmas so not one we feel we can skip).

It usually takes 4 to 5 hours on relatively light traffic with a short pee break. I'm not leaving early so assuming it'll be 7 or 8 hrs this time.

London location matters as well. When I lived in S London it was an extra hour just to get out of London.

For PPs who are comparing to other years, the difference this year is the train strikes.

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

It's a very pretty route but the first part from Darlo to Corbridge has loads of roundabouts and there are some reckless drivers on it over the hills. After being seconds away from being hit by some idiot overtaking when he didn't have room I've never gone that route again. I'd rather take the A1. I'd also avoid the A19, the traffic is dreadful at the best of times, there's accidents every day between teesside and newcastle, it's a terrible road.

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.

If there is a lot of snow I'd avoid the A66 but otherwise agree this is probably the best and fastest route, avoids the non-motorway A1 but misses the worst parts of the m6.

@OooPourUsACupLove so sorry to hear about your DF x

Do come back and let us know how the traffic was, I’m weirdly invested now. Possibly also include route and breakdown of snacks. 😂

@Mirabai haha will do!

Just carry on as you are. It's entirely doable but if you factor in breaks to stop and have lunch, dinner will take longer than 7 hours. We always split the journey by staying over in Manchester, appreciate you can't do that though . You'll be fine, just pack power packs, chargers for the devices, plenty of water, snacks and get a decent night's sleep beforehand so you can leave nice and early. Have a lovely time.

It will be a bit of a tough journey, but the big Scottish family Christmas sounds lovely. I’m sure it means a lot to DH and MIL that you’re going. Good luck!

Leave earlier, kids can go back to sleep in the car - the worst of the traffic will naturally be in the more heavily populated south. Get as far up as you can as early as possible. Even when busy once you're past Lancaster/Newcastle it doesn't have the same meaning.