How far (long) do you think it is acceptable to drive in one day?

[InsufficientMum]

One person doing the driving.

How long do you think is ok to plan for one days driving? 4 hours? 6? 8? 10?

Holidays, not work related. And is it reasonable to suggest DH drives a long distance alone because it would be convenient for me (and mean he wouldn't have to spend a week visiting my family). Then we share the return journey between us and do some sightseeing on the way back over 2-3 days. For full disclosure, I am not a fan of driving and prefer to take a break after an hour- hour and a half. DH likes driving so tends to do more in every day life.

I have. It's not enough 😭

I regularly do the 200miles approx between my house and my parents.

It has taken between 3.5hrs and 7.5hrs!!

How patronising is that?!

I'm sure she has.

Also, it's a major issue in BMW. Even with the seat raised, the belt cuts across my throat - and I'm taller than the average female. You can't actually move the belt up and down unlike in other cars.

It's an actual fact that cars are designed around male bodies.

If it's somewhere that DH wants to go he can drive for up to about 10 hours with stops, I struggle with 2 hours, DH likes driving though so probably more depends on the individual than anything else

Just to confirm (I'm a woman and I enjoy driving contrary to the other comments on here). That was when I drove from London to the Highlands but I've also driven from London to Wales (5 hrs) and enjoy doing long drives, I much prefer them to short trips which are tedious. I get to put on some music of choice and relax as most of the journey is motorway - residential roads drive me bonkers. Wales was interesting though as it was a lot of mountain driving.

I rarely drive long distance alone as I’d always get the train if I’m someone on my own. But probably 8 hours with a few breaks within that.

Most cars seem to fit me just right, I am a 5'10" female, as many more men are that height than women I would say yes, they are designed with men in mind

DH will do 13 hours (about 550 miles) with minimal breaks, including one while he's waiting for and sitting on the Eurotunnel. He prefers to do it that way, but I couldn't do it myself, even as a passenger (like you I have injuries that make it too painful). The same trip by air, including airport waiting time and hiring a car at the other end, plus a 2-2.5 hour drive, is about 7 hours if nothing goes wrong. He does fly sometimes.

I start to get a bit tired and grumpy after about ten hours. Stopping every hour would send me loopy though.

For me (and I do this only occasionally), it's 6 hours max in one day. I generally need to take a break every 2 hours so the whole thing would be maybe 7-8 hours.

8 or 12 hours - no. I've done that in an emergency before but it's just too much for a planned trip.

We do ten hours back to UK from South Germany. DH drives as I don't have a licence. It's doable but I don't think we'd want to do longer.

We tend to try and do about 3-4 hours for the first stretch them stop every couple of hours or so. Rest on ferry too. We are always shattered when we arrive.

He says cruise control, especially ACC helps a lot.

7 hours drive with one stop, no problem. Longer than that, I would have to have an incentive I.e. over due family trip, holiday/ big bday party.

Also a woman , as that has seemed to have become a point of note, on this thread.

I drive five hours to see my family. It's cross-country and I wouldn't want to go further. If it was all motorways and dual carriageways I would drive further.

the OP's cunning plan involved, say, a fourteen hour solo drive then it would be hugely cheeky even to ask her DH to do it.

I don't agree. It's a trip/holiday they've wanted to do. She's not asking him to do something for her. She's asking if he fancies doing it now 🙅🏻‍♀️ It's up to him if he wants to drive them all up there or go a week later by himself. He's a big boy, I'm sure he can decide.

@blacksax

No. Try reading (novel idea maybe) about the design & manufacturing of cars.

Maybe some cars are better than others. Mine is fine with the seat raised. Guess you can't really suit 4.10 and 6.4 in one go all the time. You just need to pick what's right for you (and I guess that ain't a BMW)

DH did West Coast of Wales to the Alsace once, but we did sleep on the ferry a bit...

My top out at 4 hrs before needing a break but it’s been a decade since I’ve driven more than 4 hours so not sure if I can do more than that these days.

stopping every 90 mins seems like it would take forever to get somewhere. But it would give the primary driver a break at least.

I've done 8 hours in a day, but that's normally been with at least one long break, and a couple of short ones.

If I'm driving on my own, with no spare driver, then I pull over more frequently. Dh hates driving so I normally do most of it, but if we've got a long journey he'll take a turn although I'll still do most. I reserve the right to hit him when he snores though. I tell him that definitely isn't on. 🤣

DH and I share the driving. The longest we've done is 13 hours through France - I prefer to drive a longish stunt, he'd rather break it up so he did 3+2+3 and I did 4+1.

We've been on holidays with friends where he's driven for about 16 hours - Nice -Calais - London without a break except for ferry so it's very much what anyone can do on the day

Don't be so patronising (see what I did there?).

I wasn't talking about the design of vehicles (or indeed crash-testing, in which they have traditionally used male-sized dummies), but about the assumption that 'males' and 'females' have different likes and dislikes when it comes to driving. Perhaps you need to brush up on your own reading and comprehension skills before criticising other posters.

@blacksax save your tyres & jog on.

I'm doing a 400-mile journey next month - with a couple of quick breaks factored in to top up my coffee and have a wee, it should take about six hours, which is fine.

I do that sort of distance fairly regularly.