London to Edinburgh road trip - beautiful camping and/or beach spot recommendations please???

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We are hoping to have a stop for an overnight break, weather permitting.

We will set off from the crack of dawn in London, so we can enjoy a decent amount of time in wherever we stop.

Neither of us know the coastal drive well. We’re also happy to deviate slight as long as it’s in the right direction.

We’re ideally hoping for beautiful scenery, lovely beaches or pretty countryside, parking included would be wonderful.

It’s an anniversary and we would love for it to be a romantic journey.

Any and all suggests very welcome.

Would love to hear accounts from anyone who has done this trip, thought about it,or heard from others who have.

Thanks in advance.

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Which side of London are you leaving from?
Is your route via m1 or m6?

You’re going to have a bit of a trek to the coast.
Robin Hoods Bay
Runswick Bay
Seaham - the Hall and Spa is v.nice

It'll be quite a detour but I'd stay on the M1 then come off at A1(M) towards Durham and then head towards the coast. That whole Northumberland coastline is beautiful, looking out onto Holy island.

I second this. It's beautiful up there.

Another one voting for the Northumberland coast. If you are going up the west side then the solway firth area is beautiful - but that's prob too far north!

Or do the whole trip on the A1. I agree that the Northumberland coast is stunning.

If you switch to the A19 instead of A1 (near Thirsk), you’ll skirt the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. You can easily get to Helmsley - a lovely little Market town and also visit the magnificent Rievaulx Abbey. Plenty of campsites in that area. The A19 rejoins the A1 north of Newcastle, so you’ll still have the options of Northumberland beaches too.

https://www.sleeper.scot/

or get the sleeper train as an alternative romantic journey!

Depends on which route you want to take, quickest by road is usually up the m1&m6 so stopping In Liverpool area makes sense for coastal or I can recommend inland camp site ms a couple of junctions up.

If you want the a1 coast route take the m1 / a1 north and take a19 out towards the coast over the moors - there's nice spots in County Durham for a cheap overnight stop.

Personally I drive straight through anyway (we usually are heading to Aberdeen, takes 8-9 hours from mine, can't see point of stopping

definitely Northumberland - and then you can stop for coffee in Berwick the next day and onto edinburgh

Yes, by the time you get to Northumberland you might as well keep going to Edinburgh!
The A1 is horrible, id go up the M6 and either stay in the Lakes or cut across near Penrith.
Saying that I have stopped off on the way down to the South East in North Yorkshire but that was on a camping holiday with small kids and DH wanted to go on a nostalgic trip to Scarborough!

Lake district seems ideal

we stopped at Peak District on the way

You won't be all that near the coast until you're a long way north of Manchester if you take the the M6 route, and even then it's a bit of a hike to the coast from most junctions, you'll be looking at about an extra hour on your journey (plus mad drivers and trucks, lots of trucks), personally I'd choose the M1 through Yorkshire/then lovely
coastal Northumberland route any day though it does depend a bit what time of year/day you're travelling.

If you want somewhere halfway you could always join the A1 in the East Midlands and stop off somewhere round about Nottingham, lots of lovely NT type sites round there with gorgeous grounds. It might not be as fast as the M1 but every time we've done it the A1 has been a much more pleasant journey (with the caveats about time of year again).

I drive from Leeds to Edinburgh a lot and always do A1, A66, M6/M74 then across the A720 as this is usually the quickest route and the A roads are very scenic and break up the motorway sections.

There are a few sites around Barnard Castle, as recommended by Dominic Cummings.

It used to take me about 6 hours straight up the M1/A1 from SW11 to Newcastle u Tyne. Then an hour-90 mins on to the fabulous Northumberland coast (the fabulousness starts north of Amble). Obviously going via N Yorks Moors will take longer, but worth it. Could you do coast on the way there, moors on the way back?

I'm from the North East and live in London. We always drive up the A1 as it's a more pleasant journey than M1. About 15 miles north of Newcastle the A1 does become single lane and yes, you can get farm machinery but it's not usually on for long.
The Northumberland coast is beautiful. Bamburgh beach is stunning with the castle overlooking it. Actually, there's so many places you could stop off in Northumberland.

This is super helpful, thank you! Very interested in looking this up and doing it.

Any specific coastal or lake/peak district campsites anyone would like to recommend?

Another thought is stopping off at a hostel in York in the event of predicted thunderstorms, no parking included though, not sure what we would do about the car, or how safe it would be to leave our gear overnight in it.

I'm surprised at the M1/M6 suggestions. My immediate thought was A1, so I google mapped it and the A1 route is the first suggestion.