To think the reason UK holidays can be shit is not the weather but the traffic?

[MrsBede]

....and it's much worse this year?

I went from the Midlands to North Wales a couple of weeks ago and it took twice as long as it should have both there and back. Just got back from London and it took about 90 minutes longer than it should have. For both these trips it wasn't just one delay, but several unrelated ones - for the former every step of the journey pretty much had long delays. For London it's just the M1 - that was slow going there for a long stretch and on the way back my SAtnav recommended a detour and that had delays too.

As well as this, my city is being dug up here there and everywhere - I can think of about 5 different local routes that all have roadworks on them and ensuing delays - one was the bloody slip road when I finally got off the motorway today!

It just spoils everything - we're going to Hampshire for a few days next week and the thought that the 3.5 hour trip is likely to be more like 6 is really putting me off and I half feel like cancelling, which is very unlike me indeed. I certainly expect some delays when going longish distances but AIBU to think this year has been worse than ever, and it's not fair! (Yes, I'm tired and very pissed off...)

You don’t live in a county?

No I officially don't live in a county. Forms that have county as a required field are very annoying.

(Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Hartlepool, Stockton Borough, are not counties as they are individual authorities in their own rights, any titles such as Teesside, Tees Valley, Cleveland etc are not related to a county)

Yep!

I was shocked when we went through a phase of starting to drive abroad, so so much quieter once hit French soil or Netherlands, Brussels..

Travel at a different time of day.

We've got a caravan in Wales, if we go straight from school on a Friday it can take between 2.5 and 3 hours.
I've come back today, setting out at 6pm and it took 1hr 20.

When we used to go to Cornwall we'd set out at 5am and it took 4hr 30 whereas travelling later on a Saturday would easily be 7hrs+

Agree. But not enough to put me off holidays in the uk. You can pull off the motorway and stop somewhere take a break and start again.

This year we came back from Devon In Torrential rain. One car with two adults and three children, 8, 3 and 6 months. I (an adult I guess) sat between the toddler and baby for 3 hours on the m5 either feeding the baby or passing snacks/treats to the baby. Long three hours but still felt better than being cooped up on a plane.

Even with a 30 min queue just to get into a service station.

@Gertie75

Travel at a different time of day.

We've got a caravan in Wales, if we go straight from school on a Friday it can take between 2.5 and 3 hours.
I've come back today, setting out at 6pm and it took 1hr 20.

When we used to go to Cornwall we'd set out at 5am and it took 4hr 30 whereas travelling later on a Saturday would easily be 7hrs+

I went to Cornwall 3 weeks ago. Left at 5am arrived at 6pm. Not always quicker

Get up earlier, or leave the night before and overnight in a cheap hotel, take an alternative route...plenty of options.

with dc though you are restricted & staying overnight is often not so cheap.

DH managed to fly his entire team of 11 to their Barcelona office for less than the cost of his train fare to those London office pre Covid

it's ridiculous

@MrsBede

Have a short break in your own county.

Fuck, yes. That will make life worth living...work all year to have a short break in my own county - wow! Talk about joyless...

I don't mean to be flippant about the state of the environment but lord...does it have to come to that?

I agree! I live just north of the m25! What fun!

Everyone has banged on about stay cations and the beautiful UK coasts and how much there is to do and see in the UK but now we are being told no

Such a silly comment about sheep...

I travel in the school holidays because I'm a teacher with two dc in secondary school. And as for travelling at different times of day - I'm not going to do a three hour journey 'overnight'. It would mean either arriving still in the middle of the night with nowhere to go on arrival, or waking up (and waking kids up) at say 4am and arriving at 7am knackered and unable to check-in until 3pm. Or set off later in the day and probably still get delayed and arrive after the latest check-in time-lots of cottages etc have those. And with short breaks you don't want to add an extra night on - you're having a short break because that's what you have time for/can afford.

I would rather travel to My local airport and fly away to a hot country in a few hours rather than hours on the motorway but we are stuck but as I said above thought we was supposed to pump money into stay fucking cations

Have a short break in your own county.

On second thoughts I'd be up for this, it would be nice for London to be calmer & quieter.

If you’re in a car, you ARE traffic. YABU

If you’re in a car, you ARE traffic. YABU

This.

There are other ways to travel. As you found, they're more expensive. Hence why you and so many others drive, until the traffic levels get so high that some people decide the cost in time of the traffic is worse than the cost in money of a train or plane.

Flying to another country isn't much better to be honest. So. Much. Waiting. Plus travel to the departure airport and from the arrival airport. And often all at an unsociable hour. I've had door-to-door travel time of 12 hours just for a destination in western Europe.

I am TOTALLY with Katy Brand on this.

A Staycation is in fact NOT GOING ANYWHERE!!!! Its what was called, in WWII, a Holiday At Home. Day trips, paddling pools in the back garden, seeing bits of where you live that you've never bothered with before.

Leaving your home, driving, walking, biking, taking a train anywhere else is called a HOLIDAY!!

You are not stuck in traffic, you ARE traffic!

This year the traffic is worse because there seems to be roadworks everywhere. Many motorways are Being upgraded to smart motorways so there are speed restrictions a and lane closures everywhere.

Embrace the journey. Play I spy, pack a picnic, fight over the radio and and shout "is that Blackpool tower" everytime you see a pylon.

Book in advance and take the train. Much less stressful and better for the environment

It's not just the long drive to the holiday destination It's also the awful traffic when you're there. Devon, for example, took us 45 minutes to travel 4 miles down clogged country lanes. Massively puts me off going back. We also love Dorset but the traffic again this year was awful.

We don't currently live in the UK and I love the fact that when we travel places we know how long it will take to get there and we rarely experience heavy traffic. I now hate driving in the UK. And I agree it's such a shame trains are so expensive.

Well, getting to the location I went to in N Wales would be bear enough impossible without a car. I priced up London by train and it would have been nearly £300 for 3 of us - it was a fairly last minute decision to go

If you won't take the train because it is too costly and too inconvenient for you, you can't expect others to either, so you'll have to put up with the traffic you're creating.

I agree public transport should be much cheaper, but the UK has a car culture.

The general attitude is 'I want to get to places quickly and cheaply, other people should get out of my way'.

It was this hypocrisy that prompted me to get rid of my car - once I got annoyed with traffic and pollution I decided not to do it anymore. Life without a car is much better (and cheaper).

I travel at odd times to avoid this.

Leave early morning on the arrival day, then enjoy a bonus day.

I don't think trains are that bad (apart from Wales, another story). We have a friends and family railcard, also book in advance. If you've got changes it's sometimes cheaper to book singles (single London to Birmingham, single Birmingham to Shrewsbury for eg). I don't even mind rail replacement bus services, I still find it preferable to sitting in traffic. Someone up thread said it took 30 mins just to get into a service station!!
I also think of the train journey as part of the holiday. I actually enjoy working out what platform we need to be on, working out where we need to change etc.

We drove from the south east to Glasgow, took 5/6 hours but was okay. For the 5 of us to travel by train it was going to cost about £600 and take almost 12 hours. Flights were about £400. In the car it was one tank of fuel each way (very economical little car!). We always holiday in the UK and it’s a bit more busy this year but not horrendously so. Am hopeful that next year the awful British tourists will fuck off abroad again!!!!

If we are going anywhere a distance away I just plan on a whole day to travel, any less in a bonus! It is what it is you can’t change it so no point letting it be an issue.

If you've got changes it's sometimes cheaper to book singles

See, this is nuts. I have no idea why train fares in this country are so much. It's cheaper, less stressful and massively quicker to drive my family of four 80 miles from Suffolk to visit my parents in London than it is for me alone to get to Liverpool Street. It's ridiculous. I'm an environmentally conscious person, but when driving is less than a third of the cost why would I choose the train?