Turkey problem!

[MrsAvocet]

We're going away for Christmas, staying in a holiday home about 4 and a half hours away from home. We're setting off on Sat 23rd and I have a Tesco delivery booked for the day before as I plan to take most of our food with us. We have got a fairly big electric cool box which will plug in in the car so should keep perishables ok but obviously I dont want to put a raw turkey in it with other chilled stuff plus the box isn't that big.
I thought about getting a frozen one and letting it defrost en route but I have just been reading about defrosting and everywhere says you should always defrost in a fridge not at room temperature. I'm also not sure how long after it's defrosted it's safe to keep it in the fridge before cooking and I have found conflicting advice online. Does anyone have any idea if it would be safe if I bought an ordinary cool bag and packed cold packs around it and then put it straight into the fridge as soon as we arrived at the holiday home. It would then be in the fridge all through Christmas Eve.
It's a fairly out of the way spot and the only localish supermarket isn't open or doing deliveries on Christmas Eve so I really need to have everything I need with me, or buy it on the way. If I do any shopping en route it will probably need to be somewhere about half way through the trip so there will still be a couple of hours in the car afterwards and of course I then risk not getting a turkey at all. I should have thought this through better I know, but I didn't and now I'm stuck with it. Any ideas anyone?

Change the choice of meat? You could quite safely defrost a beef/pork joint en route in the boot if if was wrapped well and had cool blocks around it. It would also keep well in the fridge throughout Christmas eve. You can still do the traditional accompaniments of red cabbage/pigs on blanket etc.

Is there a butcher nearer your destination?

2 cool boxes?

If it’s cold enough in December it might be fine defrosting in the car.

It will be fine! I have frozen meat deliveries which come with ice packs and other food deliveries and I keep the ice packs to re-use for things like this

I think an ordinary cool bag with plenty of ice packs would be fine, especially if it’s been in the fridge right up until you start travelling. The boot of your car on dec 23rd is unlikely to be that warm anyway (make sure you don’t have any hot air blowing in there - ours has an extra optional row of seats near the back and sometimes I forget to turn the heating off for that row).

Or if you are worried you could put the turkey in the electric cool box and some of the other non meat things in the normal cool bag?

It will be fine just do as the previous poster suggested and put it into your electric cool box and pack a cool bag with other stuff.

I’ve nearly always kept our fresh turkey (bought very early on the 23rd) in a cool box outside with ice packs. Always fine, even when the weather’s been very mild for December.

Is there a farm shop near Irvin your way to the accommodation? Could order and pick up on the way?

Can you change your delivery to get it all sent to your holiday home instead? So much less hassle all round.

A frozen one will be absolutely fine , will still be frozen solid when you get there. then put in fridge . You are going to thoroughly cook it so really minimal risk.

Thanks all.
I think I will just buy another coolbag and pack it with as many cool packs as I can and hope for the best. Thinking back I know my Mum used to leave ours to defrost in the garage when I was a kid as the fridge wasn't big enough so a few hours in the boot is probably not a huge risk.
We are going to a rather out of the way place and I can't see a butcher anywhere nearby on Google, though I guess I could message the owners and see if they have any suggestions. I think I'd be happier to know I had all the key things with me though as if we got held up in traffic, bad weather or something and the shops were shut when we arrived it wouldn't be quite the Christmas I'm hoping for!