Driving Preston to Cornwall for christmas

[domesticungoddess]

Anyone know of good places to stop just off the M6/5 on the way from Preston to Cornwall.

We usually drive at night so my 1 year old is asleep all (most) the way. But we both finish work luchtime this fri and wanted to get the dreaded drive done. I think the roads will be hell.

She doesn't much like being in the car awake but we will take it in turns to sit in the back and entertain her.

We were aiming to leave at 2 pm ish and stop a couple of times. The drive usually takes me about 5 hours but I don't usually stop.

We would ideally like to stop for a couple of hours at dinner time (5pm ish) to all eat and give her a crawl around. We would be at Birmingham at 4pm ish. Soft play is a big hit with my DD.

My fall back option is ikea birmingham and then a service station or cribbs causeway Bristol.

Any help would be great.

Happy xmas

There is quite a big service station near Exeter off M5. Will try to remember the name of it.

The problem with Exeter services is that it is the last motorway service station on the M5 and it is always busy.

I would suggest that you avoid Friday afternoon because it will be ridiculously busy. I think you are being optimisitc about reaching Birmingham by 4pm. I know you want to get the journey over, but I think Friday is going to be horrible. Can you get an early start on Saturday instead.

No way will you do Preston to cornwall in 5 hours starting at 2pm this Friday, sorry.

Preston to Gloucester takes 2.5 hours minimum if you do it in the evening after all the work traffic is gone - and this Fri there will be holiday traffic too. In heavy traffic just that far has been known to take nearly 5 hours. [we live near Preston; ILs used to live in Gloucester. Know that road all too well!]

We always left it till the evening to avoid traffic - I really think you'll have a less hellish journey if you don't try to leave too early.

oh - and I wasn't being deliberately unhelpful not suggesting stopping places, we wouldn't ever have bothered with soft play en route so I can't recommend any . usually just pick up M&S wraps or salad from one of the several service stations with Simply Food.

Sadly Grimma is right. It took us 9.5 hours to drive to Padstow from near Sheffield during one holiday period. Never again!