Long car journey- when to travel?

[sillysausagesarnie]

We have 3 dc who are three, five and seven. We need to do a long journey by car. When would be best to travel? We usually travel around teatime/bedtime so if they sleep it is within sleep hours for them and when we get there we can sleep and they do too.

However I am thinking maybe it'd work to have an early night and then lift them into car around 4/5am and leave then with duvets etc and this means we can arrive at a better time.

Anyone any experience/advice??

How long is the journey?

well technically 11 hours but we are breaking it up by staying with my parents one night and then my brother the next i think. Going Fort William, Glasgow, Yorkshire, Swansea.

I would always do evening if it less than 6 hours. I think this works best. The morning thing doesn't work well as once they are awake, they are awake! With light mornings, this can be quite early.

I sometime do a 13 hour journey, and set off at 1pm after lunch to arrive at 2am. I find it easier than doing the whole thing overnight.

If I am going on a long journey, I like to leave around 5am and then get many miles (200+) under my belt before anyone starts to get restless. It also means, as you say, arriving with a decent part of the day left.

I don't think there is an easy answer. I have tried the 4am start to be greeted with DS so excited to be up that he didn't sleep in the car until lunch!

Could you travel during the day but just be prepared to stop on the way and make it a day out? Find two or three places on the way and have a proper break? For example, between Yorkshire and Swansea you could stop at Drayton Manor/Thomas Land.

I always took mine early - as there is less traffic than in the evening. I would warm the car so they didn't wake up in a cold car.

Mine where always really good

i did always stop frequently even for justs a wee for 5-10 minutes and this seemed to always help.