First drive on M25 - Nervous!

[owltrousers]

Hi All!

I'm driving from Bristol to Colchester on Thursday morning this week (leaving at 4am to hopefully miss London traffic) I've driven on motorways before but its my first time on the M25. I passed my test back in December.

I'm particularly nervous as I'll have my 4 month old baby in the back. Going to be taking it super steady will lots of breaks but does anyone have any advice / tips for me?

Thank you

It's no difference at all to any other driving. It's much easier to get on and off the M25 than most busy motorways to be fair. There is always a good filter road.
There is essentially two middle lanes. As people aren't keen on driving properly they don't use them for overtaking but just to sit in for the duration of the circuit. Which is either easy or annoying depending on how your sensibilities.If you get stuck in a jam it's normally quicker in the slow or fast lane rather than the middle two.
And it's possibly much slower than most motorways.

Which way you going? Clockwise?

Thanks @FreeMantle that makes me feel a lot better.

Going clockwise over the top. Plan is just to stick in the slow lane where possible.

I used to be wary of the M25 as well but it really is just another motorway.

To be fair I find myself in lane 2 or 3 of the M25 most of the time because I am continually overtaking lorries sitting at 50 in lane 1.

Completely agree it’s no scarier than a regular motorway. If anything because you’re often stop start it’s easier as you have more thinking time. I like to use it to think about how I could have taken one of a number of local routes and skipped the bloody M25

@Scribblegirl I did consider going wayyyy out of the way to avoid it. I was fine until my mum scared me by saying its not like other motorways and to be extra careful. Wish she hadn't said anything!

Replies here have put me at ease though, thanks all!

I find the M25 a lot slower on average. You could be doing 65-70 in the 'fast' lane.
Pp above is right in that many of the left lanes are filters to take you off at the junction, so you may want to aim for lanes 2 and 3.

If you're taking the M4 over from Bristol beforehand, the M25 will feel a lot slower!

Ha op, my parents are 4 junctions along from me, so driving home is 25 mins if it moves properly but can be over an hour if it’s sluggish. County roads are 45 mins, I’m not sure how but I manage to make the slower choice every bloody time

I mean, I hate the road, but not because it’s hard to drive, just because of the months of my life I’ve wasted on it!

Any more basic info out there. We are in Cumbria and no knowledge of how it works/looks/why is it considered different or scary to drive on. Why clockwise/anti clockwise, surely you just take the quickest or nearest route. Am putting off visiting Walton on Thames area cos of it!

Presumably you'll be hitting the M4 at about 6am - it will be busy. I've driven the other way to Bristol many times, starting on the M25 and by that time the 'rush hour' is well on it's way.

Clockwise anti clockwise is just because it's a circular - it's the easiest way to tell which way you're going!

Clockwise/anti-clockwise simply because it goes round rather than north-south or east-west.

Roysonv it's not that different than any other motorway. At some junctions it becomes 12 lanes and if you are not in the right lane you can easily be swept passed your junction (or even leave it when you don't want to) if you aren't paying attention. Otherwise expect the usual delays and stop/start driving due to some 'incident' 10 miles away.

I think those crazy roundabouts in Colchester are the hardest part of your trip, not the M25

Almondsbury inter-change and M32 turn off can be dreadful at times, nothing special about the M25 compared to other motorways.

Give yourself plenty of room. Good luck, you'll be fine.

You will need to use J28 for the A12 from the M25. This is a well marked and defined slip road that also continues without any stopping onto the slip road for the A12 going eastwards.

A12 going towards Colchester tends to be quieter than in the other direction. Be mindful though of number of lanes. Some parts of the A12 only have two lanes and other sections (nearer to Colchester) have three lanes.

Going from the M4 to the A12 is pretty much halfway so you could go either way (although always good to avoid the Dartford charge if you can).

Cumbria to Walton-on-Thames is a very short bit of the M25 and very easy :)

I spend hours a week on the M25. It's fine but I agree that sticking to the slow lane is a bad plan - it is back to back lorries

The M25 is easy, however the A12 at Colchester often has accidents every morning.
Which junction are you coming off at?

It’s impossible to speed on most of the M25 as there are speed cameras everywhere, which makes it much safer than many motorways.

I use the M25 regularly but not frequently. The southern half is my usual section. Things that always surprise me:

the number of lanes - usually not the normal 3. When you join the motorway the slip road often remains as an actual lane, rather than having to 'join' the motorway.
If you do have to merge into traffic, you sometimes do actually have to stop rather than speed up to fill in a gap. With so many lorries in the inner lane, there sometimes just isn't a gap to fill, so be aware.
The speed limit can be constantly changing - watch the overhead signs.
I think, probably applicable to the southern part (I don't remember it on the northern half) but the road surface is very strange in some sections resulting in extra loud noise. I thought my car was about to blow up the first time I experienced it, but worked out that it was the paler surface rather than the tarmac that caused it.
And yes, you can be stationary for large periods of your journey, seemingly for no reason at all.

So I'm actually travelling to a little place called Sudbury which is past Colchester - I just said Colchester so people knew it. From my google maps directions looks like I won't be taking the A12 but the M11 then A120. Better?

Do you think leaving Bristol at 4am and hitting M25 at 6am is a mistake, should I leave earlier?

What time do you actually need to be there? Depending on the day & the section, the worst time IME is 6.30-8am and then from about 4pm.

It doesn't matter what time I get there, but mainly leaving at 4am so baby will continue to sleep most of the way there apart from breaks.

If it were me I’d leave at 9am! What time are you coming back?

Babies never sleep when you want them to - better to be well rested yourself for the long drive.

owl just be careful coming off the M11 for the A120, you don't want J8, you want J8a which is immediately after it. Not a total disaster if you come off too soon but you'll end up in roundabout city for 5 minutes.