Glasgow to Gatwick (driving) - advice please!

[littleteapot86]

We are flying from Gatwick this summer and are planning to start driving down the day before (from Glasgow). I had initially thought we could stop and stay in a hotel halfway-ish (e.g. York?) but I'm wondering if we are better trying to get closer to London in case traffic is bad nearer to Gatwick?

Does anyone have any advice? Would it be a bad idea to only get halfway on the first day? Flight isn't until 9pm at Gatwick. We have two kids (8 and 4) so was trying to make it more fun less torture hence the shorter driving days 😅

For reference, I drive from South Yorkshire to Bromley (a few junctions away on M25 from Gatwick) in 3.5hrs regularly. However, it does just take one problem to ad a lot of time to that!

I think overnighting in the Yorkshire area will be fine, leaving by lunchtime, to give you lots of wriggle room. Obviously check traffic on the morning as well.

I agree with the above but I'd probably stop in Sheffield rather than York, then you've cut the journey almost exactly in half and are slightly further South.

Thank you. We did actually fly from Stanstead years ago (only had one child then) and drove to Cambridge in one day and I have pretty decent memories of that journey. It definitely wasn't horrible. So also considering just pushing on that far!

Can you fly Glasgow to Gatwick? We did that for Heathrow. Flew down the day before and stayed overnight in a hotel.

Annoyingly there are very few Glasgow to Gatwick flights and the ones that are available are extortionate. Glasgow to Heathrow is much more frequent.

There's 3 or 4 flights a day from GLA to LGW with Easyjet and they're fairly reasonable in cost. I'd rather do that than drive all that way in both directions with 2 small children! York is a detour, from Glasgow you'd be best going down the M6 and the west.

Oh you're right!! I dont know what I'm talking about. I think we initially thought of flying down on the day of the flight but worried if it was delayed or cancelled we would maybe risk missing our onward flight.... Now I'm wondering why we haven't considered flying down the day before.... Does anyone know is there anything fun to do near Gatwick for a day btw?

You’re 30minutes on the train into central London from LGW or same in the other direction to Brighton. No need to book in advance and trains are very 10-15min.

You could go to Brighton for the day!

We recently got the train to London and on to LGW, the Gatwick line ran to Brighton.

If you are going to drive then get South of Birmingham as this is where all the chaos tends to be. I do this M6 route regularly. For entertainment in the Gatwick area there is this place. Lots of animals and a fabulous cheap tea room . There is also a Go Ape there too.

https://tilgatenaturecentre.wordpress.com/

I’d either get the train down the day before or fly. We drove down andfrom the north lakes to just south of Gatwick for a long weekend last summer and said never again, accidents, road works,awful driving conditions as well, we ssould have arrived at 2pm and didn’t get there till gone 8pm. Same on way back. We drive a lot but we’re so unlucky .

amywaygo the day before and g9 into London or get the train from Gatwick to Brighton. It’s very easy.

I would book Easyjet flights from Glasgow to Gatwick and stay at an airport hotel the day before. Your kids could get sick of the car and the train into London Euston will take around 4 hours. It may well be that Easyjet flights will cost less return than train tickets.

My DS flies from Glasgow to Gatwick about 7 times a year (he’s at uni there) and there are about 4-5 flights a day with EasyJet? If he books ahead can get it for about £22 each way plus luggage. Imagine the car park at Gatwick will be ££ so you’d save on that.

We do the drive once a year and it takes about 7.5 hours with no stops. Last time we stopped in Harrogate for a cup of tea and a break but usually just power on.

I’d take the train - 6hrs from Glasgow to Gatwick. If you leave at 9:30 you get to London Euston by 2:30pm. You could spend the afternoon and night in London. Then go to Gatwick for the flight.

If you stay near Gatwick you can easily get into London or go the other way to Brighton.

I wouldn’t go anywhere near York if I were doing Glasgow - Gatwick, M6, M40 down the west surely?

Entirely doable in one day in the car - but weigh up fuel costs plus parking against cheap flights and a hotel room (agree don’t fly the same day as your onward journey!). Also look at driving to a hotel that includes parking for your holiday duration.

Have a look at Holiday Extras

I used to do Glasgow to Oxford on a regular basis, used to be about 6 hours with a brief stop. It should be a couple of hours from Oxford to Gatwick, although that does involve the M25.

You can currently get 2 weeks long stay parking at Gatwick for around £135 on the summer special deal.