Driving from London to Edinburgh

[Pinkglow]

Hi I have abit of a dilema.

Basically me and the family are due to fly on wednesday to Edinburgh but unfortunately my little one has had chicken pox for a few days. It is a mild case and although he has had it since Friday there is no way I can get a doctor to sign him off for a wednesday flight as not all the spots are scabed over yet. They will be scabed over by the time we fly back but in order to change the flight booking to a single flight, BA want to charge us £150 per person.

The train is out as it wouldnt be fair on the other passengers (although we could get one coming back) so we could hire a car but its a seven and a half hour drive. We can go overnight but I wondered if anyone had any experience of this sort of thing.

We have hired a house so we can more or less hang around there for the first couple of days while we wait for the spots to scab over.

We have done a similar drive when DCs were 5mo and 2.8, so here are my tips if they are fairly small:

1. leave early, and I mean about 5am. Get plenty of miles under your belt while they're asleep/dozy
2. have a couple of decent length stops. If you're a member, National Trust (or similar) properties with room to run around and a cafe are great for all.
3. take some popular CDs
4. snacks and drinks can be useful too

Good luck!

I would just drive straight through the night leaving about 8pm, when the kids will sleep almost all the time. And take portable DVD players for when they're awake.

As long as the main driver can get some guaranteed sleep at the beginning or end of the drive, why not?

We regularly drive glasgow to london and back and I would recommend setting off at around 3pm. Stop for dinner at service station let kiddies stretch legs, eat run about. Get them into soft jammies and then settle them down for a sleep. Drive like a bat out of hell while kids sleep.

Realistically you will arrive at about 1am (adding in wee stops, service station stops and coffee top ups for the driver/s)

It's not as bad as you think it's going to be.

You might be ok on the sleeper train from London to Edinburgh provided you got bunks. It's little compartments with two beds so you'd be away from other passengers.

I've done long drives before with children (when I was an au pair I crossed the States) and we used to get up at about 3am, put the sleeping children in the car and drive like the clappers for about five hours until they woke up. You don't meet any traffic, if there's two of you to chat to each other you won't fall asleep (because you've already had several hours) and it really makes the journey much easier.

I have family in the borders so have done (very nearly) this with a toddler and a baby (9 hour door to door, 7 hours in the car). I didn't feel comfortable driving through the night - I'd get too tired. We've left straight after lunch, having knackered out toddler in the morning. If we're lucky we then get a 2 hour nap out of both kids for the first bit of the journey. Then stop for a coffee, snack, ice cream or some other treat for the older one and a bit of running around (last time this was just round the tables in a little chef). About a 45 min stop. Then drive for another couple of hours. Then stop for tea, this stop's probably a good hour to hour and a half and the aim is to be off the road for the worst of rush hour - 5 to 6.30. Tea, run around, milk for baby, both kids into PJs. Give older one milk to have in the car, soft toys etc etc. Hopefully they sleep. Hopefully you arrive about 10 or 11. And transfer to bed. Bingo.

Lots of people I know have DVDs in the car. We have avoided so far. DC1 is totally happy just spotting tractors and sheep. So long as the Wiggles is on the radio for 7 sodding hours

Also my other tip is DEFINITELY go A1, not M1. Seriously. Or you could go M6 and then A7 or whatever it is you would do after Gretna (Sorry, I'm not totally sure for Edinburgh). Avoid M1 that's all.

We have regularly driven from Kent to Edinburgh with the DC. We've tried different times etc, and what we find works for us is leaving at 7pm and driving through the night. We tried leaving at 3.30pm once but got stuck on the M25 at Heathrow and were still there an hour later! The M11/A1 is a good road as is M6,M74. We can get up for about 3am so still have time for a few hours sleep before morning.

I do this exact trip a lot and always with DD. First time was when she was 3 months old. She's now 12months.

Biggest tip - drive through the night.

Second tip - drive the M6 side, not the A1. Better services. Recommend Tebay services, the one just after the Tebay turn off if you're heading north. Great farm produce, play area for toddlers, ducks and wildlife pond etc.

Third tip - get a few little cheap toys. Last trip I had a little pack of picture Disney cards and gave DD a new one every 30 mins or so.

It'll be fine!

We drove from Edinburgh to Hastings last summer, we put her to bed clothed, OH then carried her to car, we left at 4am and got there for 3pm as weeone slept til 8am then I think we did 3 stops for her

Thanks so so much for the replies - I'm feeling ALOT more better about doing this now

We've decided to leave at about 3am going up so we don't have to hang around too much before we can check into the house and then on the way back we will leave around 9pm and go through the night.

I guess I'd better pop to the local newsagents today and buy some kiddies magazines and some cheap toys!

Maybe some sticker books if your DCs are old enough too. Also some CDs of fav songs will keep them occupied a bit.

Like others have said, let them run out of steam when you make stops along the way.

Personally, I'd leave after lunch in time for afternoon naps and get a couple of hours in before stopping mid-afternoon somewhere. Then have an early dinner, PJs and then more driving to get there for 10/11ish. My DD1 (2.5years) and DD2 (6 months) will never go back to sleep if they were woken up early in the morning. But you know your DCs better.

Have fun!

Hi.. I've done London to fife a few times with my now 5.5 month dS. Def try to do when they are normally sleeping as hopefully will sleep in car. Also the roads (assume m1 then m6?) are a lot quieter then. During the day you have got a huge chance of getting stuck in those awful roadworks.

I've done that drive many times from when my eldest Dc was 4 months. The answer is take the M40, M40 toll and M6 then cut across before you get to Glasgow As to timing, i'd say just avoid rush hour on that stretch that runs between Liverpool and Manchester.
From about age 2 onwards, I used to have a DVd player in the back with a good selection of DVDs. Water, apples and snacks in the car.
A good run-around before hand. Travel sick pills. A bag to be sick in. An easy to hand change of clothes.
It takes about 8 hours usually. 6 if you go when the roads are empty and don't stop. 14 if you are in very unlucky.

However, I'd be putting him on the plane if I was sure that he was past the infectious stage!

His spots have started to scab over but the third and fourth wave are still open so he is still infectious, he has hardly on his face but I dont really want to risk being turned off the plane. Plus it isnt fair to the other passengers. Otherwise Id be putting him on the plane

Ok so we have decided on the M40 route and not the M1!

I agree with meredeux route to Edinburgh - m6 toll is great,

Good point mazzi - services are MUCH better on M6. A1 services are crap. Love Tebay.

Donington park and wet herby services both good.

Def consider the sleeper train - I took my kids to fort William on it for ds's 4th birthday and it was fab!

Planning to use sleeper services again when we do lands end to John o'groats in the summer.

Oohlordy want to take DSs on sleeper to visit aunty in Aberdeen when we've ditched the nappies!