Driving from London to Edinburgh - best route and overnight stop?

[ChippyMinton]

I have two days to spend driving up to Edinburgh, with DC 11 & 10.

Planning to set off early on day 1 and be at Edinburgh airport around teatime on day 2 to pick up DH.

Any suggestions for an overnight stop somewhere nice? The lakes?

TIA

I'd come up M6, M74 towards Glasgow, then take M8 to edi far better than coming up the M1. And you could stay in penrith or somewhere, but it will probably only take you five hours.

We stayed in Telford Travelodge once.........

I love the A1 to Edinburgh though. My favourite road ever.

You could stay in York?

No need to stay over anywhere. Really not. Do-able in a day easy. But if you want to make a trip off it then maybe Chester? Assuming you do the M6 route.

I might pass on Telford travelodge although we could have a squint at the iron bridge.

York is a good idea. Never pass up an opportunity to visit the railway museum, and the DC might enjoy Jorvik.

Hmm. But I've never been to the lake district. Would it be worth a stopover or just frustrating because no time to enjoy the outdoors?

It's more accurately described as the rain district. If you go, make sure you know where Rheged is.

that bad eh?

Some people like it. It's probably nice if you didn't spend your late teens living there when mountains and last buses at 6pm didn't light your fire when you'd previously lived in London.

"Do-able in a day easy."

Really! I would find a drive that long very tiring. I have regularly driven between Leeds and South London and that was long enough. It is much easier if you have someone to share the driving with. I should think that the children would be ready for a break as well.

If I was driving up from London I would take the A1 as it is the most direct route. Or you could take the M1 and join the A1 on the A1/M1 link road.

Driving to the lakes would add on a lot of miles to your journey.

York is an ideal place to break the journey.

I could do it in a day, but two of my DC have two inset days so we thought we could do a road trip, and have some fun.

Will have a ponder. Thank you

Yes I would do it in a day too tbh. It is LONG. About 7 hours with one stop. I used to measure it in 9 CDs.

Excellent idea to make it a fun road trip since you can, though of course it is doable in one day (esp if you leave at stupid'o'clock).

York is a good shout. Telford/Ironbridge has lots to do too. Or you could take in a Northumbrian castle and Lindisfarne or Hadrian's Wall. Sounds like it boils down to what sort of history they fancy!

Telford/Ironbridge is miles out of the way. It is the wrong side of the country for a start.
Ironbridge is so good it needs more than a few hours to do it justice anyway.

I agree A1 or M1 to York. You could get here by early afternoon and have a nice look round then set off next morning up the A1 divert to Hadrians Wall or elsewhere in Northumbria or even Edinburgh itself and then make your pick up. Will be very nice. It's around 215 miles York to Edinburgh by that route. (Inlaws used to live there) We used to reckon about 4 hours with a stop.

No-one calls Northumberland Northumbria, except Northumbria Police , Northumbrian water and Northumbria university. All Northumbrians refer to it as Northumberland. I should know I am am married to one.

Just being pedantic

I drive from edinburgh to London fairly often and don't find it too bad. I would find the idea of doing it over 2 horrible - much rather have an extra day on holiday or away.

Bunbaker I hadn't even noticed I did that. I reckon it's from a youth mis-spent reading history books - Mercia, Wessex and Northumbria :)

A1 definitely. Particularly from Newcastle...beautiful road.

I would go up m6 and m6 toll then m74 then across to Edinburgh on the a702. It's a pretty road and it goes through lots of little villages.

I have just googled the journey. The first default is actually the M6 and would cut 10 minutes off the journey time. I expect the M1 and M6 would be busier than the A1 though.

I vote A1 as well. The part between Yorkshire and Peterborough has been upgraded so there are virtually no roundabouts now, which has had a considerable effect on journey times (we use the A1 to get to the A14 to Suffolk). And the stretch up to Edinburgh is lovely as well.

We used to do London - Glasgow on a Friday night, get to Sauchiehall St for last orders, then back down again after Sunday dinner.

M1, M6, M74.

Have done that route loads of times - my preference would be the A1/M out of London and then just after Newcastle head out towards the Airport and pick up the A68 (a beautiful Roman Road up through Northumberland). It is a pretty direct route and I prefer it as you get to see some of the countryside rather than sitting on a boring motorway for hours on end.
There is also a brilliant book called "5 mins off the motorway" which lists interesting alternatives to service stations and help you filter out activities that would eat into your time too much if you wanted a longer scenic stop off.
On your return you could always go down the other side, via the lakes, or just take the A1 out of Edinburgh along the coast and pick up your outward route at Newcastle. Have fun - I used to go on lots of radtrips with my DS and we had so much fun

The A68 looks good. Although there isn't any motorway in Northumberland. Isn't the A1 mostly single carriageway after Morpeth?

Another option is to take the A697 after Morpeth, but I think the A1 is still the quickest route.