How to survive the overnight drive from 'up North' to Cornwall?

[nomoreminibreaks]

Hi - just as the title suggests - we're going to drive down to Cornwall in a couple of weeks and I think we're going to drive down overnight with a 4yo and an 18 month old (who still has never slept through!). I'm hoping DS2 might do better in a moving car but can't base this on anything so I'm nervous about him screaming and waking DS1 up too. Any tips for survival? DH and I plan to share the driving if that helps. Also route planner says 6 hours, so do we keep them up late before we set off? Help!!

If the drive is likely to be longer than 7 hours, I'd book into a travelodge for the night as near to the destination as possible.

artandco its because we always go on a bank holiday weekend, the M5 seems to have permanent (bastard) roadworks and has massive stretches of camera'd' 50mph, that causes standstills .. its horrific, and the you have the A30 which is awful on the Friday night and the Saturday morning. Coming home on the Friday evening is quicker and is just about possible in 6 hrs if you floor it.

We're driving to Devon in August and it will take 6hrs 45 minutes.

Last time we did it dd was 3yo and I was v pregnant. We left early evening and did 3/4 of the journey before sleeping in a Travelodge. I didn't drive at the time and DH needed to sleep. Easy to get up and have breakfast and do the last little bit.

This time we have an 8yo and a 3yo and will be getting up at 4am. We will share driving and stop for breakfast and a brisk walk on the beach at 8/9am ish and then do the last bit.

last summer we drove from n.yorks to newquay.
it was surprisingly fine! wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

like others have said, we set off about 3 am after getting a few hours sleep, stopped for breakfast at Bristol when kids woke up, then carried on maybe having 1 or 2 wee-wee stops and got to the campsite around 12 pm. we were towing a caravan too so not going very fast.

this year we have got loads of confidence so are going to France!

If the route planner is saying six hours then you cant be that far north

The route planner is right without traffic,

Setting off at 4 you get clear motorways, we have got to Truro for 9.15 setting off from Yorkshire sometimes it including the 50 mile an hour limit for road works that were near Birmingham, but we were close to the m62 to start of with.

I'm fairly sure I've just spent a fortnight in cornwall, although reading these posts about journey times makes me wonder if we didn't accidentally stay at some other pretty coastal village halfway there instead!

We live in Sunderland, set off on Friday morning at 6am, stopped for an hour for breakfast in Ashby-de-la-Zouch at 9.30, visited a national trust place in Exeter for a walk and a cake 13.15-14.45, arrived in St Mawes around 17.00.

Coming home we left at 10.30, were home by 18.30 including around an hour stop at some services near Biringham for petrol.

Dd is 10 so a bit different to travelling with little ones but she slept on and off both ways, we played games and listened to music to pass time when she was awake. It was a much better journey than I had been led to expect, maybe we were just very lucky.

We live in the south west and takes us 3-4 hours to Cornwall and on one occasion took six hours to get back!

But we don't travel at night so doing that could be helpful

Thanks everyone! We're in North Yorkshire and route planner says 6h 30. We're heading all the way to the lizard - I realise that might be optimistic though! I think you've convinced me that setting off at bedtime is best avoided, so maybe 3am is good to aim for.

you will be fine!
it's the way back that's the worst
we were camping, and we had a 3 night stopover in Stratford upon Avon, which was lovely and broke up the long drive.

Scottish schools start holidays end of next week so you'll potentially have that traffic which will make it a bit busier.

at heading to Lizard. it's such a drive but totally worth it, we had our last 3 summer hols in the village.

1. everyone has to sleep well the night before the flight but if you need them to be asleep soon after you start traveling, wake them up an hour earlier if you can.
2. no sweets, no fruit juices, no chocolate, no Ribenna
3. in a car you are in control, they can get bored, complain and shout, but don't forget that you can ignore them a bit. They are strapped to their seats and unlikely to get into further trouble.

For you:
-Change drivers every couple of hours.

• Berocca tablets

When we drive south we have supper about 4pm then set off by 5pm, stop briefly to change kids into PJs and have coffee then keep driving to a premiere inn at 1am by which time we will have reached... Yorkshire! I know some friends do drive overnight to Cornwall setting off when we do and arrive around breakfast time. I don't know how they do it!

I have found in recent years one problem with overnight drives is all the night time road works. It is not unusual to find motorways completely closed and getting diverted through small towns (and getting abandoned by the diversion signs before you get back to the motorway).

Why don't you fly to Newquay? It takes under an hour from Manchester - not sure where else you can fly from.

Get your husband to drive down and stay the night somewhere en route. He can pick you up from the airport - you don't have any luggage - you just walk off the plane and out of the airport door. It's ace!

Do not leave it too late to start out. I live near J13 on the M% and at weekends in the summer the M5 is at best slow going and often has miles of traffic jams by 9am. My parents used to take us to Cornwall from West Midlands every summer as children and we would set out at about midnight, stop for a sleep at Jamiaca Inn and spend the day on the beach after arrival until we went to our B&B.

We regularly do Cheshire to Penzance, when the DC we small we used to set out around 2am and would usually be at Penzance McDonalds in time for a breakfast muffin!

If you carry sleeping kids out to the car don't forget their shoes!! We did this twice

I am doing a similar drive in a few months. With a 1 yo and a 5yo. We learnt the hard way that it is better to lose sleep and go overnight than hit every traffice jam possible by travelling during the day. It once took us 12 hideous hours when we yravelled during the day when dd was 3 months old.
If we leave at 2 or 3am now we can do it 5 hours flat (to west Cornwall) and arrive for breakfast. The 5 yo will sleep all the way and (touch wood) so will the 1 yo. We have relatives nearby so can spend the day with them and use their beds until accommodation becomes available.

We did Hampshire to Northumberland last year with 18mo DD. We left at 6am and got to Leeds about 9.30am. Spent the day in Leeds, then left mid afternoon and did the remaining 3 hours up to Northumberland in time for tea.

6am was a bit late for DD to stay asleep, she was chatting to us for an hour or so before going back to sleep. We made sure the day included a play park and plenty of fresh air, and she slept most of the 2nd leg.

This obviously had an impact on bedtime, I think we just all went to bed at 10pm.