Recommendations please for a stopover place on the way to Devon (from Yorkshire)

[stottiecake]

Hello! We are staying in a cottage for a week in August and thinking about the drive down. After much deliberation and reading of old threads on here about the nightmare of getting past Bristol we have decided that the best thing to do would be to set off on the friday and stay over somewhere. We think we could drive down to Dorset and stay somewhere overnight and then drive over to Devon in the morning. Would be happy with a travelodge or similar - any recommendations?

Thanks :)

Ok, quick reply but I can think about it more later if you like!
The road from Dorset to Devon will be awful on a Saturday in August - you'll just be going out of the frying pan and into the fire. And the M5 southbound on the Friday will be chocka after 2pm on Friday anyway.
I used to let out my holiday cottage in Devon, and we had many guests from Yorkshire. Regular guests would just leave home very very early; some would leave home at about about 5 am, get to Devon for breakfast then spend a day amusing themselves until checking-in time.
We also do the Devon-Yorkshire journey ourselves. The worst bit southbound is between Almondsbury and Avonmouth. You can avoid this by leaving the M5 at junction 15 onto the westbound M4 towards Wales, then come off at junction 22 onto the M49 towards the South West. Rejoin the M5 at Avonmouth - there might be a bit of traffic there, but you will have missed the worst of it.
But on a Saturday in August it will indeed be very busy all the way. The key to your success is the earlier you can leave home, the better!
That wasn't such a quick reply after all. Good luck!

Hi - thanks so much for your message - looks like we need to have a rethink!! So definitely not worth stopping over then? Just thinking that if we were a bit closer then we wouldn't have to set off at 5a.m (or earlier). Not sure how quickly we could get there - I have two boys - a 7yo and a 5yo who will want a couple of stops I would think... hmm...

En route to Cornwall (from north Yorks) we stopped at a holiday inn express just outside of Bristol and then set off v early.
Traffic was bad but we were a bit more relaxed as we had slept and weren't in dreadful hurry as couldn't get into accommodation until 2pm

On way back we stayed in same hotel and left Cornwall late on the Saturday night ans roads were quiet.

Whereabouts in Yorkshire and Devon? We moved from just outside Exeter to Hull in February and didn't stop over. Just did a 20/30 min stop for our 6-month-at-the time and to give my horse a break. It's a tedious drive (traffic around Birmingham and Bristol was heavy) but do-able in one day.

Hi :) We are in North Yorks and travelling to Chulmleigh North Devon. I really can't decide what's best. Just looking at Holiday Inns/ Travelodges - not sure what area would be best to go for and also thinking it would be good to save ourselves the cash!! But we are terrible at getting out of the house on a holiday day so imagining we would probably need to get up at 3 am to be out by 5 am and that would mean mega levels of organisation must have taken place the day before. But people do it so it must be possible!! :D