Chester - Cornwall

[wingingit123]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone can offer any advice we are travelling from Chester to Newquay next Saturday! The plan is to leave around 4 am so my 1 year old sleeps most of the journey, we plan to stop for breakfast and to let him burn off some energy can anyone recommend anywhere on the way?
Thank you

have a look at the situation with the A30 as there are lots of roadworks going on due to road widening. it might be better to travel on the A38 from the motorway at Exeter and then cut across. either way its going to be very busy on a Saturday. personally, I would consider travelling down late Friday evening and staying at a Travelodge in cornwall to make the last bit of the journey as short as possible.

Thank you that's great

Schools won't have broken up yet, but it will still be a long drive. It took us 9.5 hours to drive to just outside Padstow from just north of Sheffield one year. Never again.

Agree with Mummymeister, we use the A38 through Plymouth rather than the A30. There's a bridge toll of about £1.50, can't remember whether it's both ways.

We usually try to break the journey with an overnight stop, more to extend the holiday as our children are older.

Gloucester services are far and away the nicest motorway services down there. If you can, I would be tempted to travel Friday evening and book a Travelodge or similar in Devon . Stop at Gloucester services for dinner, then onto the Travelodge in Devon, then set off after earliest possible breakfast on Saturday morning.

We do Cheshire to Cornwall regularly to see relatives.

We do exactly the same as you, except we generally aim to leave at 3am. We make sure the car is fully packed and when the DC were little we used to put 3 little sleeping souls straight into the car with blankets to keep warm. We would usually be at Exeter services well before they awoke and needed a wee/breakfast.

We are usually at Penzance by 9am. I find overnight stops more stressful than just ploughing on, but then again we drive to the Alps to go skiing

Don't be tempted to leave at 7am, we only did this once and it took almost 10hours. My final bit of advice is don't forget DC's shoes, as ours were in pyjamas and we carried to the car they were not wearing shoes and I once arrived with 3 barefoot children, and no shoes.

You don't have to pay in the Tamar Bridge to get in to Cornwall, but it's £1.50 to leave.

I would stop off at Killerton, a national trust place near Exeter. Have a good run around and then back in the car for the last 90 mins.

There are roadworks at Bodmin in the A30 all through summer so there will be delays on Friday and Saturday when people arrive and go home I'm afraid. But it's worth it once you get here!