Travelling to St Ives

[Marmozet3]

Hello all! I wondered if you could help settle a discussion please?

My partner and I are going to St Ives on Friday from Birmingham. I will be working until 4 but could possibly finish at 3.

I think it would be ideal to leave at 3pm but partner is of the opinion we should leave at 6pm to avoid the after work traffic. I'm concerned as the drive should take over 4 hours but obviously we'll take breaks so then the journey will be much longer. Obviously at 3pm we'd hit that work traffic but could look at going to services for a few hours.

It maybe that I can't leave at 3pm anyway. But what do you think is the most sensible idea?

Thanks

Friday afternoon trafgic is awful. I would leave it until later.

Leave it to later or you'll just hit dreadful traffic from Bristol onwards.

If you are happy to leave at 3 but spend a few hours at services surely it would be better to just leave at 6?

I'm going against the grain here but I'd probably set off at 3 then stop for dinner somewhere.

We live near St Ives and it usually takes about 5 hrs to Birmingham. I'd allow 6hrs for Friday evening and leave after 6pm.

Just be careful if you meet a man with seven wives

If you leave Birmingham at 3pm you'll hit traffic around Bristol at 5pm which can be horrendous especially around Almondsbury (M5/M4 interchange). I'd either take a half day holiday and go after lunch or leave it until about 6pm.

Going anywhere on a Friday in the UK seems to have disaster written all over it, we came home 2 weeks ago, set off just after 9am and it still took 5 hours to get up to Birmingham and the traffic going South was even worse.
I have no advice but to expect it to be pants and if its a clear drive then its a bonus!!

Leave at 6pm or really early on Saturday.

We went to Devon a few weeks ago from Shrewsbury. Left at 3pm Friday and the traffic from Bristol was horrific. We didn't make it to Devon until 8ish. Add on the extra bit to get to St Ives and it's a long run.

The consensus certainly seems to be to leave at 6pm! We shall do this then. Thank you for all your replies.

@Twizbe

Just be careful if you meet a man with seven wives

My immediate thought too

The one in Cornwall or the one in Cambridgeshire (the later being the one in the rhyme)?

*latter

Took me eight hours last time!

As well as negotiating the traffic St Ives is a bit of hotspot for COVID at the moment

@JanFebAnyMonth

The one in Cornwall or the one in Cambridgeshire (the later being the one in the rhyme)?

The one in Cambridgeshire being the best obvs

Make sure you have sunglasses (although haven’t checked weather). Last part heading west into setting sun for a few hours can be difficult without.
I drive often from London out west. I’d go later if you’re safe to drive late/dark (although it’s light later out west obvs) or very early the next morning.

We did Nottinghan to Helston once. Left at 7pm, stopped off for a chippy tea and were there by 12. This was a Friday night - summer holidays!

It is a 5hr drive for us and it took 5hrs.

The later you guys can manage, the better. Especially if you can split the drive and one of you can doze if needed.

Guessing you mean Cornwall.

Don't bother leaving until 6pm.

Back in "ye olden days", I went to Birmingham a lot for meetings. Bristol will be a bit shit if you leave at 3. As long as the M5 behaves itself, it should be an easy journey, 4 and a half hours is doable if you don't need a stop.

@Twizbe

Just be careful if you meet a man with seven wives

Especially with the rates of the delta variant.

I personally would leave at 3 and plan to stop somewhere nice on the way for a break and food about 5. Leaving at 6 I imagine there will still be some rush hour traffic so it will still take longer getting out of Birmingham. If you are lucky you might be able to get to Weston-super-Mare by 5ish, grab some chips on the seafront and by the time you go around Exeter the traffic will have cleared a bit.

Do you think he is worried that the last minute packing will fall to him if he is off and picking you up straight from work?

There is no possible timeslot to 'avoid the traffic' travelling into Cornwall on a friday because people are flooding into Cornwall from every conceivable distance and direction and also there are lots of people living in the various areas of the country you will be travelling through who will generate traffic at the end of the day on friday even if they aren't heading down to Cornwall with you. It will make very little difference whether you leave Birmingham at 3pm or 6pm you will still spend a loooong time sitting in traffic jams, the only questions are which specific part of the journey will you be at when the traffic is worst, and will it be dark by the time you get there.

If it was me I would be taking an extra day of leave and setting off as close to the crack of dawn on friday as possible. If you are then lucky enough with traffic that you actually find yourselves on schedule to arrive too early to check in to your accommodation you can always have a nice stop off for lunch at somewhere like Terice or some other attraction in the vicinity of Newquay or further towards St Ives e.g. Hayle. However you might find that even so you are still caught in traffic. There is always a lot of it. It won't be quite so bad this Friday as it will later in the summer as the state school holidays won't have started yet but it will still be pretty trafficky.

Catch the train ?

If you are lucky you might be able to get to Weston-super-Mare by 5ish, grab some chips on the seafront

Lol, only if you don't mind spending an additional couple of hours stuck in the giant car park that is the A370 at rush hour.

This is truly terrible advice.

Agree - a side trip to Weston super mare would basically cancel your whole holiday - well not really but no way would I do this !? Even a super quick stop at gordano or similar seems to stretch the drive out of all proportion.