Where to stop for a night en route to Cornwall?

[Bambieye]

We are travelling from the midlands to Cornwall (staying with family) in September and want a night in a hotel somewhere on the way just to have some us time. Recommendations?
What are people’s thoughts on Cheltenham or Bath please? Thanks

Bath is really lovely, we spent a night there but wish we'd stayed longer! Only thing that surprised us was the amount of homeless/begging people there was and we're from Newcastle.

Either of those is lovely. Also Marlborough, Cirencester.

Bit more of a diversion but I’d have a stop off in south Devon, maybe Dartmouth.

www.bishopsbarton.co.uk/

About 15 mins from junction 6 of the M5

Was there much to do? Thanks

Depending on how far into Cornwall you’re going you’ll still have most of the journey after Bath. What about Exeter?

@Bambieye we live close to Bath. There’s a few things to do such as the Roman Baths and Longleat if you want to travel out of the city centre (around 30 mins away).

Bath is great! Nice shopping, loads of places to eat, beautiful to just walk around the centre and look around at the buildings. Or you can have a spa session at thermae Bath Spa, go see the botanical Gardens and Royal crescent, see a show or take walking/food tour. Its small and easy to find all of the above.

But it is still a long way down to Cornwall!

We are going to Looe so not too far into Cornwall.

I’d stop in Exeter - the M5 ends there and it’s still a few hours to Cornwall depending on where you’re going in Cornwall.

what’s your budget?

Bath is a nightmare for parking and many hotels don’t have any

either detour into Bristol or keep going to Exeter IIWY

We’ve been to Exeter before as we have family there and seeing them on the way back from Cornwall. I think Cheltenham is our choice atm…

I would suggest Bristol. It's closer to the M5.

IME the worst of the traffic build ups are around Weston Super Mare so you want to stop south of that. Taunton perhaps? There's nothing worse than setting off for part 2 of the drive and just joining a long tail back. And there's no point in getting up super early and thinking you'll beat it as you won't!

I’d try and find somewhere in Devon too, search around Exeter, Tiverton, Honiton. That would be about half way through your journey and crucially past the Bristol/Bath bit of M5 which is always the worst for traffic.

We live in midlands and travelled to Looe a few years back. We did a night in the cotswolds (Lechlade) going and a night in Torquay on the way back. The Torquay stop didn't break the journey up as much but more to do there.

We've also stayed in bath a few times and it's a lovely place to visit.

I'd stay south of Bristol tbh

Otherwise you'll be potentially hitting the bottleneck the following day. Also Cheltenham isn't that far from the Midlands in terms of breaking up the journey.

I'd do Torquay or Paignton
Not a major divert off the M5 on the way there
Then not a bad journey the following day via Plymouth to Looe