Drive from Glasgow to Cornwall with kids

[Goscat]

We're going to Cornwall for a week in September and trying to decide whether to drive or fly. We have extra days either side to spare so would drive 5 h, 5h down and same back, breaking it up into 2.5h stints each day.

Pros-
. much cheaper even including fuel and hotels
. Get to spend a few hours in a couple nice places in the eat down and back
. Flights are really late so kids bedtimes would be haywire, driving avoided that.

Cons-
. Driving 10h with a 1 and 4yo 🤣

Anyone done similar?

That was January

Have you looked at the train options? Driving such a long risks big delays from accidents, roadworks etc. I appreciate flying can be a pita.

Where about in Cornwall are you heading to? It takes 2 hours end to end so that makes a difference!

Because there are lots of beautiful places to visit a lot closer than Cornwall, the thought of doing 20 hours or driving (on a good run) with such small children, for a week in Cornwall, gives me chills.

I’d be tempted to slog it out in a one-er late at night or say 7pm-midnight, sleep in premier inn, up early and arrive early afternoon the following day so you’re not knackered. Two days full on travel with multiple stops I think would be more tiring

Is my geography really bad, when is Glasgow closer to Cornwall than Newcastle or have I misread your post again?

Don’t go all that way to Cornwall. It will rain. Just get a nice package holiday for a week in the sun. Or stay in the Lake District - less tiring journey, lots of beauty and things to do. And it might not rain.

St Ives is beautiful and The Yellow Canary Cafe is my favourite coffee stop.

Day 1 - 6 hours

We set off first thing and stop at Tebay services for a stretch (2hrs ish from Glasgow).

On to Knutsford (1hr 45min) for brunch/lunch and a wander, our DC like the old style sweet shop and NT membership Tatton Park for a run around. If travelling on a weekend we make reservations for food or take a picnic.

We then drove to Gloucester quays area premier inn (2hr 15min) and stayed over. Lots of family friendly dinner options.

Day 2 - 4 hours

We essentially had coffee and fed the DC a quick breakfast then drove to Strawberry Fields in Lifton (2.5hrs) for Brunch and strawberry picking (must pre book). Great farm shop, flower patches etc too.

From there it’s under 90min to St Ives.

@Unexpectedlysinglemum she means in 2 x 5 hour stints.

DD went on a school trip to Cornwall from Yorkshire. They left at 10am, due back at 4pm...
We collected at 11.30pm!

I would drive, but plan your homewards stops carefully, maybe a 3hr7hr solution.

We have done it before when our children were roughly the same age as yours. Dh came home from work , we had dinner, finished loading the car and all went to bed .

we then left Glasgow in the middle of the night, approx 3 am with the kids in their car seats with pjs and snuggled with a blanket, they both slept until about 8am , we stopped at the services and got them changed and had something to eat and then back in the car for the rest of the journey, with one other stop.

we packed plenty of snacks, books, crayons and colouring books, aswell as favourite teddies and had mini dvd player to play a movie on too.

was much easier than we thought, it also meant we had the car to visit many different places too.

coming home was a different story though as it was a really warm day and there was a horrific accident on the motorway which delayed our journey by another 3 hours.

however we made it, and had a fabulous holiday , but never tried that distance again!

Good luck OP - last time I drove to St Ives in September it took me nearly 2 hours from Newquay - the joy of the Hayle bypass 🤪.

I would say that 90 mins from Lifton is optimistic especially in September.

We used to drive from Edinburgh to the ferry to France with the kids - we often didn't stay overnight either, just kept going, swapping drivers regularly. On the way back we'd usually get the ferry in the day then drive back through the night while the children slept. The roads were deserted and we'd stop for coffee & to swap drivers but keep driving keeping each other awake chatting through the night. I feel quite nostalgia for those long, quiet night time drives together.

Don’t do it, especially for a week. If you’ve got a fortnight it’s almost worth 2 days of driving each way but for a week you’ll be on the road almost as much as you’re there.

We regularly drive from Glasgow to France. My advice would be get as far south as you can in the first day. The further south you go the more unpredictable the traffic gets, and the more likely you are to get caught up in it, I find if you can get a good run when the road is clearer it feels less onerous if you do get stuck.

I think its ok if your kids don't get car sick, you plan stops on the way and you have a decent car for a long journey and breakdown cover.
I wouldn't do it in a fiat punto for example it will be stressful in a small car. But if you have a good sized car with space.
Also take towels, kitchen roll, wet wipes, changes of clothes in an easily accessible bags in case one of thebkids is sick, snacks, toys, ipad etc, then it will be fine.

A good tip a friend of mine gave me was to leave super early while the kids are asleep. Lift them into the car in their pyjamas thrn drive as far as you can while they are asleep. Stop to change and have a walk about once they wake up.

You're a star, thank you so much!

Note that your national trust membership doesn’t get you into the grounds of Tatton Park for free because it’s owned by Cheshire CC. you might be as well just running around the green in the town if you’re not stopping for long.

Your other option depending on how well your kids might sleep in the car is to all have an early dinner with the kids, bath and PJs and into the car.
drive for 4 hours or so and crash at a premier inn / travelodge then a long drive with stops the next day

You can probably double your driving time south of Bristol during school holidays! And double again south of Exeter.

We often do north of Scotland to Cornwall, Devon, France, Holland and never had any issues tbh. We love a driving holiday, car packed to the gunnels (we are lucky to have a very big car and a 500L roof box, makes life easier!), bikes, all that stuff. DH is from the south west so we often go down to visit family there for a week or so.

Good thing is that we can go in the Scottish holidays which are always offset from the English ones, so it’s never as busy. We always make sure to go away in summer before the English schools go off, etc. Much better that way!

Your original response was snippy. Who imagines anyone in Glasgow, with access to the internet hasn’t checked the length of the journey? Or do you think Google hasn’t reached Glasgow yet? That others misread the post is irrelevant.

We’ve done it tons of times. Doing it in 10 hours is optimistic. We always drive as we need a car when there and have loads of stuff. We’ve done it in one go a couple of times but more often than not not break up the journey around the midlands.

Quite - who imagines anyone with access to the internet needs to ask a bunch of strangers on a forum if the journey length sounds reasonable or not for their holiday?! 😂🙈

Why are you having a go at me for asking? It's not me who responded to you.

I've had some very helpful responses about how to break up the journey etc, so very glad I did ask! I've never done a drive that length with kids so wanted to hear from some who have.

I hope you never find yourself having to make a decision and reaching out to people who might have experience for guidance. Easy to be nasty on the internet isn't it, glad everyone else has been kind and helpful.