Good places to stop M6 Scotland/ England journey

[ScotGirl]

We are doing a massive 8 hrs + drive down to Suffolk soon. The entire M74 M6 and A14. We are planning on doing it over 2 days in 2-3hrs chunks. Can anyone recommend anywhere close to the motorway for good fun things to do.

As we have a 2 year old and a newborn who need feeding every 3hrs or less we are planning on driving 7-9.30am and 12.30-3pm both days and so want a good runabout in the morning.

Planning on staying at Premier Inns/ Travel Inns.

Finding it difficult to research family activities as it is such a massive area. Also not sure how far we will get on day 1.

Has anyone done a similar drive that could pass on some tips

thanks

hi, we've done this before - we live in West Lothian and my parents are in Bury St Edmunds.(SO not the whole of the M74) But we've done it at night - leaving at about 5ish, stopping off for tea and then at about 7ish our little one (18 months) drops off to sleep. Its a good way of doing it, as you dont have to keep stopping for feeds etc, but I can see that not working with a newborn!

As we've done it all in one go, I can't really receommend anywhere to stop/family acitivites. However, we always try to stop off in Carlisle at either the big Asda or Tescos for something to eat, as its a lot cheaper than motorway services, and they have baby change facilities.

Wish I could be more help!

We've always done it in one go (with short feeding/weeing stops) and found that the easiest, most painless way to do it. The first time we did it ds1 was 8 weeks old and we also did it when ds1 was 14 months and ds2 was 6 weeks so it is manageable.

I would definitely recommend Tebay for a stop. It's much nicer than most of the other motorway service stations.

Have also done it with both ds as newborns after having them in Scotland and driving back South. But all we did was stop (yes, hurrah for Tebay) on motorway then spend the night with friends in Sheffield and drive on again with another stop.

Might the AA website have advice on activities near particular road routes? You could always walk around Killington Lake, I suppose.....

I'd agree, do it in one go. Leave earlier than 7. We used to leave about 5ish and DDs would go back to sleep. Personally, I think breaking the journey for 3 hours is too long. I can never remember the name of the services, but there is one that has a lake and is nice - also one of them has a farm shop and is a bit better than the standard ones.

CHOPCHOPBUSYBUSY ssorry for caps I think that's WEstmorland.
WE do a similar journey every couple of months with dd aged 4 and ds 4 months. FWIW, we dont break the journey up like you are planning but crack on with as few stops as possible. Both of our dc sleep most of the journey and dd watches dvds so it's never hard work (cross fingers, we're doing it again on Sunday ) Last one was last week and we stopped twice to feed ds. We either leave at lunch time and get them ready for bed en route or v v early in the morning and get them dressed a few hours into the journey.

Westmorland and Tebay are nice but all services ar emuch of a muchness! We normally stop about Lancaster then somewhere in the Lake District- we don't keep ds in his car seat for any longer than 2 hours at a time so that tends to dictate when we stop!
If you want somewhere nice to run about I'd deffo stop somewhere in the Lakes

Have to reinforce how lovely Tebay services are compared to others.

Ducks to feed, lovely farm shop etc.

Not sure how far you want to venture off the motorway, but in a similar area Low Sizergh Barn is a fantastic place - 4 miles from M6 Junction 36.

Lovely cafe where you can watch the cows being milked, great craft shop, farm trail etc and on dual carriage way from motorway, so only poss ten mins off your route!

thanks for all the replies.

We did a similar trip 6 weeks ago and hammered it - into PJs at the service station etc.

Our thinking this time is to treat the trip as part of the holiday so we can explore some of England on our way through...