Driving London to Penzance with 9 month old - where to stop in Somerset/Cornwall for breakfast?

[digitalgirl]

We're driving from London to a wedding in Lands End on Thursday. We're thinking of leaving around 4am in order to get 3 hours of the trip done while DS is asleep and there is minimal traffic on the roads.

Hoping to get past Bristol before breakfast. Whereabouts is good to stop for a 7am breakfast where DS can also have a crawl around and wear himself out in preparation for the next slog of the journey.

Good luck with that one! I'm not sure where you can stop, I'm in Devon.

The worst part is the last bit - that last road to Lands End seems, well, endless.

Assume you are going down the M4/M5? We usually stop at Gordano services, which is the one you come to having got onto the M5 but it's pretty grim.

Do you want to come off the motorway properly? Because if you stray far from it at 7am (around Bristol) you are going to get caught in all the rush hour traffic when you try to get back to it an hour later.

yes avenginggerbil, worried about getting stuck in traffic around Bristol.

Wondering about stopping in Bath for a nice cafe brekkie and then cutting across to the M5 from there. Or is that also chocka at rush hour?

Or perhaps we should really hammer it and not stop till Exeter (presuming DS stays asleep till then)?

There is no decent shortcut that involves Bath/Bristol - the roads are a complete nightmare.

I don't think you should try to get to Exeter without stopping; if you don't mind going off the M5, you could slide over to Street/Glastonbury from J23: it's not far and there may be a more family-friendly outdoor space than the vile service stations.

Ooh, don't stop at Exeter services. It's haunted. Honest.

Taunton Deane services makes a fairly logical stop. It isn't lovely, but it's at the right sort of break time.

Endsleigh Garden Centre in Ivybridge is on the A38. They do a good breakfast and the kids can look at the bunny rabbits.

Do not, under any circumstances, try to stop off in Bath, the traffic is beyond awful, and it will take hours. And it's quite a way off the M4 with no proper cut through..

I did once do that journey for work (and back in a day!) and we stopped at John Lewis Cribbs Causeway for an egg butty. It does have the best change facilities, but sadly it won't be open in time.

It might be worth thinking about doing the A303 instead - you're much less likely to hit the rush hour traffic, it's prettier, and it goes past real places. Sadly, you'd pass the Heston Blumenthal Little Chef far too early for breakfast, but there are plenty of places all along there.

we always stop at Exeter when we do that journey

is the most natural stopping point as it's just before you have to negotiate the A roads

Thanks for all the tips! Definitely not going to Bath now. Found a nice cafe in Exeter that opens at 9am...so might stop there for a proper breakfast and DS can have a roll around on the grass by the cathedral.

Will make a note of Taunton Deane and Endsleugh Gdn centre in case we don't make it that far.

But will check for traffic beforehand and perhaps go via A303 if motorways looking horrid.

That's if we get a car sorted, just had it nicked last night