whats the best time to set of?

[manutdstott]

Im travelling to south devon from manchester on sat 22nd for the week, check in time is 4pm, what is the best time to set of? a friend of mine is going 7 miles from me in devon, his check in time is 2am, and he says hes setting of at 3am surely this is too early, i have never driven down south before.

[spudqueen]

I now live in Preston but used to live in South Devon. The journey between Preston (where my Mum was living) and Devon could take me anything from 4 hours (Saturday night, no stops!) to 8 hours, depending on traffic and road works. The roads are generally busy on a Saturday during the summer as lots of people are going on holiday so it does make sense to set off at a reasonably early time. You will need plenty of breaks as it is a long way, especially if you've never driven this far before, and the traffic will be heavy. The problem can be if you arrive far too early then what do you do? Maybe your friend is planning on parking up somewhere and grabbing a few hours sleep in the car - not very comfortable!
Hope you have a good time when you're in Devon.

[VHG]

I would set off on Friday !!!

I assume you will going down the M5.

Well as you can see if you look at a map, all the traffic going to Devon and Cornwall for holiday goes down the M5.

The traffic coming from Wales, and from London on the M4, and from the North down the M5, all merges around Bristol.

On a Saturday IT IS A NIGHTMARE.

It is so bad that when I went to Devon on holiday a few weeks ago I booked a hotel in Torquey for the Friday night and travelled Friday to avoid the Saturday traffic.

But even then there were THREE crashes on the M5, two of them overturned caravans. We had to turn off the M5 at Bristol and went the rest of the way via the A38.

Friends of ours who were were staying with travelled down on the Saturday, and they said the M5 was like a car park, with MILES, and MILES, and MILES, of slow moving traffic.

Your friend whose check in time is 2pm (I guess not as you said 2AM) who is leaving at 3am, has the right idea, but he still may not miss the jams.

So to sum up, the M5 on a holiday Saturday, is a nightmare.

[VHG]

As well as my comments above, on the way HOME the following Saturday we saw a 6 car "shunt" on the other side of the road that was causing chaos for South bound traffic. This was around the Bristol M5 / M4 junction area.

Six cars had all shunted and had badly buckled bonnets and boots.

The police and ambulance were there, but as we drove north up the motorway the queue of stationary traffic (on the other side) went on for about 10 miles.

So it can be a very dangerous road to drive on during a holiday Saturday.

Traffic tends to crawl and people bunch up and lose concentration, but when the queue suddently stops everyone crashes into the back of each other.

Many caravans go down the M5, but some drive too fast, they lose control, and the caravan can topple over.

So drive carefully, leave a large gap with the car in front of you, take plenty of breaks (even though the service stations are packed), and get there safely.

You may be better turning off the motorway for a break and find a small shop or garage a mile or so from the motorway that wil be quiet.

And if you see signs above the motorways saying crash ahead consider coming off the M5 and going down the A38.

The A38 runs very near the M5 but is a lot quieter and can avoid some of the traffic problems.

Have a nice holiday !!

[VHG]

Here is the AA warnings about the next two weekends holiday traffic

http://www.huttoncranswicktoday.co.uk/736/BANK -HOLIDAY-TRAFFIC-WILL-BE.5574754.jp

"The next two weekends are likely to see the busiest traffic this year with congestion expected to rise by a third on average, according to the AA"

[VHG]

Looks like you picked a bad time to go on holiday

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/traffic-chaos- to-come-a-week-early/242612

[dzug]

How LATE can you check in? It's the sort of journey that I'd leave until as late on the Saturday as possible but obviously if that stops you getting access to your accommodation it doesn't help

[theshedman]

Hi all, I live an Devon and really hate the M5 on a Saturday. The worse area is around Bristol. I have been stuck in traffic for over 3 hours there on my way back from Leeds. That was 3 hours to go about 1 mile. In the past I have found that you need to get to the Bristol area before 11am or after 6pm, the hours in between are usually bad. As VHG says coming back can be just as bad. If you can leave Manchester by around 6am hopefully you will miss most of the traffic. Good luck.