Cardiff to Edinburgh tomorrow - route through Wales?

[PlywoodPascal]

Have to drive a car from Cardiff to Edinburgh tomorrow - best route recommendations?
Main aim is not to get too tired...

is it better to go over to Birmingham and up motorway from there, or is up through Wales/along border (dunno which road - never really been in Wales much) a realistic alternative for a bit of variety and not having to do the entire thing on motorways... ?

Obviously i'll go Moffat to Edinburgh at the north end..

[itz_baseline]

Why not just use Google maps or similar? It'll update the route real time to avoid traffic congestion and get you there on the quickest (and therefore least tiring) route.

[PlywoodPascal]

Cause i wanted to know from people who know the roads/area whether the option to go up through wales, which is slightly longer but not motorway, is any good or not.

Personally i find all motorway more tiring than a bit of a mix/variety of roads, which is why i am interested in that option.
Google just says motorway all the way. Buts its under an hour difference.

[ARHarh]

I don't know south Wales that well but I would take the A470 to Builth Wells then the A483 up to chester.

From Builth Wells to Oswestry is a road I use a lot, nice scenic drive and not too slow for mid Wales. There will be bottlenecks but the traffic is never that bad. After Chester I have no idea which road to take.

[dontlookdown]

It will take you a lot longer to pick your way right through Wales so it depends how much of a hurry you are in.

My direct route would be M4 to Newport, A449/A40 to Ross on Wye then pick up the M50 to the M5 and North from there. From Newport to Ross is a pleasant enough dual carriageway drive, and the M50 is prob the quietest motorway in the country;)

[ScoobyChris]

PlywoodPascal said:

is it better to go over to Birmingham and up motorway from there, or is up through Wales/along border (dunno which road - never really been in Wales much) a realistic alternative for a bit of variety and not having to do the entire thing on motorways...

I did the route along the border about 15 years ago (Llandudno to west of Cardiff IIRC) and found it pretty tiring compared to motorways and it seemed to take forever. Personally, I’d pick the motorway route and use Google maps/sat nav and quiet times of day to work around any congestion.

Chris

[Gary29]

If the aim is not to get tired, and get there as quickly as possible, I'd go Ross on Wye M50 > M5 > M6 > M74 all the way to Scotland.

I live in North Wales and getting back and forth to South Wales is always a chore.

[Don Veloci]

Gary29 said:

If the aim is not to get tired, and get there as quickly as possible, I'd go Ross on Wye M50 > M5 > M6 > M74 all the way to Scotland.

I live in North Wales and getting back and forth to South Wales is always a chore.

Yeah, that. If the theme is to continue in that mode the choices are continue all the way up to the M8 and across or brain in neutral follow the leader up the A702.

Fancy a switch from motorway mode to hooning at the end of that slog? A701 at Moffat is the way.

[E63eeeeee...]

ARHarh said:

I don't know south Wales that well but I would take the A470 to Builth Wells then the A483 up to chester.

From Builth Wells to Oswestry is a road I use a lot, nice scenic drive and not too slow for mid Wales. There will be bottlenecks but the traffic is never that bad. After Chester I have no idea which road to take.

I was going to say this. If the OP doesn't like motorway, then this is probably the only bit of that journey where you've got a viable non-motorway alternative that won't double your journey time.

It also depends on whether you don't like quiet motorway, or busy motorway or both. I'd go:

A470, A483, A55, M53, tunnel to Liverpool, A59, M58, M6, M74, A701/2 (depending on where exactly in Edinburgh you need to be).

There's not much you can do to avoid the M6/74 section without losing lots of time; if you really want to or you just want to break it up, there's the A6, and maybe you could work in a few faster sections of that if it's the monotony of motorway you don't like.

[PlywoodPascal]

dontlookdown said:

My direct route would be M4 to Newport, A449/A40 to Ross on Wye then pick up the M50 to the M5 and North from there. From Newport to Ross is a pleasant enough dual carriageway drive, and the M50 is prob the quietest motorway in the country;)

This is the way I went in the end, then m6. It was a bit boring but passed quickly enough… 9 hours including a decent number of longer stops.
Quite rainy until Manchester which was a bit tricky with the tyres/car but got through it ok.
Obviously as people (and me) mentioned, A701 from Moffat to Edinburgh at North end of journey. The best bit
Thanks all.

[dontlookdown]

Yeah it's a long old journey however you do it, you need plenty of breaks. I'm all for the scenic route where practical, but sometimes direct and boring is the way to go.