Driving Bournemouth Edinburgh

[romeogolf]

Partner and I are looking to visit a friend in Edinburgh in the new year and considering driving rather than taking the train or flying. We'd be going up on a Friday afternoon and coming home the following Monday.

Train tickets are £120 return each, so £240 total cost.
Flying isn't an option from Bournemouth, but costs ~£100 each from Southampton plus parking or train there.
Fuel shouldn't cost more than £150 for the return trip, so it's easily the cheapest option, plus convenience of leaving on our own schedule and having the car when up there, if needed.

The furthest I've driven in one go is York, so this is nearly double the distance.

What's the journey like to Edinburgh? Is 7 hours a reasonable estimate of journey time on a Friday afternoon? (We'd leave just before midday, if not earlier) And is driving home approximately the same on a Monday?

Thanks

[romeogolf]

Lost soul said:

They are talking about Friday being the worst day to travel with even more chaos than a normal Friday

Not this Friday. It will be in January

[romeogolf]

I meant I'm not travelling until January so this Friday is not an issue to me.

[romeogolf]

If we left at 9am to avoid the bulk of the rush down here and then arrived sometime before 5pm, that would avoid most the traffic, right? And I assume we can press on a bit more than 65 at various points if the weather is in our favour.

I've got to sell this to my passenger who would rather spend the money and take the train.

[romeogolf]

Fartgalen said:

I'd add a lot of time on for 'her' also If your OH is anything like mine, she'll need to stop and pee every hour. And stop again for a leg stretch. Then stop for something to eat. Etc, etc.

Nah, he can hold it better than me. We'll probably stop once around half-way for a bite to eat, then for a photo op at Gretna. We're fairly efficient travellers

[romeogolf]

Thanks Bicycleshorts!

We'd be going up the M40/M6 route - The M1/A1 looks far longer to me.

[romeogolf]

parabolica said:

7 hours is an optimistic guess; I drive Surrey to Aberdeen and back a few times a year (due to do it once between Christmas and new year and again in January, weather permitting) and that take around 10 hours at ever-so-spirited speeds. Getting up to, around, and north of the M25 and then around Birmingham will give you the most grief/traffic. As soon as you get north of Manchester the traffic volume usually drops by around 70% and you can get a good blast up to the borders.

Up to you whether you go all the way to Glasgow then across on the M8; there is a A-road (A702) just north of Moffat that will take you x-country to Edinburgh. It's a nice flowing road; makes a change after 400 miles of motorway.

We'd skip the M25 altogether going from ours. It would be A31>M27>M3>A34>M40>M6>A74M etc, but I'm keen on the idea of A702 to avoid further motorways.

[romeogolf]

IanCress said:

Which weekend in January? There's a very good offer on Virgin trains for the weekend of 10th Jan.

It's not confirmed yet, we're still planning. And stop. I don't want to take a train, it's him who does

[romeogolf]

rockford22 said:

I actually did this exact drive 2 months ago on a Friday afternoon - 9 hours 35 minutes door to door. That did include a few stops (no more than 45 mins in total).

Oh sounds ideal. What time did you leave?

[romeogolf]

silentbrown said:

Where are you staying in Edinburgh? From what I remember, parking can be a real pain.

We're staying at a friend who lives there. I assume he has parking at his house, but I've not actually thought to ask!

[romeogolf]

parabolica said:

Most of Edinburgh (residential areas at least) are free parking on weekends.

He has confirmed he has a visitor permit for his street. He lives in Bonnington if that means anything to a local.

[romeogolf]

silentbrown said:

You *will* be sharing the driving?

If not, I'd seriously consider another plan, because you'll be doing the bulk of the trip in the dark. Shortest daylight hours, don't forget. You'll spend most of your time in Edinburgh just recovering

Either have an overnight stop, or set off really early on the Friday.

I know this may sounds wimpy, but I've fallen asleep on the motorway once. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Edited by silentbrown on Thursday 18th December 12:57

We will. I usually drive during the light and he drives when it gets dark. We often visit his family in Sheffield so we're used to long(ish) hours in the car together. I think an early start makes the most sense and trying to plan where is the best to be during the morning rush (and maybe stop for breakfast during it).

And the plan to come back Monday was to give us a little longer to recover from whatever we get up to on Saturday night and also to leave at a reasonable hour in the morning and get the most of the daylight

[romeogolf]

Thanks for all the help guys. Other half still wants to fly, though.

I'm trying to persuade him we could stop off on the way at his family in Sheffield to split the journey, and come back via friends in the Sheffield area as well.

We'll see!