is there anywhere left to enjoy a drive?

[thejaywills]

Hi all,

So I'm coming back home to the UK for a week and fully intend to spend a couple of days doing what I love - and for me that's enjoying some nice country roads. I've got a Cayman for the week and would love to get away from traffic jams and cameras for a few days.

Wondering if anyone can suggest some nice 'petrolhead' roads/areas/destinations? I'm not talking speeding around at a million miles an hour sideways, just the sort of openish twisty roads where you can just cruise, enjoy, free from too much traffic, maybe stop off for a nice bite, see some nice sights etc. I'll be in the south east so down that way is great but happy to venture out a few hundred miles.

Been gone for a while and from what I read here the UK seems a medley of traffic, cameras, road tolls and misery but on the off chance there's still a place to enjoy a car - would be great to know where you go for a spin to satisfy your cravings?


Cheers!

[thejaywills]

dvs_dave said:

“FAO Ben 23/08/09”

Seen this note in numerous profiles over the years. What does it mean?

You tag your profile with that when changing your email address - I forgot to remove it from mine thanks for the reminder

[thejaywills]

Mr Tidy said:

I live in the South East too and haven't found any roads like that around here!

I have found some decent roads in Wiltshire, Shropshire and Cambridgeshire but some have speed cameras.

The best I've used were in Wales, Yorkshire and Scotland.

gshughes said:

North Wales, Cumbria (North Pennines), Northumberland or North Yorkshire are a few hundred miles from the South East and are my suggestions.

North wales is a great shout, but not sure I'll have the kms or time to fit in a jaunt that way - will certainly try!

Super keen to hear about anything around Wiltshire - turns out I have a bit of work to do in the area!

RolyRetro said:

I’d say that there are places to enjoy a drive, but it’s more about times to enjoy a drive. I’m part of a WhatsApp group that organises early morning drives around Essex, generally on a Saturday morning, starting 6am and getting in a hundred mile drive to finish before 9am and have a bacon sandwich to celebrate a morning well spent. Any later than that and the drive is pointless, too much traffic and too frustrating.

Here is an example, there are others, but this part of Essex has a great combination of fast rural roads, nice villages and no traffic early in the morning, just watch out for tractors…

Start at South Woodham Ferrers. Head out on B1010 to Burnham on Crouch. At BoC, go left onto the B1021 up to Southminster. Go right and follow the road through Southminster then up through Asheldham and Tillingham towards Bradwell. Take the Maldon rd/Bradwell rd back towards Mayland. Keep on through to Latchingdon and Cold Norton then either down through Stow Maries back to SWF. Or head up Hackman's Lane through Cock Clarks, chuck a left onto Slough Road, through Bicknacre then back down B1418 towards SWF.

Legendary, thanks will give that a shout this weekend, I'm an early riser so suits me just fine!

[thejaywills]

Well well the community certainly provides Keep em coming, thanks all

LRDefender said:

Yes there is but as already mentioned timing is key.

When I’m in the U.K. I’ll head out for a drive around 00:30 - 4:00am. Some great roads are to be found around Petersfield, South Harting, Petworth, Horsham and the Surrey Hills. It’s pretty pointless driving these areas for fun during normal hours as there’s simply too many cars on the road with differing driving styles.

It's funny, I have no problem being up at those hours, I'm normally on the road a lot of the time at 3.30 - but here in Aus I've learned to combine that with ''suicidal kangaroos everywhere'' which was pretty much how I wrote off my boxster. Ha I guess I never really thought that in 20 odd years in the UK I never saw any wildlife on the roads other than the deer that wrote off our puma many moons ago!

dvs_dave said:

So not some secret marker for PHight Club or something? Oh well, carry on. Maybe I should start it up.

Shhh! It was but you're quickly ruining it!

Mark-insert old BMW said:

North Devon and Cornwall. A39 Atlantic Highway is great fun and a road I'll often drive for sheer enjoyment. My eldest lives in Barnstaple so I always have a good excuse to head up on a Sunday morning. In the summer months I head down towards Penzance from Hayle / St Ives but usually go at sunrise to avoid tourists. This time of year though, it's not usually too busy.

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Ah a good shout, used to spend hours doing the weekly run to/from cornwall but I usually took the fastest route rather than the most enjoyable.. time poorly spent

Will have a look ta

Castrol for a knave said:

Shropshire and the borders is completely rubbish, so I wouldn't come here

Noted, I have a habit of ignoring good advise though :P

C70R said:

That was your first mistake.

If you were to believe this place, everything about driving in the UK is completely awful. It's like a Facebook comments section of grumpy, old men whingeing about everything in their lives.

There are lots of fun places to drive in the UK, even (shock, horror) in the South East. If you were able to get up early and avoid the traffic, there are a load of great routes that will take you through the Surrey Hills and South Downs to the coast. If you wanted to venture further afield, there are myriad options that are well covered here.

Don't believe the doom-mongers.

ha precisely why I risked posting - I've been guilty of it myself but I do find myself saying ''it's not that bad acutually'' when I'm home Will add those to the list cheers!

thepritch said:

I’d say the same about Lefty’s silly suggestion. Roads in Scotland are just unbearable, nothing going for them whatsoever. You’d really not want to come here. In fact I’m coming back down to the SE England for a week next week, and can’t wait for driving nirvana!

I'd kill to get back to scotland, last time unfortunately was with the mrs, kid, friend and mum in a people carrier - the most excciting it got was getting a flat tyre after the mrs hit a brick!

Unfortunately probably a bit too far afield this time!

braddo said:

Are you thinking day trips or would you stay overnight further afield? If you haven't been in the UK for a while the biggest change would be lots of lower speed limits on country roads. I'm not sure there are that many more fixed cameras.

But more importantly, SE England is probably the most densely populated area of Europe and that hasn't changed in decades! There are 25+ million people in a very small area so it will always be busy - London 9 million, south-east (Berks around to Kent) 9 million, east (Herts up to Norfolk) 6 million...

ETA - oh, and post-Covid with far more home working, Fridays are probably far quieter than they used to be (they certainly are in London). Perhaps head off for a couple of nights mid-week and then spend Friday in the south-east.

And C70's right - it's really not that bad The daily mail, express and telegraph do love to spread misery as much as they can too...

Edited by braddo on Friday 17th November 07:52

I'm actually in two minds. a few day trips would be good to fit around family and work but am thinking about taking a nice overnighter somewhere - yep I definitely avoid taking everything I read with too much seriousness - I was born in slough - I have to

Alex_225 said:

From my personal experience, there are some fantastic roads in the West of the UK. Devon is great. I now live in Gloucestershire and am discovering some good roads round here too.

There are some roads hidden away where I was from before (East Surrey) they were generally busier and hidden away.

Will deffo add to the list cheers! Used to spend a bit of time around surrey but it was always rush hour

Tommo87 said:

I’ve in the south east and I’m the member of a few groups that go out quite often for a few hours and then congregate for a breakfast.
The best routes have a combined of fast technical corners, some elevation and a few NSL straights.
Flat straight roads that go on for miles are pointless TBH.

The concept is no different to visiting a busy shop or a theme park. You absolutely need to choose a time/day when there are less people about if you want the roads to yourself.

Speed camera locations are all known and documented, so you can avoid them, or just plan around them and slow down for that bit of the journey.

Couldnt agree more, flat straight roads get boring very fast. we have a '90 mile straight' here and the novelty dies off. Yep seems to be the common theme, seems I'll be exploring some early mornings! I have no idea where the cameras are these days, and being on roaming probably means I won't have waze/maps on much