Which way round the M25 for the clearest trip?

[youngsod]

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, if it is please move it.

I'm off to Goodwood on Saturday, and from our house outside Cambridge there is very little difference between going clockwise and anticlockwise on the M25. So I was wondering which way would be the best to go as regards roadworks and the like, and where else better to ask than the PH hive mind?

Last year at the FoS I ended up going both ways there and back, causing the geeky boy in me to enjoy driving past all four of London's airports LTN-LHR-LGW-STN.

I know, I need to get out more...

[joewilliams]

The other way.

[Big News]

Whenever I'm doing my Watford - Reigate trip, I always get there quicker on the clockwise leg, no matter what time of day.

[craigjm]

much the same really depending on how busy the crossing is if you go clockwise

[nielsen]

Roadwork on m25 close to A3, so I would go clockwise over the bridge/true the tunnel on your return.

[craigjm]

nielsen said:

Roadwork on m25 close to A3, so I would go clockwise over the bridge/true the tunnel on your return.

I would avoid the tunnel between 4.30-7pm though!

[rich_b]

youngsod said:

all four of London's airports LTN-LHR-LGW-STN.

I live pretty close to Gatwick, it certainly isn't in London. Nor are Luton and Stansted. Heathrow is the only one that is within the M25.

That wasn't a personal dig at you, but it annoys me how they are all labelled as London when they clearly aren't!

[arfur]

rich_b said:

I live pretty close to Gatwick, it certainly isn't in London. Nor are Luton and Stansted. Heathrow is the only one that is within the M25.

That wasn't a personal dig at you, but it annoys me how they are all labelled as London when they clearly aren't!

City Airport ?

[craigjm]

rich_b said:

I live pretty close to Gatwick, it certainly isn't in London. Nor are Luton and Stansted. Heathrow is the only one that is within the M25.

That wasn't a personal dig at you, but it annoys me how they are all labelled as London when they clearly aren't!

Agreed, isn't Oxford airport now also called London Oxford?

[sday12]

Clockwise and avoid a3

[R12HCO]

rich_b said:

I live pretty close to Gatwick, it certainly isn't in London. Nor are Luton and Stansted. Heathrow is the only one that is within the M25.

That wasn't a personal dig at you, but it annoys me how they are all labelled as London when they clearly aren't!

Nottingham east midlands springs to mind.

[rich_b]

arfur said:

City Airport ?

I meant Heathrow being the only one within that list

[Scootersp]

I'd go the clockwise/south route too...........

Then A3, through the new tunnel, off at Petersfield, find the B2146 to South Harting, then the B2141 to the top of Chichester, lovely b roads that are fine (wide enough) for any car and that have in general an exceptionally good surface and a lovely selection of corners.

[Zwoelf]

Much experience of the M25 to date leads me to advise that whichever route you choose, the other one will have been the right way. If you then choose to go home the other way too, then it will have been best to return the way you came...

[youngsod]

Ah, I hadn't realised that anti-clockwise means the Hindhead tunnel! I think that's a decision made then. If the traffic is bad then we can always return via Dartford.

Thanks for the assistance, though I live in Cambridge I am Scottish so the south-east and the M25 in particular has always been a bit of a mystery to me. He be Dragons sort of thing. I mean you have horseless carriages and lights in the street at night! What next I ask you? Moving pictures?

Rich_b, no worries, I agree with you, they are hardly all London airports. Mind you STN is damned handy when you live in Cambridge, it's just a short jaunt down the M11. And I also forgot LCY, which is a marvellous little airport, particularly on a windy day.