Xmas Drive to Cumbria Advice

[Biker 1]

Driving from Gatwick area to digs a few miles from Carlisle for Christmas.
M23, M25, M40, M6 toll, M6.
The plan is to drive up on 23rd, return on 26th.
Assuming it doesn't snow & there is no major storm, what time of day does the PH Massive think I should attempt this rather grim looking road trip?

[Biker 1]

I was hoping to do most of the trip in daylight. So allowing for 7 hours would mean leaving around 8am & hitting the M25 at 8.30. Tricky to predict the traffic given the dates. Is the traffic as crap around Birmingham & Manchester as the M25?

[Biker 1]

MOMACC said:

It's terrible around Birmingham

Manchester isn't horrific but it can be bad

I'd leave at 9am

I'll hold you to that & report back if/when I make it!

[Biker 1]

Skodillac said:

So long as the A66 isn't walloped with snow, I'd go M40, A46, M69, M1, M18, A1(M), A66.

This is my regular route from Berkshire to south west Scotland, it avoids all the Birmingham and M6 nonsense entirely and is usually far more pleasant.

Blimey, that's food for thought!
Thanks for all the other good info from others too.
Amazing what you learn on PH

[Biker 1]

dontlookdown said:

Not specific to your journey, but in many years of south/north/south Xmas driving I have found that boxing day is often the worst day of all for traffic. Be ready for the return trip to be slower than the outbound one.

I would use Waze, not only for the initial route planning but also because it is reasonably effective at dodging traffi that builds up while you are travelling.

A few years back I drove from Gatwick area to a place near Berkhamsted on December 27th. Normally the journey would be around 1 & a half hours - on that occasion it took over 4 !! So I suppose the question is whether the 26th will be as bad - maybe I'll just return late afternoon....

[Biker 1]

The plan is to leave before 5am in order to get past the M25 asap.
I have thought of weather, & if there's a chance of snow enough route I will cancel.

[Biker 1]

I'll report back on the 27th. I'm hoping it'll be a rather dull report!
Thanks all for the input

[Biker 1]

Update:
I drove M23, M25, M40, M42, M6 Toll, M6 with 15-odd miles of A/B roads either end. Left at 5am on Tuesday with 1 pitstop. Nothing to report. Arrived 11.30am.
Returned today - left at 9am, home by 4pm. Apart from a hold up near Birmingham due to a car crash causing maybe 15 minutes extra journey time & the usual nonsense at M25/M3 junction, nothing really to report on either!
Dull, very long motorway drive of over 750 miles round trip. I won't be doing it again for a while.
Thanks as ever for PH suggestions.
Oh, & the views in the Lake District are mega!

[Biker 1]

Gary C said:

Yes, the weather has been fantastic. Today, the sunset was epic.

Yep, but sun visors were deployed most of the way back!

[Biker 1]

Forgot to mention: I only saw a single police car throughout, & that was in the opposite direction on blues.