Message Forums

Would 2nd (or is that 3rd or 4th?) using the A50 instead of the M6, toll or otherwise, but don't know about the A14/M11/M25 route. I would also consider stopping half way overnight.

Anne

Quote: Originally posted by Mrs. Bonce on 11/6/2008

Would 2nd (or is that 3rd or 4th?) using the A50 instead of the M6, toll or otherwise, but don't know about the A14/M11/M25 route. I would also consider stopping half way overnight.

Anne

---

---

We do Liverpool to Dover every year.  The shortest it has ever taken us was 5.5 hours.  This was leaving Liverpool at 5am on a Saturday and not having any traffic hold ups at all.  The longest it has ever taken us was 8 hours when we had terrible traffic on the M6, the M25 and the M20.

We usually leave ourselves 7 hours.  I'd rather be there early and get on the boat feeling relaxed rather than panic the whole way through the traffic that we won't make it on time.

If it helps at all I live near Preston and have done this trip getting on for thirty times, only encountering serious holdups three times.

For personal preference I go down the M6, past Birmingham (using toll road at busiest times), onto M42, M25 round the west and south of London and on to Dover.  The distance is around 315 miles.  Not towing and if no problems it takes me around 4hr 40 mins driving time.  If I go M6/M1/M25/Dartford (for some reason I cannot explain I find this way less attractive) it is about 10 miles shorter although there is the Dartford toll which offsets any fuel saving and it still takes about the same time.

[grumpy old man] Out of interest having read the posts by our friend from County Down does anyone else find the modern trend for posts with no capital letters, few spaces and minimal, often incorrect, punctuation makes it unneccessarily difficult to make sense of  the message or is it just me getting old? [/grumpy old man]

I travel a lot with my job, living near Preston I would take M6 thru Brum, its ok depending on time of day, toll road will cost £4.50 solo and £7 towing but is always empty. If your going to hit brum anywhere up to 10am or from 3pm onwards I would think about using the A50 thru Stoke (M6 J15) then going down the M1, then make a decision about the M1, there's major roadworks around Luton, so listen to traffic news and if it looks dodgy go down the A14 past Kettering then M11, this is a longer route (+20miles or so). The other option is the M40 from brum to the M25 then the southern section of the M25, M40 is always quietish but the southern section of the M25 can be a nightmare especially past heathrow.

I would strongly suggest to anyone travelling nowadays to invest in a tomtom sat nav that allows you to sign up to the traffic service, although the info is not gospel it has certainly saved me many hours of not sitting in queues and will re-route you around an incident should you wish.

Another way is to log onto www.trafficengland.com this gives you live highways agency info and can even show you what the matrix signs are displaying!!

Thanks for that.

My Sat Nav (Suzie) says 5 hrs 40 mins from here, but she's usually out by 15 mins in every couple of hours so I reckon 6 hours plus 2 stops so am allowing 8 hours.

Are there any services on the M40 and M20?

Ok, I've done the Belfast to Birkenhead ferry, if its on time you should get off the docks around 7am, head out on to the M56 then M6, listen to radio2 traffic every 1/2hr then decide on the route (see my post above). You should hit birmingham around 0930-1000 which should be ok as the hold ups will be clearing, if not do the toll and cough up the £7, come off at the M42 past the NEC, there's roadworks there so watch the message boards for delays, hop on the M40 then follow saint jimmys advice above. Its all about keeping your ear to the ground!!! As mentioned above M40 is prettier, M1 is very very boring.

Essex usually takes me 4hrs solo and thats not hanging around and on a good run, I guess Dover is about 1.5hrs from there. So allow 6-7hrs. 

Don't forget the roadworks at Dover - allow plenty of time to get to the port from the end of whatever route you actually take. Took us one and half hour from the end of the M20 to actually get to the port on 30th May!!!

I agree about the journey to the longer crossings. But the price is just too much. I hate to think what it will be next year with the increase in the cost of fuel. I bet Dover-Calais will be closer to £250

Alan