A303 or M4/M5

dacouch

I went down the A303 on Friday, left central London at 5.30am, no traffic on the way.

Way back circa 1pm the same day, it was clear although wherever the dual carriage merged there was heavy traffic

dangers

Mew - I would think you would be ok going down to Brean on the Monday but please make sure you stick to the 50mph from the M32 junction down to the Cribbs Causeway junction - that's if it isn't too busy and you can get to that speed.

sunshinetours

vikingaero wrote: »

Back today from our week away.

When we left on Saturday 11th, I made the executive decision to leave at 5am, which meant a 4.30am wake up call! I got some funny looks from Mrs V. and the Vikingettes but they knew I meant business. We were on the road at 5.05am and it was bliss. No traffic: M20 clear, M26 clear, M25 clear, M3 clear and A303 clear. The best bit was that Mrs V. and the Vikingettes were all fast asleep. In just over 2 hours we had reached the Wincanton area. I dithered with breakfast at some Little Chefs and the sheer number of cars in their car parks put me off. Same with the McD which was rammed. As they were still asleep I pushed on and we had breakfast on the M5 Roadchef at Taunton Deane (I think). The Roadchef was pretty busy but the motorway was heavy but moving OK.

As we were so early on our first day I did a detour through Exmoor to Dunster/Minehead. Our first stop was Porlock Weir where the kids loved the rocky beach. Being a sucker for Toll Roads we drove on the Worthy Toll Road which was underwhelming. Onto Lynton/Lynmouth and the cliff railway and lunch. Then Ilfracombe for the seafront, big hill and shopping before we made our way to our lodge - all in one day!

On the way back we left Ilfracombe at 7.30am and the A303 was clear on the way back. Those coming Westbound had the queues at the usual places, queues on the M3 and on the M25. When I think about how much we did in our first day I can't believe all these people that can't be bothered to get up early and endure all the frustration in queues when they could be chillaxing as we did!

You won't go back to driving later in the day now you have experienced it ! Always leave early for holidays - nothing worse than starting off your journey especially from the busy south east in a traffic jam!