Getting to Dover

[mjb]

Could do with some advice from the southern members of the forum...

Next Wednesday I've got to be at Dover for 9am, and that means going through Birmingham and London at rush hour. I'll get through Brum on the toll road but can anyone tell me how long it'll take to do the M1/M25/M2?

I'm seriously tempted to change to the 6am ferry, even if it means no chance of sleep and no duty free

[DiscoPol]

Hi Matt,
you know im not southern (england anyway) but i found the 6am ferry a huge improvement over the later one as like you i didnt fancy doing the rush hour round the m25, who you sailing with out of interest, did you gor for norfolk lines in the end?

Sorry cant be of much use to you about travel times for the 9am but for the 6 am i did it in exactly the time google maps stated as there wasnt any traffic at all to slow me down even with a few bits and pieces of road works it was bang on quoted times by google maps, and i wasnt driving a V6

Hope you have a cracking trip

[teamster1975]

There's a long stretch of roadworks on the M25 between the M40/M1; lane widening. May be worth going clockwise and going over the Dartford bridge. I'd give yourself 3-4 hours to be on the safe side, the M25 is truly shyte.

[plod]

I drove for a living and know how unpredicatable the traffic can be.

I'd always advice going a bit earlier and if you still want the duty free, then find a cafe near dover and have a break or something.

You will have the roadworks on M1 from 13 down to 10 to contend with and all it takes is a breakdown in them and it causes chaos.
Then more roadworks on the M25 to contend with - there was some at 21 on thursday, then couple more sets before hitting QE2 bridge at Dartford.
A lot of time can easily be lost queueing for the bridge.

I'd be looking at 3 hours from me, so 4 hours from stoke

[plod]

It's like if I want to go London

Far better to leave at 5am and get there for 7am and have a break with not too much traffic to worry about (relatively)
than to leave at 6am and take 3 hours to get there and be stressed out in the traffic

As said, save the cost of the toll, and go earlier and use it to buy big fat greasy cob

[plod]

It's like when I go to Cornwall for my holiday this summer, I will probably be gone about 2- 2.30 and get there for 6-6.30 and have a nice rest.

It's either that or spend numerous hours on the M5 and A30, getting betty swollocks ( if I ain't fixed aircon by then (god forbid))

Same with when been down Devon, leave at half 3 and be there for half 6 - UNSTRESSED

[mjb]

Cheers for the replies. I'm half considering just driving down Tuesday night a couple of hours after work. Can probably comfortably make the 9:20pm ferry and be in a bed by 4-5am providing I can wake the girly up to let me in the b&b

Thought about doing a late night crossing, but I'll have the problem of needing to slew my body clock round 12 hours, which I can't do like I used to when I worked shifts

At least as long as I can just lob the cruise control on and ain't stuck waiting an hour or more down Dover, fatigue won't be an issue since I'm driving alone this time and won't stop apart from the ferry. It's always frequent rest stops that hurt

Shall I try to see if I can beat my record 707 mile V6 tank?

who you sailing with out of interest, did you gor for norfolk lines in the end?

Sea France I think... was the cheapest when I booked

[puggy]

Hey up matt its a trip i used to do a lot , got it down to 2 choices in the
end . M6 , M6 toll to M6/M1 junction , come off onto A14 to cambridge
then M11 to M25 of which a big chunk has been by passed or A50 to pick
M1 up then same as before . Longer in miles but way quicker as regards
traffic. Oh and use the M20 that is quicker than the M2 .