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Hello.  I've got to attempt the same journey but from Littlehampton (near Worthing/Bognor Regis).  It looks like A roads all the way for me.  Any idea how long it takes?  Typically the AA website is trying to tell me 4 to 5 hours but reading some of the horror stories on here I'm guessing it could take me a lot longer to circumnavigate the south coast.

Will it make any difference that I travel on a Monday?  16th August we go.

Quote: Originally posted by fudgetastic on 26/7/2010

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oooooh, just made my mind up to leave about 4pm and arrive back in Manchester abut 10/11pm. Now Brettsy says this is the worst time to leave Cornwall!

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Quote: Originally posted by houseofscouse on 26/7/2010

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Hello.  I've got to attempt the same journey but from Littlehampton (near Worthing/Bognor Regis).  It looks like A roads all the way for me.  Any idea how long it takes?  Typically the AA website is trying to tell me 4 to 5 hours but reading some of the horror stories on here I'm guessing it could take me a lot longer to circumnavigate the south coast.

Will it make any difference that I travel on a Monday?  16th August we go.

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Obviously, it depends whereabouts in Cornwall you go, but we got from Lewes in Sussex to St Teath (near Camelford) in about 4-4.5 hours without punishing ourselves. We left around 8 on a Saturday and were there just after 12. That was in October, but it was half-term week and pretty busy.

You're about an hour nearer Cornwall than us, but if you're going down to the Lizard or somewhere, it's probably an hour longer at the Cornwall end.

We go the obvious way: A/M27; A31; A35, A30 (with a little stretch of M50) and take the A39 from Okehampton if we're going to north Cornwall. We've tried all sorts of alternatives, and always end up going back to the "pretty way". If we hit a bad spot of traffic, it's easier to take off down minor roads and get round it than it is when you stick to motorways, and there are nicer places to stop en route.

Traffic's definitely got worse over the years. I used to get to Cornwall in 3.5 hours when I first moved to Sussex.

Just don't travel the same day as my cousin, he managed to close the M5 near Bristol last year for a few hours when he overturned his caravan on it's first outing!

he's back to trailer tent and is travelling Friday from Manchester to Newquay, so if you see avery nervous trailer driver, give him a wave and some encouragement