Driving Bristol to Lake District

We are visiting England next May and plan to spend about a week in Bristol (visiting Bath, Cardiff etc using Bristol as a base) and then driving up to the Lake District for about a week.

Is it realistic to do the drive in one day? It is a long drive - 280 miles/ 451km - and posts on the internet suggest that it is totally do-able , but a friend suggested the roads are not great and it will almost certainly be raining at one point or another so we should stay overnight somewhere.

Nb : I've been to Manchester, Stratford on Avon, the Cotwolds before on other trips so no great need to stop and explore them on the way. The only question is whether the road is such that an overnight stop is desirable.

I'd pull up somewhere like Chester, rather than do the whole trip in a day - personally I think a week is a long time in the Lake District, so for me, one night on the road has little opportunity cost.

But it depends on your travelling style - we like to pull up at every ruined abbey and crumbling castle, and have the odd coffee in picturesque villages - however YMMV.

Perfectly doable.
From Bristol to the Lakes is, apart from the 1st 3-4 & last 15 or so miles, motorway all the way. Your friend's suggestion of the roads not being so great, has little point as to the journey, realistically. The roads are fine, but the traffic might not necessarily be!
It does depend what time of day you travel, as to how long it takes you, but assuming there are no incidents en-route, it can be done in around 4 & a bit hours.
The M6 Toll, again on what time you travel, can cut a good 30-40 minutes off the journey time. It costs a little more or less than a fiver, depending on what time you use it but still works out, by far, as the UK's cheapest toll-road.
There are several ways of doing the journey from Bristol, personally I'd head up the M5 then join the M6 (& M6 Toll) onward to Jct. 36 for S. Lakes, or 40 upwards to 44 for N.Lakes.
Tebay Services (M6), beyond 36 is a lovely location, the food is superb, it wins awards year after year & from there, it's close to wherever you're going.
Hope it goes well.

Many thanks for these very helpful replies. Two other questions if possible :

(1) is the M6 Toll required to be paid in advance on the internet, or is it by direct payment in cash at either end of the M6?
(2) I'm also now wondering myself whether a week is too long in the Lake District. We are happy to do some walking in the area but I'm wondering whether 3 complete days would be sufficient to enjoy the area, then move on?

I'm also now wondering myself whether a week is too long in the Lake District.

I guess it depends on what else you are doing, and where the trip ends.

Hadrian's Wall and Durham Cathedral are quite close by - even Yorkshires Dales NP and York itself.

We had three nights at the Ambleside YHA - lovely - but two full days felt okay for us (driving and strolling around).

There is loads to see and do in the lakes for a week, more so if you like walking so it depends on your interests the biggest issue is the weather if you have a week if bad weather then it could be too long. But you have Lancaster nearby which is worth day trip even Blackpool.

As for driving apart from traffic it is not a difficult drive, I would personally do it in a day, the toll you pay at the access point. Chester would be a nice place to stop but not on route and warrants more than a night stopover.

Really insightful comments from you all - many thanks. The more I think about it the more I think that we should take time to get there (even driving up through Wales or staying in somewhere like Chester for a few days) and perhaps only planning to be in the Lake District for a few days. Will investigate LP guides further!

Chester is a great Roman city and a lovely place to stay for a couple of days. It's only issue is there is not a lot of accommodation so best to book in advance as it can be quite expensive.

The M6 Toll, again on what time you travel, can cut a good 30-40 minutes off the journey time

Whilst the M5 up the west side of Birmingham is a piece of road I try hard to avoid, M6 toll isn't really in the right place for that purpose, as it by-passes the N side of Birmingham.

bjc- if you look at a road map you'll see the M6 toll is the other side of Birmingham, so you'd be doing 2 sides of a triangle to use it. Yes the M6 west of Birmingham does get extremely busy but time your arrival here for late morning and hope for the best. I would have no hesitation in planning to make this journey in one day, but like most of UK, if you want to divert off the motorway, there's something really interesting every 20 miles or so - Worcester, Ironbridge, the potteries if that is an interest around Stoke, Chester as already mentioned . . . .

Taking your time and driving up through Wales would be lovely.

Take the M48 across the Severn Bridge to Chepstow (marvellous small town with a very good ruined castle). Then A466 up the Wye Valley with a stop at the ruined Tintern Abbey.

At Monmouth take the A40 to the food town of Abergavenny and continue through Crickhowell to Tretower with a stop for Tretower Court and ruined castle.

Now follow A479 and then A470 to Rhayader. Here you might want to stop off at Gigrin Farm for the Red Kite feeding centre. Feeding takes place 2pm in the winter, but 3pm in the summer months (when the clocks are on ‘Summer Time’).

Beyond Rhayader, the A470 takes you through the marvellous scenery of Mid Wales. There is little settlement along this stretch. At Caersws you have a choice of either staying on the A470 or or picking up the A483. The A483 is the more direct rout to Chester, taking you up through the Welsh Borders with Welshpool (close to Shrewsbury which is a nice black and white timber frame town), Oswestry with its ancient hill fort , and Wrexham.

The A470 is the more scenic route as it cuts across to Dolgellau (where the gold for the royal wedding rings was mined) and up through Coed y Brennin forest before dropping down through the Conwy valley a popular tourist area in the middle of Snowdonia with places like Betws y Coed and Llanwst to Conwy (walled town with an impressive ruined castle) and the Victorian sea side resort of Llandudno. Bodnant Gardens are close by. It is then a choice of the fast A55 to Chester or the slower A548 which takes you through all the seaside towns along the coast.

I haven’t attempted to break this up into days. I’ll leave that for you depending on how long you want to take on this. Remember there is little habitation or accommodation in the wilder bits of Mid Wales. This has only just scratched the surface and there is a lot more to do and see on the way. You might want to consider visiting Anglesey from Conwy/Llandudno. Snowdon isn’t far away. If you like preserved steam railways, there are two narrow gauge ones - Ffestiniog Railway which carried slates from Blaenau Ffestiniog to the wharves at Porthmadog and the newly rebuilt Welsh highland railway which runs along the flanks of Snowdon from Porthmadog to Caernarfon. Both run through magnificent scenery and are well worth considering.

If you want to know more about the slate industry, there is Llechwedd Slate Cavern in Blaenau Ffestiniog where you can take a trip deep into the ground and the Victorian slate workings. For the adrenalin seekers, this also has an underground zip wire - real Indiana Jones stuff...

Thank you all so much for your advice, and in particular Wasleys for the fabulous itinerary through Wales. I'm going to seriously investigate doing this. (plus I guess there is still the backup if the weather is terrible, to just drive up the motorway to the north. But this is definitely now just a back up plan)

Bear in mind there's a bank holiday on 2nd May and again on 30th May (these are both Mondays). Traffic on the Friday night before, Saturday late morning and pretty much anytime after Monday lunchtime will be heavy.

You'd still be fine if you left Bristol super early (i.e. driving down the road already at 6am) as you'd be 2 hours up the road before most people got out and well en route to Birmingham

As others have suggested, I too would invest in the M6 toll road. It's worth it.

Many thanks for these very helpful replies. Two other questions if possible :

(1) is the M6 Toll required to be paid in advance on the internet, or is it by direct payment in cash at either end of the M6?

The toll booths are on the M6 Toll. You pay at the booth just before you reach the end of the road & rejoin the M6, by either cash or card (no pin required).
There are no discount concessions for drivers or passengers with disabled badges.
It's £5.50 one-way, for an unladen car (no trailer, caravan etc.) during the day, a little cheaper overnight & at weekends.
Whichever way you travel NW from Bristol, the M6 Toll will save you time. Pretty much 24hrs a day, the M6 through Birmingham runs slow.
Jct's 6-11 are situated on what is known as 1 of the World's busiest stretches of multi-lane road.

Thanks for info on tolls - may yet use the M6 (on way back!). And will keep in mind public holidays!

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