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Which route in U.K....?

Dave Swinnard

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My wife and I are going to be visiting bits of England and Scotland for a couple weeks starting about the end of May (by rental car). She has spent most of the dreary days of this past winter planning and re-planning our itinerary. It's nailed down to the point where we know, and have booked, where we will be spending each night. A question she asked me today had be stumped once I started to think about it.

Some background... When we do a road trip from home (Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada) we frequently have only a very few routes to choose from to get from home to the various parts of Western North America we've visited. This includes traveling by major highways, minor highways, local roads, and in some cases barely passable dirt tracks and logging (mountainous!) roads. This is easily summed up by: much space, few areas of population, lots of impediments (mountains often).

On the other hand, it appears from glancing at the various maps we have, that to get from many places in the U.K. to other places there are often a multitude of route choices if one chooses to avoid the major motorways.

So, without knowing all the details of what lies along the various possible routes, how does one go about choosing possible routes?

(some guidelines... we're not interested in making the fastest possible times, nor do we need to see every little back country track. It's not always about the destination, often it's the "getting there" that's most interesting.)

If any of you fine folks over there have any suggestions on how you choose routes when you go "for a drive" I'd love to hear them.

(I will only be bringing my F3 with a couple of lenses and a bunch of Acros. Tripod of course too.)

Thanks, Dave
 
When I drive to Wales from Southend (an east to west drive) I choose 'A' roads (A40 A41). The reasons being they go through some beautiful parts of the country which you would not see on a Motorway. Also because I have to think about driving (many junctions, traffic lights, villages, towns etc to negotiate), which keeps me alert, unlike Motorway driving where it is easy to become mesmerised and lose concentration..
 
For scenic drives, 'A' roads with little or no dual carriageway and numbers with as many figures as possible are your best bet. Thus 'A1' is bad; 'A272' good. The good ones are often red instead of green on standard UK motoring atlases.

These are the roads that pass through rather than round the old market towns. They are the ones that pass over medieval viaducts and bridges, and under great tunnels of old oaks and intense green beeches. Odd little roadside caffs, quirky shopping opportunities and mad random detours from the nominal compass heading are further delights. They make for 'motoring', not driving.

For example, if you look at the border area between England and Scotland you'll see the A1 barrelling up the east coast, and the M6 up the west. Both are reasonably fast roads in May, but both are landscaped so that you mostly can't gawp at the scenery even if you are driving slowly enough to do so. They do have rest stops and laybys (pulloffs), but they are not usually the sorts of places where tourists want to get out a camera. Getting out of A1 laybys is an excercise in precisely applied agression and timing.

Between the two trunk routes lies a web of snaking minor A's which could fill a lifetime of tourism and photography. If you're going north-south, the A68 is a great way to feel you've actually crossed a border, and the A697 takes you through a whole series of great little unknown towns. For real thrills though you should cross the border diagonally from (or to Moffat-Galashiels-Melrose-Kelso-Coldstream-Berwick. Just a glance in a local tourist guide for possible stops along the way and you'll run out of film before you've made it halfway across.

And that's just the Borders. *All* of the UK is like this. The only way to stay sane is not to try and see it all in one week.
 
A quick classification lesson may be in order... Roads beginning with:

M: (M1, M40, M62 etc) Motorways. Dual-carriageways - mostly 3 lanes in each direction but inclined to reduce to two lanes in less well-trodden areas - speed limit (theoretically ) 70MPH.

A: (A1, A40, etc) A-Roads. Major roads between towns. Generally, the smaller the number (A1, A2, A3 etc) the more "major" it is - the A234 for example may be no bigger than a typical "B" road where the A1 is little short of a motorway near large towns on its route. Usually wide single-carriageway but often becoming dual-carrigeway in and approaching large towns and on busy routes not covered by a motorway. Things change in more rural areas: in North Wales or the Lake District for example they may become 4 metres wide with a sheer drop on one side (with guard-rail) and a rock-face on the other... So, quite variable in practice.

B: (B52, B189, B3056 etc) your typical back-road used to join up the bits the A-roads miss out: smaller villages etc. In rural areas, inclined to drop down to just enough room for one car with passing places at intervals.

So, if in a rural area, I'd suggest you pick an A-road. B-roads tend to meander a bit so it can be difficult to keep track of where you are, or indeed which direction you are going in... Satnav comes in very handy!

In general, if going from A to B and not in a hurry, I'd just pick out a couple of stops on the way from a tourist guide and use whatever A and B roads get me there.

Roads are all paved - no dirt roads etc, even the sub-B roads so no worries there. They are often narrow in rural areas though. Smaller A and B roads were often originally cart tracks between villages and the surrounding field systems - then someone came along, shovelled tarmac over it and called it a road...


Have fun! Bob.
 
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Wow...

Thanks a lot folks. Spurred on by some of the comments, I've been surfing to find such sites as SABRE's road list, the RAC route planner and even a site on the A361. Wow, I had no idea there was a system to this (appropriate adjective here) web of roads, nor how much information was available for so many of them.

I do thank you for the comments, especially for the primer by Struan and Bob.

My wife is busy with her road atlas and laptop, I'm on the GPS software and we're both making some headway in sorting this out. (It really is too bad that we are, once again, likely trying to see too much in too short a time. A hard habit to break; we both grew up in families where two weeks in the summer was of the "get in the car and go as far as you can before you have to turn back to be at work on Monday". Both the kids have it too...)

Cheers, Dave
 
Well thats a difficult question because we have no idea of distances involved.
If you tried to drive from London to Scotland on B roads it would take at least two days. Generally B roads are country roads which can be winding and slow especially if you get stuck behind a bus. B also usually have hedges either side and you can drive for miles without being able to see anything if you are in a small (low) car. On the other hand they will lead you through the "quaint" little villages that tourists love.
Some A roads can be dull as dishwater whereas others can be really full of great landscape views. The A303 which goes from South west of london down to Devon is great road which drives right by Stonehenge. Some A roads are only marginally bigger than B roads.

Best policy is to visit the following website and use the route planner which will give you detailed routes with road numbers and times etc.

http://www.theaa.com/travelwatch/planner_main.jsp
 
request sat nav with your hire car and then set it up to avoid main roads. Driving on back roads can be fun , but you may well be faced with a junction every mile or so which can get a real pain for the map reader.
 
I try to do what Andy does and use 'A' roads and ignore the motorways for the same reasons he gives. I wouldn't drive from London to Scotland (if that is your intention). I would fly to Scotland then hire a car up there (but that's just me).
Enjoy your trip.


Steve.
 
If you do decide to drive up the North East coast, then the 'Northumberland Costal Route' is the way to go, as long as you aren't in a hurry. It's about 100 miles long, but goes past all (IMHO) the best looking castles. It could take quite a while to drive along it, if you keep stopping for a look around
 
In some of the more touristic areas you may also find routes signed in brown as 'scenic route' which make for very nice drives. Also, sites of historical or scenic interest are signed in brown. If you are visiting many historical sites, then it may be worth joining the national trust. A years membership may sound like a lot, but you can easily save yourself the membership in a few weeks of concentrated visits and the houses and landscapes they protect have wonderful photographic possibilites. I've found they're usually pretty cool about the use of tripods as well (though not inside properties obviously). http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk.
 
If you venture to the Lake District, then one route which is fun is HardKnott Pass just west of Ambleside. It's little steep in places but takes you over Englands highest mountain with stunning views.
 
'mountain' is a bit of an exageration! In truth, there are no mountains in the UK, just a few larger hills.
 
rob champagne said:
If you venture to the Lake District, then one route which is fun is HardKnott Pass just west of Ambleside. It's little steep in places but takes you over Englands highest mountain with stunning views.
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Rob, its a bit cruel to suggest Hardnott :confused:
I accept the views are truely stunning
- but -
the road is slightly more than steep (1 in 3) + very narrow (single track road with passing places) and very twisty (hairpin bends)
It might be a bit more adventure than our overseas freinds are quite ready for.
Martin
 

What? Sure its steep in a few places but its incredibly popular. In high season its one long line of cars who can't wait to get up there. Providing you go when its not too busy its great fun.
 
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Here's what we did.

We figured we couldn't do both countries justice by car in the time we had, so we flew into London and just did the city for ten days without a car. (You don't want to have a car in London . )

(We then visited friends in Switzerland for a week, but ignore that. )

We then flew to Glasgow, spent two days, rented a car, and drove to Oban via Trossachs National Park. The next day we drove to Mallaig, took the ferry to Skye, and drove to Broadford where our B&B was. We spent a few days there, drove over the Skye bridge to Inverness along Loch Ness, visited the Glenlivet distillery and drove to Braemar (where my family is from); you might prefer to go to Aberdeen instead but Braemar is very pretty. A day trip to Aberdeen, followed by a drive to Edinburgh via Dundee and St. Andrews. A day trip from Edinburgh to ruined abbeys (Melrose and Jedburgh, well worth a visit), and then we got rid of the car in Edinburgh and did that city on foot. (Our B&B was on Glengyle Terrace, a reasonable walk from the Royal Mile.)

Scotland was a fun country to drive in. It took me a day or so to get comfortable with roundabouts, driving on the left and using a gearshift with my left hand (I drive a manual at home, but with the right hand obviously ) but having a car was really convenient. We could stop anywhere we liked.

One photographic downside is that the roads seldom have shoulders, so stopping on the side of the highway to take photos, as we might be inclined to do in Canada, is not much of an option in Scotland.

A few Scottish highways are single track (one lane for both directions). They're not as bad as they sound like they'll be, but they do require careful attention. If you take the drive to Mallaig, you'll drive on a few tens of kilometres of single-track road, and there are quite a few such roads on Skye as well.
 
I was in England in early April, actually I arrived the day before the snow. I thought it somewhat ironic that I left nice warm sunny weather in Canada to come to snowy England. I had GPS in my rental car and I generally followed where it took me.

Personally I like the Motorways, I think the driving is much easier than the A roads because there isn't a junction, roundabout, sharp turn or village that you have to slow down for every 100 yards - at least by Canadian standards it feels like that. Also, many of the secondary roads have a hedge beside the road, so its like driving through a tunnel, and with all the twists and turns you have to be concentrating on driving 100% of the time, so you don't see the scenery anyway.

I thought I was able to get a much better view of the countryside from the Motorway than any other road. they are also great when you want to get somewhere too. By all means though pull off occasionally and visit the small villages and whatever catches your fancy, but don't shy away from the Motorways.
 
Steve Smith said:
I wouldn't drive from London to Scotland (if that is your intention). I would fly to Scotland then hire a car up there (but that's just me).
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Interesting difference in perceptions. I don't consider it very far to drive most anywhere in the UK, and I'd much rather drive than go through all the hassle of airport security. By the time you get to the airport 3 hours early for them to lose your luggage you could have driven half way up the island!

From my view in Western Canada, 650 miles is an easy days drive, I don't think much about doing it, just fill the tank and go. 1000 miles is a long day's drive!
 
Craig said:
From my view in Western Canada, 650 miles is an easy days drive, I don't think much about doing it, just fill the tank and go. 1000 miles is a long day's drive!
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You have to take into account the different traffic densities. 650 miles on a freeway in a country the size of Canada is easy. 650 miles on British motorways in nose-to-tail traffic is hard work!
 
There is a reasonable alternative to flying if you hate airports - take the train.

For all we Brits love to moan about our railways, they're actually pretty good - albeit expensive. The East Coast Mainline from Kings Cross to Edinburgh and beyond takes you past some stunning scenery along the north east coast, and mostly at 125mph , once you take into account checkin and getting to/from airports it gives the plane a run for its money timewise too.

You can get the cost down dramatically by booking a specific train in advance , if you do that, it's worth looking for 1st class tickets as they can often be not much more than standard , I regularly do the couple of hundred miles from Leeds to London 1st class for around 20 quid. You can look up fares and times at www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com

The other fun way to get up to Scotland is to take the sleeper train from Euston.
 
Theres no "blanket" answer, and it depends on whether the prime purpose of the journey is to get to a place in a reasonable or at least predictable time or to photograph. I use maps with indications of relief and drainage etc to form a view of possible photographic potential. There are parts of the UK where this is hard to find and in those circumstances why not use motorways and the larger trunk roads to get the journey out of the way. If you want to photograph, I'd get off A roads- pretty much all A roads- because although the scenery may be quite pleasant its harder to stop the car- sometimes for legislative reasons , sometimes because its busy to the point you'll be reluctant to cause a hazard. In my experience, the smaller the roads the better the photography and the easier it is to do.
 
Thanks to all you folks for the advice and suggestions.

Rob & Martin... mountains and twisty roads - I grew up driving in them. My mother's 1968 Toyota Corolla and the logging roads in the mountains east of Vedder Crossing (near Chilliwack, which is about 60 miles east of Vancouver). The fun part was the loaded logging trucks which don't really care about let alone even notice tiny cars on "their" roads. Their right of way enforced by sheer gross vehicle weight and seconded by gravity made for a lot of "see any dust? hear anything coming?"

Off Thursday, hope to see less rain and gloom than we've had here - though the last few days have been actually quite spring-like. (packing the Gore-Tex though)
 
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