Place to stay for 1 night en-route from London to Cornwall? Post Reply

[stayathomemuminsw11]

Hi,

We are off to Cornwall in August (Glynn Barton Cottages near Bodmin) and will be travelling from SW11 with a 4 yr old and by then, a 9 month old. According to AA route planner it will take a minimum of 5 hrs, so I'd quite like to break it down and stay somewhere en-route for 1 night, probably 3 hrs into the journey ish?

Can anyone recommend anywhere which isn't too much of a detour and isn't hideously expensive for 1 night, for 2 adults, 1 child and 1 baby? Somewhere nice but doesn't need to be amazing!

Thanks.

[balhamite]

Not sure if this counts as 'nice' but we stay at the Exeter holiday inn express at junction 29 of m5. We go down Friday evening and leave after breakfast so it is just a place to crash and break the journey. Ask for a corner room which fits a sofa bed and a cot which they provide. I think we are paying £60 including breakfast for a Friday night in July. Never done it with 2 kids before so fingers crossed it won't be a total nightmare all sleeping in the same room!

[CHT]

Depending when you travel, Exeter might be more than three hours away, but I agree it's a good spot to break the journey (you are past lots of the main traffic hotspots, and not quite into Cornwall but nearly there).

[Batterseamummy]

Are you doing M5 or A303?

[stayathomemuminsw11]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I hadn't thought about the route-which would you recommend?

We'll probably try and leave at the start of the baby's lunchtime nap, so 12.30 ish (and it'll be a Thursday!)

Thanks!

[mrs_pavlova]

Hello

You will love Glynn Barton Cottages. We've been twice and are going back in June. Can't wait!

I just thought that I would share (for what it's worth) that we had the same plan the first time we visited. Admittedly, we only had one 18 month old back then, but we set off at toddler bedtime and drove all the way down hoping that he would nod off and give us a peaceful journey. No luck! He was just going to sleep as we arrived at Bodmin Premier Inn!

The other thing to bear in mind, is that you can't check in until 4pm (they are quiet strict) so we had a rather long day trying to manage without all our stuff which was packed in the boot. (I'm sure you'll be better prepared than me!)

Last time we drove down, stopping for a leisurely lunch at a nice Alastair Sawday pub and generally taking our time and it worked well.

Anyway, have a super time and pm if you want to ask anything!

[Batterseamummy]

A303 is a much nicer more interesting route but if traffic is ok motorway is usually quicker. If you're going A303, Sherborne area is about half way between London and north Cornwall and is a lovely little market town with quite a few hotels and b&b's.

[Nightingale]

My parents live near Bodmin so I often do the journey with my 9month old. It's actually a 4 hour journey but that would be with no stops. M4/5 is quicker but slightly more miles. I nearly always do that route as every time I do a303 I seem to have an awful journey. If you do a303 there is a nice village called Hinton which has a good pub (not sure if they have accommodation). Not sure where to suggest stopping if you go m5 - personally I wouldn't bother stopping somewhere overnight and i wouldn't bother with Exeter because once you're that far you're pretty much there, the a30 part of the journey from Exeter to Bodmin is exactly an hour (and never any traffic, unless an accident etc). It does matter what time of day you leave London/what day. I would think Thursday at midday you should have a reasonable journey.

[Mumof1plus2]

When we go to Devon from London we nearly always use A303 which should be fine unless travelling on Friday or Saturday. It is much more pleasant than M4/M5 and 20 or 30 miles shorter. It normally takes us 3 to 3 and a half hours, so if you want to stop overnight en route it should be between Yeovil and Honiton. Honiton has the benefit of being a nice market town and adjacent to A30 motorway which starts there and goes all the way to Bodmin.

[laa00ock]

Hi-
We stayed at a lovely boutique hotel called in Yeoville called The Keep Hotel on our way to Cornwall over Christmas. They have big rooms and are all set up for babies -- they provided a travel cot and breakfast for our child, who was 16 months at the time. Check them out online!

[pinkpeony]

We have stayed at Glynn Barton a couple of times with our three small Children and it has always taken us 4 hours to do the journey. We stop at a pub for lunch called the Red Lion which is about 2 hours away so half way (http://www.redlionbabcary.co.uk/). Child friendly, yummy food and it has a garden. It's great for a run around before the next part of the journey. They also have rooms.

Have a good trip

[livegreen]

We do this journey with our 3 a couple of times a year. At first we thought we needed to break it with an overnight stay, however we actually found this to be more hastle than it was worth.
Our tactic now is to get up so that we are on the road for 5am with no breakfast, then drive down the quiet m4/m5. The journey only takes 3.5 hours and its easy to stop at a service station once you are past Taunton area leaving only an hour after a stop.
The children actually enjoy the early start, but you do need to be packed the night before.

[stayathomemuminsw11]

Wow, thanks SO much for all the responses!

We check in on a Friday, so was thinking of going Thursday and staying over-but now wonder if it's worth it...

I just don't know if travelling on a Friday is going to be a nightmare!

I was envisaging a much longer journey than 4 hrs-so that's good to know...

As someone mentioned, check in is at 4pm and you're not allowed to arrive earlier. Would leaving at 12.30 pm on a Friday be terrible traffic wise?

Other option I'm considering is leaving at bedtime (kids!) on Thursday night, and staying somewhere v near Glynn Barton on Thursday night....

Anyway, thanks for all the tips-lots to think about.

Will definitely PM you Mrs_Pavlova-thanks!

[CornishMummyinLondon]

I do this journey all the time and I have to agree with the previous posters than an overnight stop is way more hassle than it's worth. Exeter is only an hour from Bodmin so in my opinon you might as well keep going.

I never find Fridays a hassle to drive on as long as you leave before mid afternoon. Personally I'm a fan of the a303 but that's because I usually travel by myself with my three kids in the back and all those roundabouts keep me awake!!

Good luck. It's not as far as you think (four hours without a stop) and it's soooo worth it when you get there.

[NYE31]

I would def go A303, we always go that way when we go down to the SW, if you wanted to stop mid way, I'd recommend this side of Exeter.

Good luck