4 week drive tour of England and Wales

You wouldn't go through Liverpool to get from the Lake District/M6 to Chester via M56 (M6 motorway from near Lake District through Lancashire, parts of Merseyside, Greater Manchester (?) Cheshire, Staffordshire towards West Midlands/Birmingham)

For the Lakes, how about Bowness on Windermere. I remember Windermere being a town and not as picturesque as Bowness on Windermere.

Whoops Newport Dave beat me to it!

From the Lake District to Chester you don't have to go through Liverpool, take the M6 & M56 motorway.

Whooops. Dave & the Turnipeater beat me to it :D

Yes, Chester is well worth it if you have an interest in Roman history.

From the Lake District to that junction the M6 is pretty lightly-loaded, quick & pleasant. It gets notoriously clogged south of that junction with the addition of traffic from Liverpool & Manchester, but by taking in Chester & from there down the A roads & a meander around the lanes & sights of Coalport / Ironbridge / Coalbrookdale avoids it. Then continue south to join or cross the M5 around Worcester.

Only dim recollections of Bowness-on-Windermere. Your daily forays from Bowness would take you through Windermere but they're only a couple of miles apart, so a Bowness lodging would add very little to journey times, & I'll concede that it's more quaint than Windermere. I suspect that like Windermere & Ambleside you should check the parking arrangements when choosing a hotel.

But I do think that somewhere thereabouts would be a more convenient Lake District base than Keswick.

Our last road-trip was in your neck of the woods.

Florida up thro Savannah & Charleston to Petersburg / Richmond, Jamestown / Williamsburg / Yorktown, across to Washington & Gettysburg, down to Harpers Ferry, Appomattox Courthouse, Blue Ridge parkway, Smokies into Tennessee & Chattanooga, Lynchburg, Nashville, Memphis, down to NOLA & back to Florida along the Gulf Coast. Mostly less scenic than the west but much more variety & history, esp Colonial & Civil War. Very enjoyable. :)

JB :)

From the Lake District to Chester you don't have to go through Liverpool, take the M6 & M56 motorway.

Whooops. Dave & the Turnipeater beat me to it :D

 

Yes, Chester is well worth it if you have an interest in Roman history.

 

From the Lake District to that junction the M6 is pretty lightly-loaded, quick & pleasant. It gets notoriously clogged south of that junction with the addition of traffic from Liverpool & Manchester, but by taking in Chester & from there down the A roads & a meander around the lanes & sights of Coalport / Ironbridge / Coalbrookdale avoids it. Then continue south to join or cross the M5 around Worcester.

 

Only dim recollections of Bowness-on-Windermere. Your daily forays from Bowness would take you through Windermere but they're only a couple of miles apart, so a Bowness lodging would add very little to journey times, & I'll concede that it's more quaint than Windermere. I suspect that like Windermere & Ambleside you should check the parking arrangements when choosing a hotel.

But I do think that somewhere thereabouts would be a more convenient Lake District base than Keswick.

 

Our last road-trip was in your neck of the woods.

Florida up thro Savannah & Charleston to Petersburg / Richmond, Jamestown / Williamsburg / Yorktown, across to Washington & Gettysburg, down to Harpers Ferry, Appomattox Courthouse, Blue Ridge parkway, Smokies into Tennessee & Chattanooga, Lynchburg, Nashville, Memphis, down to NOLA & back to Florida along the Gulf Coast. Mostly less scenic than the west but much more variety & history, esp Colonial & Civil War. Very enjoyable. :)

 

JB :)

John,

Glad to see you visited our neck of the woods. We live on coastal Georgia, between Jacksonville, FLA and Savannah, GA.

Our trip to Britain is about a year and a half from now, but we are still getting excited about the trip. We have a river cruise of the Douro in Northern Portugal in a couple of weeks then an Alaskan cruise/Canadian Rockies trip in August/September. Life is good.

We have a river cruise of the Douro in Northern Portugal in a couple of weeks then an Alaskan cruise/Canadian Rockies trip in August/September. Life is good.

We're planning a Douro River cruise for 2017. Have fun! Sure hope you'll write a review.

Safe travels!

I see the misunderstanding has been explained. Perhaps it was not well put for someone who was unlikely to have map in front of them!! Sorry 4774Papa what I had written was:-

you could easily leave the M6 just south of Liverpool, (don't be tempted to cut through Liverpool traffic), and take the M56 to Chester which is an easy half hour journey as it is not a very busy road

The M56 goes West off the M6 just after the last turn off for Liverpool and runs south of the Mersey (Liverpool is on the north bank). I mentioned not to be tempted to cut through Liverpool traffic as it could possibly look beneficial to do that as it would be cutting off a corner. Also, the M6 can get clogged up from the M62 junction to Liverpool (going on south to the M56), but would likely be better staying put and just crawl slowly if necessary for those last few miles to the M56.

The M56 is not a bad motorway, although there is some roadworks near Runcorn at present which hopefully should be well finished before you come. Even so we have not been caught up travelling out of peak times as others have suggested. Best to listen to any taffic warnings on the radio for all journeys if possible as I mentioned previously. Not worth getting too neurotic about it though as sometimes an incident can be clearing by the time you get there. We tend to take our meals according to road conditions - an early meal can get through the worst of the evening rush hour and that only applies Monday to Friday. Sundays can be much better but traffic builds up on the main routes later in the evening with people returning to work bases for the week ahead.

I am local to Chester if you have any other questions. It can be easy to get lost trying to find Ironbridge as it is all ring roads with multiple turn offs, (we have done it a few times), but there are brown tourist signs to 'Ironbridge Museums', so OK if you follow them. It may be possible to stay in one of those bases and visit the other on your travelling day as they are not far apart on a quiet road. Chester is nice by night and hotels in Telford area are more in the middle of nowhere. You would have to look into parking in Chester though and prices could be better in Telford.

It was me who originally mentioned Keswick, but it is in a quieter part and to the north of the main tourist area as others have highlighted if you want to visit everywhere in the Lakes - more a peace and quiet or good walking area, so depends what you want. Further to travel south as well if that is what you will be doing.

If you are thinking of staying around Ironbridge, I recommend The old Rectory at Brosely. http://www.theoldrectoryatbroseley.co.uk/

We stayed there a few years ago and I see it still gets good reviews.