Hels

Whats the longest distance you would travel for just a day trip? Or even a weekend?

When I was in the UK, I remember the looks of horror I got when I told friends that we were going from London to Manchester to visit friends for the day. It was a 2-2 1/2 hour drive and I didnt think anything of it, coming from Australia. I found it thoroughly amusing the comments and looks I got from people that said they would only go that far for a long weekend or preferably a week.

Now I am back in Oz, I have noticed from reading the threads that people dont tend to like to drive too far away from home. When I suggested Bendigo for a meet, I got not a single response so I assumed people thought it was too far? Even when we go to Melbourne for the meets or to see friends, the response I get from some expats is "How far did you come? "

I have noticed and heard the Kiwi's are very similar. To travel more than an hour from home, its considered an overnight stay. Which hopefully explains the title of this thread. Its not necessarily aimed at Brits, but anyone that comes from a Country that is small.

Any opinions?

hevs

Travelling London to Manchester for a day i would be horrified, just by the thought of sitting on the M5/ M6 all day :scared:

We travel out and about quite a lot, we are off to Wilsons Prom on saturday for a night. I think we are more inclined to travel here cos its a more plesent expierience on the whole.

jayr

Friends were suprised we did Brisbane - Byron as a day trip. That took 3 hours each way (though could be as little as 2 with good traffic). Would also occasionally do Noosa from Brisbane for a day trip. Probably 2.5-3 hrs each way would be the limit (given boredom threshold of kids).

Later this year I want to do the Brissy - Sydney drive, though will have nights away included in that one.

Coogee Rocks

What part of London I assume somewhere north near the motorway and did u take a rocket ship, or a motor bike to avoid the traffic!? I seem to remerber it taking more like 4 or 5 hours!

Hels

I guess having a carload of rugrats would definatly be a major consideration for alot!!

I drove Melbourne to Brisbane in 17 hrs once But was then in Brissy for a week so not too bad.

I used to live in Wodonga and we used to go for shopping trips to Melbourne for the day regularly. Its a 3 hour trip to the North side of Melbourne.



Hevs...LOL...it wasnt that bad. I think in all the trips we did up there the worst one was the time we went up for a long weekend. Other than that the rides were pretty smooth most of the way.

Hels

Nah...especially once the toll M6 opened. I think the longest it ever took us (and that was in hubby's transit) was 3 hours.

We lived just off the A40. In Greenford and Denham for a while.

anya4oz

Hi Hels,

Interesting post. I think people in the UK used to be inclined to travel further - before the roads got so crowded & the trains so unreliable. Maybe people in the SE are just fed up with the hassles involved in traveling. Living in East Anglia, I found my commute while working in Geneva was considerably shorter than my commute to a client site in Birmingham (1 day it took 9 hours to get to Coventry!)

I would say that the average Brit probably takes more advantage of cheap flights to Europe these days, & has lost the urge to voluntarily spend time traveling round the UK (people spend a lot of time commuting to work, so probably feel like they've had enough by the weekend). And, it has to be said that in most European places, the food's better, too....!

BTW a meet-up in Bendigo sounds good - it looks like a fascinating place. Let's fix something up??

Cheers,
Anya.

cyclemark

I'd be horrified too - specially as the M5 doesn't even go to London or Manchester!

Hels

Anya,

I would be happy to arrange something up here if people wanted to come up. Even if its not a pre-arranged meet and people wanted to come up on their own. I am always up for a bit of socialising and love to show people around as Hubby still hasnt seen alot of the touristy places yet.

I would suggest if we are going to have a meet up here we do it soonish. It does get quite a bit colder up here than Melbourne in winter....

I was still wanting to get a group together for the Harvest Picnic at Hanging rock if you are interested? I know Cas said she was.

Whoops...hijacking my own thread here....

hevs

hence i put both cos i couldn't remember

MarkMyWords

Depends where you start from. M5/M6 would be a plausible route from Bristol to Manchester.

To answer Hels, I would prefer never to be on the road for more than an hour, but getting anywhere worth getting to in practice took anything up to 2. My rule of thumb for comfort would be "am I going to spend longer there than I spend travelling?" So if it's 3 hours there, it's a loooooong day!

And as for going anywhere by public transport in a reasonable amount of time... hahahahahahahahaha!!!!

jayr

You could reasonably go M4, M5, M6. May not be the quickest route though.

Pollyana

Rather a timely thread as we are just discussing distances.......anyone know how long it would take to drive from Brissie up to the Barrier Reef?

Jaykay

A group of us used to drive up to Falls Creek to go skiing for the day (4 hour drive).

We'd leave home at 5am, be on the slopes by 9.30ish (depending on crowds), then leave about 4ish to get home between 8 & 9pm.

Probably wouldn't consider it now though

Hels

Why not???

(Apart from the fact I know ya got kiddies now)