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Traffic during school holidays

We are going to England last week in May and need to drive from Hinxton (north of London) to Salisbury on a Sunday morning. Unfortunately, this is a school holiday week and I don't see us avoiding the M25 to get around London. Will there be more traffic than usual on Sunday morning? Also, how bad will traffic be around The New Forest? This was not good scheduling, but had no choice. Any suggestions or warnings appreciated.

Posted by
2399 posts

If you get going early on the Sunday morning, it should increase your chances of a clear run. In general, you may well find that early on a Sunday is the best time to be on the M25.

Regarding The New Forest: - coming down from London, the M3 frequently gets jammed near Winchester and the M27 can be slow going as people head for Bournemouth. In the New Forest, Lyndhurst can suffer from congestion. Goodness knows why they don’t build a by-pass?

If you click this link, you will get a map of the New Forest area with traffic flows enabled. If you bookmark it, you can see how the traffic is flowing at the time you click on it. You can click & drag the map NE to see the London area. (Don’t forget the time difference).https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.900931,-1.4705288,11z/data=!5m1!1e1

PS. If you just pull the map a little to the SW, you will see West Lulworth is marked. The coast at this location (Lulworth Cove & Durdle Dor) is spectacular. Enable satellite view and zoom down to get some idea! http://www.lulworthonline.co.uk

Posted by
5326 posts

The Sunday morning is probably the easiest time over a Bank Holiday weekend as those going away from the weekend have already travelled and the day-trippers tend to start later than on the Monday.

Posted by
11 posts

Thank you, James and Marco. Looks like the trip may not be as bad as I had feared, so long as we get on the road early.