I’m going from Bolton to north Yorks Moors on a weekday morning which route? (Leaving at 7 for a 10 meet near helmsley.)
M61-M62-M1-A1 Short mostly motorway
M61-M65-A56-A65-A59-A61 Avoiding N.Manchester Huddersfield and Leeds traffic
Or burn up the M6 and cut across through sedbergh hawes etc?
Any other suggestions? And is that start time a bit optimistic?
I never normally drive through rush hour traffic so not looking forward to it, hopefully the riding will be worth it tho 🙂

M61-M65-A56-A65-A59-A61 would be my choice (folks live in Bolton I live in Skipton so do similar in reverse). Then you get a fairly quiet and scenic drive up to Nth York moors. I loathe the M62.

At that time of the day the M62 East is a no no

I’d be tempted to hit the M6 all the way to Tebay & then across to the A66 to the A1

Definitely avoid the M62 at that time of day, it is a living hell.

Donk, M6 north to Tebay, then head over to the A66 and A1.

Bite the bullit and go up the shortest motorway route. Keep an eye on the traffic report. We are in the credit crunch and there are a lot less people on the roads at the momemt.

Going the long way round to avoid the rush rarley pays dividens unless theres a good accident to avoid.

neilsonwheels – have you seen the queues on the 62 from Hudderfield to Leeds?

20 miles of not moving

The M62 at that time in the morning is just a shambles around Leeds / Bradford.

M6 north of Preston is a dream run, lovely countryside, hardly any traffic compared to other routes, and Tebay to the A66 is gods own country too.

Sure it may take 15 mins longer, but you will be far more chilled when you get there.

I’ve been upto the lakes a few times in the week and once past preston its been pretty clear which is why I thought of that but the A66 does put me quite far north of Helmsley.

EDIT: Bugger, AA puts time from tebay to helmsley as 1hr50 thats a pretty long route.

You could try the A59 over to Harrowgate but I think it’ll take you longer

Scotch corner to Thirsk is only around 30mins

A6 to chorley M61 is the only choice (dropping off hard drive at mine on the way) and however you like after that.

Based on my experience of driving back from Preston to NE quite a lot a few years ago, I’d opt for M61-M65-A56-A65-A59-A61, but take a sneaky right turn at the last roundabout on the Ripon bypass onto the minor road through Sharow. It’s actually quite a decent road and drops you on to the A168 just north of the A1 junction and is a handy little shortcut, also meaning nice quiet dual-carriageway up to Thirsk.

Wouldn’t bother going right down the A65. Left at Ingleton onto the B6255, up to Hawes and across to Thirsk then up Sutton Bank and across. Far quieter and better route than across to Harrogate and you avoid the quarry wagons / HGV’s.

Left at Ingleton onto the B6255

Eh? surely coming off the M6 at J37 and straight down A684 to Hawes would be quicker?

I guess M62 is out then so its M6 or M65, will probably end up flipping a coin on the day.