What time should I aim to leave on Monday to make my ferry?

[Wallace]

I have to drive to Holyhead in Wales to get a ferry at 1am on the Monday night / Tuesday morning.  According to google maps it's around 5 hours however with Glastonbury traffic, does anyone have a suggestion of what time we should aim to leave (campervan field west)?

 

[mickeyboymel]

My best tip as someone who drives this route every year is to get a sat nav with live traffic updates subscription.

It will lead you away from the traffic and also help to avoid any motorway snarl ups.

A few years back our two car party left orange west carparks at 12:00 on Monday, I was led off a maze of traffic free country roads by the sat nav just outside of Glastonbury town, to join the M5 just south of Sedgemoor services and had my friend dropped in Birmingham, had a shower and was ready to face for Holyhead by 4pm.

The other car had got caught in traffic and was not even near the M5 at that time, they ended up missing the ferry and checking into a Travelodge. 

[Wallace]

Ah that's a good point about the live traffic info.  I generally use google maps for sat nav and find it has pretty good traffic information, are sat navs any better though?  Don't see much point splashing out on it for this once only use..

[mickeyboymel]

You could always try borrow one from a fiend? I find it invaluable on the return journey!!

[Wallace]

Have you tried google maps for comparison though?  I'd imagine sat navs would struggle to improve much on the traffic info supplied by google

[mickeyboymel]

I haven't used google maps alongside the sat nav so I cannot comment, but have always found the sat nav to be bang on, even leading me off the M5/M6 to avoid tailbacks

[Nice hymer]

I understand that campervan west is quite quick to exit (I've only ever stayed in East).

I reckon leaving mid afternoon will be fine, as long as you hit the M5 by 6.00pm they'll be no rush...

[Lucy92]

I would say by the evening the traffic usually isn't too bad. I would probably allow an extra hour on top of what you think it will take to account for any accidents etc. You can always stop for food/coffee if you're early better to be safe than sorry