Family Road Trip to Southwest England
We three are used to travelling a lot when we are in Sri Lanka and family road trip is one of our favourites. So, we wanted to keep that momentum continuously even if we relocated to the UK.
It is Yuwin’s half-term vacation. Lasith also wanted to stay away from digital screens for a couple of days. So, I thought it would be better if we could go on a bit longer journey from our home. May be a 4-5 hour drive from our home. And also, interestingly, this will be the first longer drive we are making once we relocate.
This is how it is started.
At that time there were few places in my mind, and I was battling to pick one from them because all of them are worth making. But the trigger was the invitation from one of our university friends who was also recently relocated to the UK, to ask us to visit Torquay. Hmm… that sounds interesting. And it is promising our expectations. Also, Yuwin was very happy to go there, since he will be able to meet his friends.
So, our next step was travel planning. I always depend on Lasith’s idea about the dates and departing times. Because I knew I was not good at it and I tried to bring this skill up but most of the time we lost. My most interesting part of travel planning is researching the destination and spotting the places where we would love to keep our footprints. Yuwin is keen to do research about the places where we want to visit. He will google the places and let us know where he thinks we should visit. Of course, sometimes he selects places south and north but we are always guiding him. Whether was one thing that we care about the least, however, nature was a blessing with nice weather on those days. I took full responsibility for the food arrangements, gifts and overall travel plan.
This is how we planned to make memories together in southwest England.
We decided to leave on Friday evening because we want to keep a full Saturday for us. We had an early dinner at our home and departed around 6:30 PM from Kingston Upon Thames. Since it was evening, we did not choose to any stops during the journey except rest time at service areas.
London to Torquey - Route to Torquey
We found a few driving options to Torquey from London.
The first option is using only Motorways M4 and M5 via Bristol. This route is a bit far from the other options but is similar in duration if there are no road disruptions. Also, we would recommend this route if you are travelling in the evening time and especially if you are travelling with kids. However, There was a road disruption in M4 and we were lucky enough to catch that it caused 45 45-minute delay to reach our destination. We were able to make it to our destination around 11:00 PM.
The second one is using M3 to Basingstoke and A303 and other road combinations.
The third option is to use M3 and other road combinations via Southampton.
Since we are travelling in the evening, and with a kid, we did not want to try combined road options and selected the route with only motorways M4 and M5 even if it is longer than the other routes.
The following day - Day 1
We did not plan a number of places today. After having our traditional Sri Lankan breakfast Kiribath (Milk Rice – Prepared with coconut milk and rice.) we step out. Buckfast Abbey is one of our bucket lists in today’s journey and it was around 16 miles away from our friend’s home and a 40-45 minutes’ drive. Lasith did not want to drive that route because he wanted to enjoy the scenery. I got the privilege of not having a driving license in the UK. It is a really wonderful driveway, you see many farm fields, popping up mountains, and it is kind of mind-blowing sceneries. We stopped in a few places while driving these 16 miles to see around. Unless I felt so sorry about Lasith. Yuwin was so happy to enjoy the scenery with his friend. Even though it was 45 45-minute drive, we took almost 1.5 hours to reach Buckfast Abbey.
Buckfast Abbey is located in the heart of Devon, a picturesque valley on the edge of Dartmoor National Park. The place is a haven of peace.
The weather was amazing, and we were really pleased with the calm environment, nicely maintained garden, and quiet inside of the Abbey. If you are living in South West England or if you are planning to visit south-west England, Buckfast Abbey is one of the must-visit places.
Our evening plan was to spend some time at Torquey town centre and beach. So Yuwin can play with his friends in Princes Park and Torquay Beach and we can spend time looking at the sunset at Torquey. And also if you are visiting Torquay do not forget to walk through the Luxury Yacht and Princes Pier and enjoy the sunset.
Day 2
The next day our plan is to visit Dartmoor National Park. Dartmoor is like nature’s own masterpiece. Picture vast open spaces where hills and valleys play hide-and-seek with each other. The colours change like a chameleon—purple heathers, green meadows, and grey granite tors, all taking turns in the spotlight. Also, Dartmoor is one of the most important archaeological areas of the Bronze Age.
So we spent almost whole the day at Dartmoor and visited some nearby places like Dartmoor Prison Museum, Princetown, Bellever Forest, and Clapper Bridge.
Last Day - Day 3
We picked the route via Basingstoke while our return home in following day. Our plan is to explore the story behind Stonehenge. Yes, Stonehenge is located on this route. In school these days Yuwin studying about the Stone Age, so Stonehenge is one of the locations he wanted to visit during the journey.
Stonehenge is located on Salisbury Plain, where about 8 miles (13 Km) north of Salisbury, Wiltshire. As a piece of travel advice, if you are planning to stay longer in the UK and regularly explore the historic places, we are recommending obtaining an English Heritage Membership rather than purchasing an individual day ticket. English Heritage Membership enables you to have unlimited access to over 400 sites, free or reduced-price entry for events with almost free parking. Also, you will be eventually supporting to care of these unique sites.
We choose coach services to reach the site from the information centre. But if you have enough time, you can walk from the information centre to the site as well. Overall, you can spend a couple of hours at the site exploring the surroundings. After exploring Stonehenge, we drove home via Basingstoke and the M3 Motorway. That is the end of well spent four days in the South west England.
– Written by Lochi –