Places to drive to from NW London

[.blue]

I'm looking at going somewhere ideally with a destination (e.g. good pub with car parking) that will be around a 2hr round-trip from NW London.

If there's no destination and just a good driving route that's fine too.

Any ideas?

[Chris71]

If you're looking for good driving roads I'd recommend the following:

• Take the M25 round to Potters Bar
• Pick up the B184 from Brookmans Park to Hertford
• From Hertford nip over to Ware (not especially exciting, but worth it...)
• Take the B1004 to Much Hadham and on to Bishops Stortford
• B1051 from Stansted Mountfitchet to Thaxted
• B184 to Saffron Waldon
• B1039 and B1368 (via Barley) to Buntingford
• A507 from Buntingford to Baldock
• That should be about two hours, you can then either take the A1 down to the M25: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=brookmans+par...
• Or throw in a few of the roads around Barton le Clay and Hitchin: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=brookmans+par...

It's more north than west and these are mostly twisty little B-roads rather than fast A-roads, but they're wide enough and sufficiently well sighted to have fun. Loads of twee thatched gastro-pubs on route for a nice lunch.

Enjoy.

[.blue]

Chris71 said:

If you're looking for good driving roads I'd recommend the following:

• Take the M25 round to Potters Bar
• Pick up the B184 from Brookmans Park to Hertford
• From Hertford nip over to Ware (not especially exciting, but worth it...)
• Take the B1004 to Much Hadham and on to Bishops Stortford
• B1051 from Stansted Mountfitchet to Thaxted
• B184 to Saffron Waldon
• B1039 and B1368 (via Barley) to Buntingford
• A507 from Buntingford to Baldock
• That should be about two hours, you can then either take the A1 down to the M25: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=brookmans+par...
• Or throw in a few of the roads around Barton le Clay and Hitchin: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=brookmans+par...

It's more north than west and these are mostly twisty little B-roads rather than fast A-roads, but they're wide enough and sufficiently well sighted to have fun. Loads of twee thatched gastro-pubs on route for a nice lunch.

Enjoy.

Excellent - thanks for this. Haven't had a chance to look into properly but from what you describe this sounds like pure driving gold

[Chris71]

.blue said:

Chris71 said:

If you're looking for good driving roads I'd recommend the following:

• Take the M25 round to Potters Bar
• Pick up the B184 from Brookmans Park to Hertford
• From Hertford nip over to Ware (not especially exciting, but worth it...)
• Take the B1004 to Much Hadham and on to Bishops Stortford
• B1051 from Stansted Mountfitchet to Thaxted
• B184 to Saffron Waldon
• B1039 and B1368 (via Barley) to Buntingford
• A507 from Buntingford to Baldock
• That should be about two hours, you can then either take the A1 down to the M25: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=brookmans+par...
• Or throw in a few of the roads around Barton le Clay and Hitchin: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=brookmans+par...

It's more north than west and these are mostly twisty little B-roads rather than fast A-roads, but they're wide enough and sufficiently well sighted to have fun. Loads of twee thatched gastro-pubs on route for a nice lunch.

Enjoy.

Excellent - thanks for this. Haven't had a chance to look into properly but from what you describe this sounds like pure driving gold

Yep, the single carriageway bit of the A507 is brilliant, but can be quite busy. The roads around Thaxted and Saffron Waldon are - almost without exception - quiet, though and well worth investigating.

If you've got an afternoon to spare it's not a bad idea to head out to Thaxted with a map and just have a play on anything with a B-suffix in a 20 mile radius! Used to be a favoured development patch for the Team RS chassis engineers when I worked at Ford...