UK coastal road trip with good roads?

[havoc]

Does such a thing exist? South of Scotland, at least?

I've got an impromptu week off coming up and want to get away for a few days - time wise it needs to be England/Wales really, as I don't want to lose a full-day travelling each way to e.g. Highlands or Eifel mountains.

...and I'd really like to be by the coast if I could. But my experiences with UK coastal areas are either they've got ridiculously narrow roads (Pembrokeshire, Devon) or ridiculously busy roads (Dorset, Sussex) or both (Cornwall). Which sort of scrubs the road-trip part of the idea.


So...where is there that combines beaches / coastal paths with some half-decent (and ideally less-camera-ridden) driving roads?

Thanks.

[havoc]

Just back - ended up using Exmoor as a base and exploring north and south from there.

There are some absolutely cracking local roads - A39 (between Minehead and Barnstaple, anyway) was probably my highlight - combination of sea views and a really varied set of curves, but the A396 south from Wheddon Cross deserves a special mention for the permanently high work-rate if you want to make any sort of progress down it (and by that I mean up to about 60mph) - gnarly doesn't come close.

...but I would warn that they're very time-dependent (very early, very late, or pot-luck mid-week middle-of-day), as passing places are often rather limited, a lot of locals do 30mph everywhere (genuinely...NSL sign appears and their speed does not change), and if you get a bus trying to get through a choke-point it can become a right PITA. Travelling during the middle of the day can be an exercise in patience if you hit the wrong road / wrong time, and if I was down there during the summer holidays I just wouldn't bother driving anywhere I didn't have to.

The only genuinely fast road is the E-W B3224 / B3223, which also benefits from lots of straight sections to overtake, especially in the eastern half. Bit boring though. Otherwise it's Elise / supermini territory (something like a Clio 182 would be right at home on most roads), due to the lack of road width, successive blind corners and the constant twists and turns - light, agile and narrow-ish is definitely the right recipe down here)



Oh, and what's going on with all the random 40-limits in countryside in Devon? Beautiful, well-sighted road without a house in sight and it's a 40!

[havoc]

cptsideways said:

You really need to get yourself up to Scotland. My regular commute from Argyll too "anywhere else" is at least an hour on cruise passing various Lochs sea and inland types. Might see an occasional other car on the road but frequently nothing if driving on the evenings or early morning. Kind of get used to it, then I'll head south and remind myself why I moved up here. Our nearest traffic lights are 40 mins one way or an hour the other.

Been up to the Highlands twice. Lovely roads, gorgeous scenery, friendly locals. Just worried that some 60-limit A-roads would safely warrant a 3-figure speed in places and the Procurator Fiscal has been known to levy Dangerous Driving just for high speed.

DB4DM said:

Some 40 speed limits have been put in because of the animals that live on the open land, ponies, sheep, cattle, humans

Yep, can believe that. Found myself herding sheep with the car at 5.30am and goats (far more difficult as they didn't want to leave the road) at 10:00pm. The trick though is taking blind corners at a sensible speed...doesn't mean you can't still safely do 60 when visibility permits

(I don't get this - don't treat everyone like idiots - educate and train, FFS. It's not difficult to drive with your brain on, yet our government keep trying to remove that particular requirement)

Vasco said:

Not sure why the countryside shouldn't benefit from a 40 limit. It's a place where most people want to see the scenery, animals and small villages.
If you want a race track then everybody else's local roads are not for you.

I think you're on the wrong forum, sir.

(In answer though, not that your trolling deserves one - because I wanted to get from A to B in what, elsewhere in the country, would be deemed a sensible amount of time, as I only had a limited amount of time down there. At no point driving the A39 or A396 did I break the speed limit, and yet I was one of* the fastest vehicles on the road)


* The others, typically, were people in 4x4s (tourist or local, hard to tell) and especially locals in modern pick-ups or small vans. Y'know...people for whom time matters. People who don't want to see scenery, villages or small animals and who don't act like patronising NIMBY tts.

[havoc]

egor110 said:

Did you go over the moor then down to lynmouth?

Missed Lynmouth (well, drove through it). But yes, drove pretty nearly every 2-lane road on the moor thanks to wayward navigation apps!

Did Minehead (only to meet a friend for lunch), Combe Martin (very picturesque), Woolacombe (great beach) and Ilfracombe (dinner and failed sunset) on the north coast, and did Teignmouth (nice, but quiet), Sidmouth (overrated) and Lyme Regis (busy but worthwhile) on the south coast.