Anyone ever done a lap of Britain

[pbirkett]

Anyone ever done a coastal roadtrip of britain, lapping the entire coastline?

How far is it? Did you enjoy it?

Just an idea I'm having as a sort of "holiday" of sorts, and thought it might be a nice drive over the course of say a week or so (would I need that long?).

[Somnophore]

Lol not a chance in a week if you are doing a proper Coastal tour of GB, it's a
long way

[TheEnd]

That Scottish version of Baldric did

[Somnophore]

Saw one in the guardian a while back who did it in 6 weeks, unless you wanna be driving the whole time you would need that sort of time to make it enjoyable, it's about 4,600 miles, and bearing in mind the speed limits on Coastal roads and that you don't really wanna be driving the whole time if you actaully wanna see some of Britain you'd need a few weeks minimum

[The Moose]

I would imagine 1.5-2 months to do it properly and stopping off along the way?

Could camp to keep costs down.

Would be a good trip though!!

Cheers

The Moose

[Mannginger]

Website said:

The UK's coastline is long in comparison to the UK's area and to the coasts of some other, similar sized countries; - the length of the UK coastline is around 12,500kms or 7,760 miles*. We estimate (piece of string!) that it is about 5000 miles around the coast of mainland Britain - excluding all islands.

http://www.ukcoastguide.co.uk/

[Somnophore]

Yes but you can't drive around all the undulations of the coast, a Coastal road tour of GB is about 4.5-5k

[mikechandler]

No but I do want to do the train journey (as then drive the route aswell) from Wick to Penzance

[Sam_68]

Mannginger said:

Website said:

The UK's coastline is long in comparison to the UK's area and to the coasts of some other, similar sized countries; - the length of the UK coastline is around 12,500kms or 7,760 miles*. We estimate (piece of string!) that it is about 5000 miles around the coast of mainland Britain - excluding all islands.

http://www.ukcoastguide.co.uk/

Yes, but Britain's coastline is a bit like a Mandelbrot fractal - the closer you look at it, the longer it gets because of all the crinkly bits.

What the OP would be interested in is the closest continuous loop as a road route and this won't hug the coastline all that closely.

[DJC]

Ive looked at doing it. You want 3 weeks, working at about 300miles/day.

[Rob Crutch]

Although not a tour of the coastline, Club Triumph do a charity 'Round Britain Reliability Run' every other year which takes place over a long weekend, starts in Enfield on the Friday night head up to John O'Groats, then down to Lands End (misses out Wales from memory though!) and back to Enfield, covering 2000 miles in 48hours.

This year's one starts on Friday 1st October

http://club.triumph.org.uk/comps/index.php?id=3

Edited by Rob Crutch on Saturday 16th January 12:27

[Wheelrepairit]

Rob Crutch said:

Although not a tour of the coastline, Club Triumph do a charity 'Round Britain Reliability Run' every other year which takes place over a long weekend, starts in Enfield on the Friday night head up to John O'Groats, then down to Lands End (misses out Wales from memory though!) and back to Enfield, covering 2000 miles in 48hours.

This year's one starts on Friday 1st October

http://club.triumph.org.uk/comps/index.php?id=3

Edited by Rob Crutch on Saturday 16th January 12:27

Ruddy hell, thats looks tiring but fun.

I did john o groats to land ends last summer non stop and that nearly killed me, dread to think what this trip would do.

My trip was in the GT-R with cruise control and aircon and other such toys, hard work in a 40 yr old triumph.

[Kit80]

Good lord a week, I took me a week to do the coastline of North Wales, and then another week to do Northumberland, and another week to do Cornwall area, I am doing bit by bit so I can enjoy the area properly. South Wales and Scotland next.

[cptsideways]

Yes in a 1.0L Nissan Micra back in the late 80's in about 4 days non stop almost

[pbirkett]

Looks like I SERIOUSLY underestimated how long it will take then

5,000 miles

It would be fun though!

[jayfish]

hmmm lets say 40mpg, 125 gallons, 567.5 litres @ £1.09 = £818.75 in fuel, rather you than me...

[k-ink]

Unless you have an extremely comfy car with an auto gearbox it could be a nightmare!

[Bugeyeandy]

This would be an excellent test for Autocar to do, take a newly launched car and do this trip 16 hr days. With 3 drivers sharing or changes of driver dropped along the route it wouldn't be too bad.

I seem to remember they did 10000 miles non stop around the M25 when the Focus was first launched.



p.s Non-stop - you'd obviously need to stop for fuel , food etc...

[GuyandClaire]

My wife and I did a 4000 mile trip through France, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco and then back up via Provence through France last summer in our beloved 1989 Bertone X1/9 Grand Finale. At approx only 125 miles each morning and afternoon, with a pleasant break for lunch and an interesting night's stop over it was magical. We avoided motorways throughout and were still contesting for who's turn to drive it was at the end. Most of our journey was spent with the roof off and safely stowed under the bonnet. I could see that you could cover many of the most beautiful parts of the perimeter of the UK in the same way, again limiting it to about 4000 miles. Our next trip will be a (4000 mile) circuit of the best bits of Spain, arriving via ferry at Santander. The UK trip will now however have go be added for another time. The art is plenty of planning to choose enjoyable roads and beautiful stops..... plus of course have a car and a Co-pilot that you love spending time with. With all of the above , it's very doable (even in a 26 year old Italian sports car).

Edited by GuyandClaire on Saturday 21st January 11:45

[plkujaw]

Hi,
me and my Wife did it this month (we came back on Friday 15th June). 3000 miles, 14 days. I can share GPX routes with you.
You can also follow our instagram profile with photos: https://www.instagram.com/mk_road_trip/