Tips for planning a UK road trip on a budget

When it comes to any holiday, planning is key, but that is even more paramount with a road trip. Apart from the obvious of checking your car is in good working order and you have appropriate breakdown cover, the route you take and the destinations you choose make or break your holiday.

Final destination

The first thing to decide is where you want to end up, what is the furthest point you are planning on staying? are you staying there for a few days or are you turning round and coming straight back.

For us our end point was Edinburgh, where we stayed for three days in order to take in some of the fringe.

Route / points of interest 

The next thing is decide what you want to see and do on your way to your destination. Are there particular areas, points of interest or events you want to plan into your route. For example we new we wanted to take in cumbria and the lake district on the way, so we planned our journey accordingly, and to keep the cost down, we traveled through these places, stopping to take in the sights and views but stayed overnight in a cheaper area. Therefore seeing  everything we wanted to see, including Coniston waters and Windermere without the expense of staying in a high tourist area. 

Deciding how far you want to travel each day

For us we new we didn't want to spend hours everyday in the car. So routed the journey accordingly, we didn't drive anymore then three hours a day, we also planned stops at interesting places rather than just service stations, making our journey much more of an enjoyable experience. Our longest stint was from Norfolk to Leeds which we broke up halfway, stopping at sir Isaac Newton's birthplace Woolsthorpe manor, a National trust property. 

Where to stay

Like I said we wanted to complete this trip on a budget, so we purposely choose to stay, just outside the places we wanted to visit as this is far cheaper than staying right in the middle of high tourist areas, and as this is a road trip you have a car, so it's easy to still see the places you want to.

Accomodation on a budget

The easiest way to keep costs down when it comes to accommodation is to stay on the outskirts of the area you are visiting. For us visiting Edinburgh in August during the fringe, meant that to keep costs down we stayed around 40 minutes outside of the city centre in an airbnb, traveling each day to the park n ride and using the tram to get us into town, saved us hundreds of pounds.

Another cost effective choice we used was Travelodge, we stayed in three on the way up to Edinburgh and two on the journey back Norfolk. They are well placed with excellent links to main roads, and are usually only a short drive into the local town, or city. We found them all to be well presented, clean and comfortable. The rooms all spacious with a large and very comfortable bed,  soundproofed windows and black out curtains, meaning we always got an undisturbed nights sleep. The rooms all had a small bathroom with a powerful shower, and the staff were friendly, and full of helpful local tips and information. We couldn't recommend them enough.

How to book to save money

As this post is all about budgeting, and keeping the cost down, I thought I would share ways to save money when booking your trip, we used Topcashback and earned cashback on our Travelodge bookings, Topcashback is a great way to earn money, just by buying things you were planning on buying anyway, just sign into your account, and click through to the website you are buying from, and it's that easy to earn money. You can sign up here , or if you fancy an Airbnb, sign up with my code and earn yourself £25 off your booking.

Airbnb referral code

I hope this post has been a helpful one, let me know if you are planning any trips.

If you liked this post you might like my mini city guide to edinburgh

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