Actual Travel Times when towing a Caravan
Always when planning a trip through France I use google maps as a guide for time and distance.We always take longer than they suggest due to slower overall speeds. This is not a problem on short distances. However, I am travelling direct from St Malo to Royan which is 250 miles and need to have a more accurate arrival time. Do any of you have a general formular of the added time? e.g add say 25% This is more critical when returning to the Ferry Port.
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With a caravan St Malo to Royan is normally six hours driving plus however long you take for lunch, but it involves negotiating the ring roads at both Rennes and Nantes, and there are times when I have been at a standstill on both. So day of the week, time of day and season of the year have a bearing on the matter.
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250 miles in a day is not unreasonable and you should achieve it easily. I normally do 3 x 2 hour stints and find that 250 mile is about right. So 6 hours driving is what it will probably take BUT this is on dual carriageways. The French 80 kph limit could well affect this. Re your return trip. I would much rather arrive early at the port rather than risk missing a ferry or speeding or stress etc. If you get ahead of the time needed a leisurely stop for a cuppa is all you need. Why not get to St Malo the day before and have a look around the lovely old town?
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This is for over here but over nearly 20 years of towing, and I mainly use motorways or A roads apart from start and end, I've found that if I base my distance travelling at an average of 40mph that is usually correct. I also put in rest stops and add an hour for any roadworks and suchlike.
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Well thanks for all your responses. So it seems about 6 hours plus stops will do it. Usually we use Portsmouth Le Havre and add a stop on the way down. We always seem to either wait in a Aire for a long time or have to rush due to unforseen issues (like the farmers burning tyres on the motorway). This year we thought we would try the longer ferry route and do it on one go. The return ferry leaves mid morning so I will need to stay the previous night nearby. 40 mph seems to be right. I will let you know. Thanks again.
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I've towed Le Havre to Royan in one hit having taken the overnight ferry. With a lunch break, I recall I usually arrived between 4 and 5pm. The ViaMichelin does, add has been mentioned allow you to take account of towing although it does assume you travel close to the maximum permitted speed.
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Like Cornersteady I usually reckon on 40 mph average including stops. Slower if we don't use autoroutes / dual carriageways.
It's amazing how much time you lose for a simple coffee / refuelling / loo break......
I use the CoPilot android app which used to allow you to set speeds for different road types - unfortunately the current version has removed this facility.
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Totally agree on the 40mph average with the van.
We've just returned from Dover to South Yorks without van (250 miles or so) and even though we travelled at 70mph all the way it was still over 5 hours including Dartford tunnel, A14 roadworks and one coffee stop at Cambridge services.
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Mr H
If you plot the journey into your sat nav it should give you an arrival time. However that will have to be adjusted for any stops or delays. The sat nav will keep adjusting the arrival time depending on stops/delays.
David
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My average speed is around the low thirties in the MH unless I am on autoroutes when, even then, it is hard to get much over the low forties and it slurps juice like you wouldn't believe.
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For some years now our routine has been the same when travelling.
Start at 0800 drive for 2 hours, Stop for 30 minutes then drive another 2 hours. Stop for an hour for lunch then drive another 2 hours, stop for 30 minutes then drive another 2 hours.
8 hours driving over a 10 hour day MAX. Assume 50 MPH when driving giving an average of 40 MPH.
Closest we have got to spot on is 409 miles starting at 0755 and finishing at 1805.
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