Road Trip Travel Tips to Get You to Your Festival On Time
The UK’s motorways can get jampacked with traffic at the best of times, add a festival with thousands of visitors into the mix and you could find yourself sat in queues for hours.
If you want to avoid the traffic and get to your festival on time, you need to be prepared and plan your journey well in advance and that’s what we’re going to be helping you with today.
We’re going to be sharing our top travel tips for when you know the roads are going to be busy and some invaluable pieces of advice for avoiding the queues and being the first at the festival gates.
Do the Bulk of the Travelling the Day Before
Our number one piece of advice for avoiding the festival rush on the roads would simply be to do the majority of your travelling the day before and stay in a hotel overnight and make your way to the festival either by car or foot the day before.
It might cost you a little extra money for a hotel but you won’t have to get up as early as you’ll be close to the festival site and it’ll save you a lot of time and stress as you’ll only have a short journey to make.
Pay Extra for Early Access
A similar idea to travelling to the location the day before, some festivals offer early access passes for a premium price that allow you to enter the festival site before the event properly starts, usually 24 hours early.
Again, this may be an extra cost but you’ll get to set up camp exactly where you want as you’ll have first choice and you won’t have to battle hundreds of other cars to get to the festival, meaning you’ll be starting your weekend feeling far happier.
Check Out Public Transport Options
Driving yourself to a festival isn’t always the easiest option and relying on public transport could lead to a less stressful journey. Some festivals have coach services running from various locations to the site, so it may be worth looking into whether that sort of thing will work for you.
If you’re attending a festival that allows you to walk in by foot and you think you can transport everything you need on your back, getting the train could work if the site isn’t too far from a local station.
For example, Leeds station is around a 30-minute drive from Bramham Park where the 2018 Leeds festival is being hosted and shuttle buses are being run from the station to the site, so you’re unlikely to sit in much traffic at all.
Look into Scenic Routes
A lot of festivals will be easiest to access via main roads and motorways but sometimes there are alternative, more scenic routes that can get you to the same destination without half the traffic, so it’s worth planning ahead if you’re driving by looking into all the possible routes.
All roads heading towards festivals are likely to be busy, so even if you do find a hidden countryside route, you could still experience some delay but it could be less than sticking to the most common routes, so always do your research.
Book Shared Transport for You and Your Friends
If you’re heading to a festival with a big group of friends or family, you might want to consider hiring shared transport such as a minibus to take you to the festival. Not only does this take the stress off any of you having to drive, it’ll also help to reduce the number of cars on the road by a few.
It’s also great to arrive together, so you can get the party started from the moment you walk in!
As well as wanting to get there as quickly and easily as possible, you want to get there as safely as possible and we couldn’t agree more with Ingenie’s top tips for surviving travelling to a festival. They recommend checking the weather before you set off, listening to your body while driving to avoid dangerous driving when tired, taking control when you’re in the drivers’ seat and even give you some top tips on sharing the petrol costs!
We hope you’ve found this useful if you’re planning a trip to a festival soon. If you’ve got any top tips for getting to a festival quickly and easily, let us know on Twitter or Facebook!
