Another road trip

[Guvva_303]

OK guys, I'm off on another journey. This time it's Nottingham - Bala in north Wales. I'm going to be doing there and back on a Sunday.
The route looks pretty straightforward to begin with - A50 to Stoke, but after that, there doesn't appear to be any straightforward way. The best way looks to be A500 then A534/A483/A5, but I'm not sure.
Interestingly, the route planner is saying A/M42, M6, M54, A5 but that seems to be many many miles.
What does anyone think? Has anyone got any local knowledge of the Nantwich/Wrexham area?
Toby

[PeterA5145]

<<OK guys, I'm off on another journey. This time it's Nottingham - Bala in north Wales. I'm going to be doing there and back on a Sunday.
The route looks pretty straightforward to begin with - A50 to Stoke, but after that, there doesn't appear to be any straightforward way. The best way looks to be A500 then A534/A483/A5, but I'm not sure.
Interestingly, the route planner is saying A/M42, M6, M54, A5 but that seems to be many many miles.>>
From Stoke, try A500 to Nantwich, A51 to Chester, then A55 southern bypass and either A5104 or A494 to Corwen. Both very scenic roads, and probably little further than the A534 route.
Or from Stoke take A525 to Whitchurch, then A539 to Llangollen and A5 to Corwen, probably the shortest route as the crow flies, not as scenic but goes through some very quiet countryside.
The route recommended by the route planner is strictly for those gripped by fear once they venture off a blue line on the map.
Regards,
Peter

[mnb20]

The problem with autoroute is that it only has two categories of A-road; limited access (I'm not quite sure how they define this) and everything else. Since the everything else includes lots of high quality dual carraigeway that in good conditions is safe to do 80 on, such as most of the A30 in Devon, and twisty roads that pass through lots of villages, that you'd be lucky to average 40 on. Since the categories aren't very well related to the speed you're likely to do on the road, it's hard to set the speeds to sensible ones. On the other hand, you can easily set the speed for motorways to 70 and be reasonable confident of doing that unless traffic is very heavy.

In this particular case, though, I suspect it might be right. I don't know the A roads in question, but they all look fairly slow (single carraigeway and not very direct). The motorway route is quite likely to be faster if you go at a time when traffic round Birmingham isn't too bad.

[Steven]

Mark:<<The motorway route is quite likely to be faster if you go at a time when traffic round Birmingham isn't too bad>>

Ah, that will be around 4am, then......

Steven

[PeterA5145]

<<In this particular case, though, I suspect it might be right. I don't know the A roads in question, but they all look fairly slow (single carraigeway and not very direct). The motorway route is quite likely to be faster if you go at a time when traffic round Birmingham isn't too bad.>>
It's quite a long way round and west of Shrewsbury still involves a long mileage on SC A-roads. Realistically, the A534 route already suggested is probably the best combination of shortness and speed - the A534 doesn't go through any towns and unless clogged by Sunday drivers should allow reasonable progress.
But when planning a route I always try to balance speed with driving enjoyment, and I know the blue-line routes can too often be brought to a standstill by peak congestion and roadworks.
This reminds me of the concept of the "secret map of Britain" we discussed at the last Awayday - the routes the knowledgeable driver will take to minimise delay and maximise driving pleasure, as opposed to the obvious route on the map.
It can be amazing how quiet good, fast through routes are once you get a bit off the beaten track. The A1067/B1145 route between Norwich and King's Lynn is a prime example.
Regards,
Peter