Travelling To a New Home

With so much focus on the move itself, planning your journey to a new home in advance is worth the time. No doubt you will have been before and feel comfortable with the journey but every now and then, circumstances catch up.

A fair chance you will have satellite navigation, or may choose to hire a sat nav unit and they are useful. Having a paper equivalent is still a very good idea, to cover downtime, or the odd directional glitch. A print out from online facilities can serve well.

• AA Route Planner offers a turn by turn breakdown of your route and a rescalable map with the route overlaid.
• Via Michelin Mapping is a similar facility which also covers your journey the other side of the channel, useful for escaping from an unfamiliar ferry port.
• Green Flag Breakdown provide a handy guide on what to do when you arrive, from European driving regulations to handling jams.
• If Travelling By Rail fare finders can save a few pounds in the UK or Europe and make sure you have seats for the journey.

Your removal company will naturally be used to travelling the UK or Europe and can provide advice, from routes, to stopovers, to on road time. Although trying to travel exactly in tandem with them often isn't ideal, better to be in control of your own journey.

Filling up with fuel makes sense and not a bad time to have the car serviced if you use a garage for this. All quite logical and no doubt you would plan accordingly, the smaller points are often the ones to cause a nuisance.

We would recommend making a detailed list of exactly what you will need with you. Your removal van may arrive around the same time, even earlier, although in general they do tend to travel more slowly than a car. Best to assume you will arrive first.

A basic tool kit for the unforseen, every key you need, refreshments, medication, toys and games. Whatever makes sense to you and your household but if you work on the basis of being at the new home alone for a while, then there's no need to watch the clock.

As a final point, having every number and email address with you related to the house can be valuable, in case anyone has not met requirements. We certainly try to and if you feel we can help, by all means get in touch.