Best route Stratford to Chatsworth House
 

What is the nicest, most pleasant route to Chatsworth House from Stratford? Which is the quickest way?

Stratford . . . or Stratford-Upon Avon . . . big (HUGE) difference)

Are you driving to taking public transport.

. . . And if driving -- From Stratford-Upon Avon it would be about a 2.5-3 hour drive. From Stratford about 4-4.5 hours.

Sorry, I am really driving to Chatsworth from Wyck Rissington. Three routes given. One around Birmingham and through Derby,-- a long time on the A38--one around Birmingham and through Nottingham--using the A42 and M1 north of Birmingham, and one through Coventry and Nottingham--A46, M69, and M1. Any opinions on which is nicer and which is faster? We may take one up and another back. This is a long day trip. Thank you!

absolutely 6 of 1/half a dozen of the other. Less than 10 miles difference in length and almost exactly the same drive times.

plan on 3 to 3.5 hours.

There's no such thing as a "nicest, most pleasant route" between Gloucestershire (the Rissingtons can't possibly be described as "Stratford") and the Peak District

The least painful takes you almost immediately onto the A429 (more or less the ancient Fosse Way) to J15 of the M40. Head north on the motorway, switching onto the M42 northbound, then the M6 (Toll) to junction T4. The M6 and the M6 (Toll) are different roads: it's essential to avoid the main M6.

Take the A38 north to Ripley.

You're now about 10 miles from Chatsworth House: an imposing house surrounded by its own grounds for several miles in each direction. You can't stay there, and will probably want to stay in Bakewell, Baslow or Eyam. You probably don't know yet whether you want to see Chatsworth before or after overnighting.

The fastest way to the house itself (or Baslow) is to turn onto the A615 a few miles on, just before Alfreton. The fastest way to Bakewell is to turn onto the A610, then the A6 about a mile west.

The trick on this route is to maximise the time on fast roads (the M1 is rarely fast, and always dismal), and to restrict your use of conventional ones to pottering round the Cotswolds and the Peak District. Most of the places you pass in between are hideous, and best seen from the inside of a fast-travelling car on a dual carriageway.

However slow traffic may move on this route occasionally, it will keep moving. Trying to find an alternative en route will prove worse.