01 / THE NUMBER
Length is the wrong question. Miles per day is the right one.
Two people ask for a week in Scotland. One drives 33 miles a day and comes home rested; the other drives 213 and comes home needing a holiday. Same country, same week, different trip — and the difference was decided at the planning stage, not on the road.
A van is not a car. The same hundred miles takes longer, costs more attention and ends with a harder parking problem. Heavier, taller, worse in crosswind, slower up hills and unwelcome in half the car parks. Any mileage figure you would accept in a car should come down in a van.
02 / WHAT FITS
Your window, and what is actually in it.
Sorted by each file’s stated minimum — the floor below which it stops working, not its designed length.
A long weekend
A short week
A fortnight
- Wales 9d
- The South West 9d
- Lakes & Dales 9d
- Northumberland 9d
- Scotland 10d
- Northern Ireland 10d
and 4 more
Three weeks or more
- The Grand Quest 16d
Note what this is not. These are minimums, not recommendations. A file that fits a week at its floor will be better in its designed length, and the table below shows both so you can see what you are giving up.
03 / THE SQUEEZE
How far a trip compresses before it breaks.
Every file states a minimum as well as a length. The gap between them is the compression room — and across the 22 files that have any, the average is 5.3 days. That is the honest amount you can take out before the route stops being the route.
Removes the middle, not the ends
The arrival and the journey home are fixed. What goes is the unhurried middle — the second night in one place, the day with no driving in it, the margin for weather.
The rest days first
A fortnight file at ten days is the same route with the breathing removed. Everything still happens; nothing happens slowly. That is a real trade and worth making deliberately.
Below the stated floor
At the minimum, the mileage is already at the limit of pleasant. Galloway & the Borders at its floor runs 213 miles a day — the hardest number in the archive, and the reason that floor exists.
Cut the file, not the days
If your window is genuinely short, take a shorter file rather than a compressed long one. A complete small trip beats a truncated big one every time.
04 / ALL 22 FILES
Length, floor, mileage and pace.
The last two columns are the whole argument: miles a day at the designed length, and at the floor.
Read the mileage honestly. These are whole-route figures including getting there and getting home, not just the miles inside the region. That is why a compact file can show a high daily average — Galloway & the Borders is a small area, but reaching it and returning is most of the distance. It also means the figure already contains the travel days that the next section is about.
05 / TRAVEL DAYS
The mistake almost everyone makes.
The single most common planning error in this whole subject is counting travel days as trip days. If the route starts six hours from your door, a seven-day holiday is a five-day trip — and a file with a seven-day floor will not fit it, however much you want it to.
Both ends, honestly
Getting there and getting home are days. Put them in before you choose a file, not after you have fallen in love with one.
Is never a full day
You will want to be home at a reasonable hour, which makes the final day a morning. Plan the route so the last night is already most of the way back.
Cost more than their crossing
A sailing eats the check-in, the crossing and the drive at both ends. Any island route needs a spare day somewhere for the one that cancels on wind.
Start point, not just days
It asks where you set off from as well as how long you have, because Cornwall from Inverness and Cornwall from Bristol are not the same trip.
06 / QUESTIONS
The ones people actually ask.
How many days do I need to drive around Scotland?
The Skye and Torridon file is built for 14 days and states a floor of 10. At 14 days that is about 107 miles a day, which leaves time to stop. Squeezed into 10 it becomes roughly 150 a day, which is drivable but starts to feel like a delivery run. The bigger Scottish file wants three weeks.
What can I do in a long weekend?
6 of the 22 files have a stated minimum of four days or fewer. A long weekend works when the ground is compact and close - it does not work for anywhere that costs you a day each way just getting there.
Is a week enough for a campervan trip?
For one region, comfortably. For a country, no. 3 files fit inside a 5 to 7 day window at their stated minimum. The mistake is not picking a short trip, it is picking a long route and running it fast.
How many miles a day is reasonable in a campervan?
Across the whole archive the average works out at about 63 miles a day, and the gentlest files sit near 33. Much above 120 and the day becomes driving with stops rather than stopping with driving. A van is slower than the same journey in a car - heavier, taller, worse in wind, and harder to park at the far end.
Can I just compress a longer file into fewer days?
Up to the stated minimum, yes - every file carries one, and the average file can lose about 5.3 days before it hits the floor. Below that the engine will not offer it, because the route stops working rather than merely getting busier.
What is the single most common planning mistake?
Counting travel days as trip days. If it is six hours to the start of the route and six hours back, a seven-day holiday is a five-day trip. Build the journey in at both ends before you decide what fits.
Does the engine work this out for me?
Yes. Give it your days and it ranks every file against that window, blocks the ones that will not fit, and trims a longer one to your dates by dropping days from the middle rather than the arrival or the journey home.
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