Visit Plymouth

Travelling by car to Plymouth is easily accessible from most locations within the UK.

Most driving routes will bring you onto the M5, which eventually merges to become the A38 bringing you directly to Plymouth. If you cross the Tamar Bridge towards Saltash then you’ve gone too far.

Drive time from London is around 4 hours.

Drive time from Manchester is around 4.5 hours.

Drive time from Cardiff is around 2.5 hours.

And if you’re feeling brave the journey from Edinburgh via the M6 and M5 can be done in 7.5 hours (if you’re fortunate enough to not hit any traffic).

We recommend you use Google Maps to plan the quickest route for you.

When you arrive by car, there are plenty of on street parking and car parks available.

If you’re travelling from within the South West the Stagecoach Falcon service connects Plymouth with Exeter, Taunton, Bristol Airport and Bristol City Centre.

National Express operates daily coach services to Plymouth from departure points across the UK. For coach tickets and pricing visit their coach website.

National Express also offers holidays by coach on their Holidays by National Express website, where you can add hotels and attractions to your coach travel and book your next trip to Plymouth in one package.

FlixBus operates a coach service between Plymouth and London, five days a week with additional services running during the summer months.

Plymouth is easily accessible by train with a wide range of services running from a variety of locations within England. Although some services may require a change or two.

Travelling from London takes around 3 hours with Great Western Railway, if you’re coming from the north, the trip from Manchester can take 5 hours 15 minutes.

Alternatively, the recently renovated Night Riviera Sleeper service runs Monday – Friday and Sunday evenings. Visit gwr.com/sleeper for more details on times and how to book.

We recommend using GWR.com to search for the fastest and best route for your journey, and book in advance for the best price.

Great Western Railway (GWR) provides high speed, commuter, regional and branch line train services. We help over 100 million passengers reach their destinations every year – across South Wales, the West Country, the Cotswolds, and large parts of Southern England.

We’re currently seeing the biggest investment in the network since Brunel so we can offer more trains, more seats, and shorter, more frequent journeys and continue the network’s heritage of helping connect more businesses to new and prosperous markets. Through a series of initiatives we aim to be a good neighbour to the communities we serve and are committed to making a positive social impact in those regions. Learn how we’re Building a Greater West at GWR.com. GWR is a FirstGroup company.

You can sail by cruise-ferry to Plymouth from France and Spain. Brittany Ferries run regular services from Roscoff in Brittany and from Santander in Northern Spain to the ferryport at Millbay – close to the city centre and waterfront, therefore ideal to explore either on foot or by car.

See our Cruise page.

There are 3 airports within an easy distance to Plymouth. These are Bristol, Exeter and Newquay.

Bristol Airport offers direct services to and from over 100 destinations across Europe. Airlines operating at Bristol Airport include Aer Lingus, bmi regional, KLM, Brussels Airlines, Blue Islands, Wizz Air, Aurigny, SAS, EasyJet and Ryanair.

To get to Plymouth once you arrive at Bristol, you have the following options:

• To travel by train, you need to catch the A1 bus from the Airport Terminal (west bound) which will then take you to Bristol Temple Meads rail station in around 30 minutes. From Bristol Temple Meads station you can get a direct train to Plymouth taking approx. 2 hours 30 minutes.
• Stagecoach offer a fantastic service which will pick you up from Bristol Airport and bring you to Plymouth within 2 hours 50 minutes.
• If you are travelling from Bristol Airport to Plymouth by car, it is a direct route south on the M5 motorway which merges to become the A38 just past Exeter. This journey is approx. 108 miles, taking just under 2 hours

Exeter Airport offers services to and from France, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Greek Islands, Italy, Lapland, Malta, Turkey and the UK and Ireland.

To get to Plymouth once you have arrived at Exeter, you have the following options:

• There is no railway station at the airport so to travel by train you will need to get a taxi (which will be waiting outside the airport) to either Exeter St Davids or Exeter Central, both approx 6 miles away. There you can get a direct train to Plymouth which takes between 1 hour and 1 hour 15 minutes.
• The National Express offers a coach service that will pick you up from Exeter Airport and bring you to the Plymouth Bus Station, the quickest service can take just 2 hours, 10 minutes.
• If you are travelling from Exeter Airport by car, they have plenty of car rental services within the airport for you to choose from. Once on the road, you need to follow signs for the A38 which will take you directly straight down to Plymouth, taking approx. 50 minutes to 1 hour.

Flights to and from Cornwall Airport Newquay vary depending on the season, with a reduced service in the winter. These include Alicante, Frankfurt-Hahn, Dusseldorf, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin and various locations in England. With all year round flights to and from London, Manchester and the Isles of Scilly.

To get to Plymouth once you have arrived at Cornwall Airport Newquay, you have the following options:

• The rail network is provided by Great Western Railway and the nearest station is in the centre of Newquay which will take you approx. 15 minutes to get to by taxi. Once there the train will take you approx 1 hour 50 minutes to arrive at Plymouth with 1 change at Par railway station.
• The National Express offers a coach service, but it is a limited daily service and will require you to get to Newquay Coach station by taxi which takes approx. 20 minutes. The quickest service can take just 1hour 35 minutes.
• If you are travelling by car, it’s a really easy route. Follow signs for the A30 and then the A38 which will bring you Plymouth in a little over an hour. You can also get a rental car from Newquay airport.