Drivers urged to dodge motorway services to save up to £19 filling up this Bank Holiday weekend

This August Bank Holiday is predicted to be the busiest on the roads for over a decade.

With almost 20million car journeys estimated over the three-day weekend, plenty of motorists will be flocking to fuel stations to fill up before or during their trips.

But with motorway services charging wildly inflated prices, consumer watchdog Which has revealed how drivers who take small detours can find significantly cheaper petrol nearby.

Here’s the biggest savings drivers can pocket by going slightly off-piste this weekend.

The RAC is expecting Britons to make 19.2 million leisure trips by car between Friday and Monday, triggering heavy traffic for drivers throughout the weekend.

The figure, based on a survey of 2,128 UK adults, is the highest on record, which dates back to the summer bank holiday of 2015. 

While yesterday (Saturday) was predicted to be the busiest day over the weekend with 3.7 million journeys planned, there will be another 3.1 million today and 3 million tomorrow, the motoring group says.

Many of these vehicles will be using motorways to get to their destinations in the quickest time possible.

But those who opt to pull over to fill up at service stations up and down the UK’s motorway network will be stung with overinflated prices.

The RAC estimates there will be 3.1 million car journeys on the roads today and 3 million tomorrow with the August bank holiday likely to be the busiest in a decade

While most drivers are aware that motorway services are much pricier to top up, many aren’t cognisant of the average prices in the nearby area away from these busy trunk roads. 

Which? and PetrolPrices.com have been crunching the number on just how much cheaper petrol can cost if motorists are willing to make a very small detour off the motorway.

It has calculated the biggest fuel bill savings drivers can make on popular routes this weekend. 

The seven examples listed below show where petrol prices are much cheaper just a matter of miles away from motorway services – and sometimes closer to tourist hotspots people are likely visiting

The biggest savings this weekend if you’re willing to take a small detour from the motorway 

The petrol costs provided are calculated using fuel prices published on 16 August – – which means they are likely to have changed by this weekend.

However, the differences in prices between motorway filling stations and those closer to towns and in more rural locations will remain similar with fluctuations due to the premium prices charged at services.

The instances listed below are examples where petrol prices are cheaper just a matter of miles away – and sometimes closer to tourist hotspots people are likely visiting. 

The figures show that anyone heading to the beaches of Cornwall in need of petrol near Taunton Deane services could save around 30p-a-litre if they get off the M5 and pull in at Sainsbury’s petrol station close to junction 25. 

Filling a typical 55-litre fuel tank with petrol would be £16.50 cheaper at this supermarket forecourt than at the motorway-side fuel station – £33 if you need to fill up driving there and when you’re heading back.

The same is true for those driving to the popular shopping destination Bicester in Oxfordshire, where the outlet stores at Bicester Village attracts plenty of custom over the bank holiday. 

Instead of filling up on the M40 at Cherwell Valley services, drivers could save 34p per litre by topping up at the Esso station or Tesco supermarket close to the shopping hotspot on Oxford Road.

Some of the examples listed by Which? show the cheaper destination for fuels at Costco locations. These are only available to those with a Costco membership, which start from £33.60 per year.

 Drivers can make a saving of over £18 if they take a short detour away from the M66 north of Manchester to fill up in Heywood and the M27 near Southampton.

Motorists head to – or passing – Crawley and Dunstable can also save £17 on a tank of fuel by taking a short detour from the motorway. 

Natalie Hitchins from Which? said: ‘Motorists heading on getaways this bank holiday weekend should check petrol prices before setting off.

‘Head to filling stations away from motorway services to save some cash as these are notoriously expensive.

‘It also pays to check prices even when travelling away from motorways, as our research shows areas of the UK where savings of around £5 per full tank can be made if you shop around.’

Big savings locally if you shop around

While the biggest fuel price savings are cheap filling stations instead of motorway services, drivers will also benefit from significant savings if they shop around locally.

If you live in an area where forecourts are close to the national average of 142p-a-litre, using a site such as PetrolPrices.com to see whether travelling slightly further afield could result in cheaper fuel receipts. 

You won’t want to go too far out of your way, but you may be able to tie your next top-up to a journey that passes near the cheaper area.

For example, at the time of writing, if you live in Redhill, Surrey, local unleaded prices are around 143.9p. But if you travel just 5 miles south and cross the county border into Horley, West Sussex, you’ll benefit from the Asda unleaded price of just 135.7p. 

That’s around £4.50 cheaper per a full 55-litre tank of unleaded. Fill up twice a month, and that’s equivalent to a saving of £108 per year.

Can you also save on EV charging?

While you can save money by shopping around for petrol, the same can’t be said for charging electric cars.

Most rapid public chargers are roughly the same price across the UK, while lots of service stations have extensive charging areas for electric cars. 

So, if you need to charge up, there’s little reason not to use a motorway service station.