
01Section
Down the M3
We head out of London on the A316 or the M4 and pick up the M3 at Sunbury. Commuters from Bagshot and Camberley fill Junctions 2 to 4A, and before nine in the morning that's the one part of the outward trip you can count on being slow.
After Fleet the motorway opens out. You pass Basingstoke at junction 6 and Winchester at junction 9, where the road descends through the cutting at Twyford Down. That stretch is quick and exposed, and in a taller vehicle you feel the crosswinds.
At junction 14 the M3 finishes and hands over to the M27. Use Junction 3 for the western docks and the city, or junction 5 for Southampton Airport and the suburbs to the north. Nowhere else on the route is picking the right exit so important.









