This time of year, the Lake District tends to be one very mountainous car park.

Personally [and I am financially constrained] I would use the likes of Premier Inn & Travelodge...or camp.

Travelodge have spots around Keswick, such as Penrith, two near Carlisle, and Cockermouth...easily accessible with good roads.

Keswick itself is a good access point to the Lake District, without getting too fouled up with traffic issues.

[M6 gets you there, easy]

For Scotland, take a run up the A9 to Inverness, then work back down south?

The A9 is a nice drive, if rather long-winded....Inverness is a good base, but don't confine yourselves to the area to the south..take a look at the Black Isle?

[We used to book a holiday 'roof-on-the-ground' up by Rogart....halfway up the side of a mountain.. yo can really appreciate the benefits of isolation.]

Whilst in Inverness, leave the car along for a day, take a train ride out to Kyle of Lochalshe, for a change?

Take a look along Loch Ness?

Personally, if I see a road, and ask, 'wonder where that goes?'...I tend to go and find out.

Very distracting, not good if one has a definite aim in mind.

[Tend to do that if stuck in traffic jams]

You don't say whether you intend to leave London via the M1 or M40 to pick up the M6. Either way, with the time you are leaving on a Friday night the Birmingham area is likely to be very busy. Allegedly the M6 through Brum is one of the busiest stretches of motorway in Europe.

If you must leave at that time I would suggest going up the M1 to J24 and then taking the A50 across to Stoke. Here pick up the A500 round Stoke to the M6 J16 (don't follow the signs they take you to J15). Even from here the M6 is likely to be busy, so it might be worth taking a stop in Knutsford, which you can reach by picking up the A50 again off the A500 and driving north through Holmes Chapel. The M6 will be much quieter on Saturday morning so you could get back on the M6 at J19 and head north from there.

Even on a good day, I leave Lutterworth (M1 J20) using the route above and Knutsford is about 1h40 away. So from London I'd guess it's 3 hrs plus on a Friday night?? Depends how long you want to be in the car on your first leg?

My parents live in Altrincham (north of Knutsford by about 10 miles) and from there the Lakes are only about 2 hours away.