you might as well bang up the east coast
That's OK in reasonably good wx, but if you have lots of low cloud, and an IR, then going "Eurocontrol IFR" is preferable.
As an example, last week I went up to Coventry from the s. coast. Low level wx was very mucky and it would have been IMC all the way, in quite low temps. If you file full IFR, FL100, you are in sunshine all the way.