Half day £250, full day £400, hourly £55/h (3h min), point-to-point from £45. Heathrow £80 within ~12 miles or £115 further out; 60 minutes' waiting included.
A private chauffeur collects your parents at the door, drives between sights at their pace, waits with the car rather than leaving them to walk, and brings them home — one fixed price agreed before you travel.
Journey times are typical, not guaranteed. We plan departure times around live traffic on the day.
| Option | Best for | Main tradeoff | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly hire | One sight and a slow lunch | 3 hour minimum even for a short outing | £55/h, 3h minimum |
| Half day | A single longer outing, e.g. a museum or the zoo | Fixed block rather than billed by the hour | £250 |
| Full day | Greenwich, Windsor or several stops across town | Highest flat cost of the hire options | £400 |
| Point-to-point | One trip, e.g. hotel to Covent Garden | No waiting time built in beyond the drive | from £45 |
| Heathrow pickup | Collecting parents off a flight | Price rises outside ~12 miles of a non-central postcode | £80 or £115 |
Book the car by the hour rather than for single trips. Three hours minimum at £55 an hour, a half day at £250 or a full day at £400 means the same driver and car wait at each stop, so your parents never queue for a bus or walk further than the entrance.
The usual way people see London with older parents is a string of Tube changes and bus stops, which is exactly the part that wears them out. Hiring by the hour removes that: the car parks or circles near wherever they've gone in, and picks up again the moment they're ready, with no timetable to catch.
How much time to book depends on the shape of the day. A half day at £250 suits a single outing — a museum and a slow lunch, or an afternoon at the zoo. A full day at £400 stretches further: a morning somewhere like Greenwich and an afternoon in the West End, without having to book a second car to get back. For a shorter outing, the hourly rate of £55 applies with a three hour minimum, which suits one sight and one meal rather than a full itinerary.
No car can park at either spot. The way round it: the car stops, your parents get out for the photograph, the chauffeur drives on and circles or waits nearby within five minutes, then collects them again as soon as they text.
This is one of the more awkward corners of a day out with parents who don't want to walk far after the photo. There's no legal stopping place right at Big Ben or Trafalgar Square, so the car can't simply wait at the kerb the way it might outside a restaurant.
What works in practice is a drop-off rather than a park: the car pulls in long enough for everyone to get out, then moves on and stays within five minutes of the spot rather than disappearing to find a space streets away. When your parents are done, a message brings the car straight back to collect them, so they're never left standing and never have to find their own way to wherever the car ended up.
It means they get the landmark and the photograph without a ten-minute walk to a car park afterwards, and without the driver circling so far off that getting back to them takes any real time.
If you want a car and driver for longer than a single transfer, see day hire and day trips.
Covent Garden Underground station is the workable drop-off and collection point; it's a short walk from there into the piazza. If the streets around the piazza are busy, Trafalgar Square station works as an alternative place to be collected.
Covent Garden's piazza itself isn't somewhere a car can simply pull up outside, so the practical point to be dropped and picked up is the Tube station entrance, with a short walk in from there. It's a single, predictable spot rather than a street the driver has to guess at each time, which matters when a parent needs a moment to get out of the car without being rushed by other traffic.
If the area around the piazza is particularly busy, Trafalgar Square station works just as well as a second collection point, so there's a fallback rather than a long wait trying to get back to the original spot.
For a single outing like this, a point-to-point fare starts from £45. If Covent Garden is one stop in a longer day — on to lunch, or back out to a museum — it's simpler to fold it into an hourly booking instead, so the car and driver stay with you the whole time rather than being booked twice.
A full day at £400, or a half day at £250 for a shorter version, covers it — the car and driver stay with you for the whole outing, so your parents wait for nothing. There's no train change, no station walk and no return time to watch the clock against.
A day trip out of central London is usually where the public transport plan falls apart for older parents — a station walk at one end, a change partway, then the same again in reverse when everyone's tired. Hiring the car for the day removes all three of those steps.
The driver takes you out, waits while your parents go round whatever you've come to see, and brings you back on your own timing rather than a train's. A full day at £400 suits this kind of outing comfortably; a half day at £250 works if the trip is shorter or starts later in the day. For something briefer and closer to home, the hourly rate of £55 with a three hour minimum is the better fit.
A chauffeur can't come inside T5, so your parents are met just outside the arrivals exit, by the Pret a Manger that drivers gather at. The flight is tracked and the price includes 60 minutes' waiting, so a slow walk through the terminal costs nothing extra.
Terminal 5 doesn't allow a driver through to the gate, which can be unsettling if a parent is expecting to be met right where they land. The fix is a fixed, known meeting point: the Pret a Manya just outside the arrivals exit, where drivers wait rather than a vague "outside somewhere." Giving that as the instruction works better than a stand number.
Because the flight is tracked, the car is there whether the landing is on time or delayed, and the price includes 60 minutes of waiting from touchdown — enough for a slower walk through immigration and baggage without extra charge. The fare itself depends on distance: £80 covers anywhere within roughly 12 miles of a non-central postcode, and £115 applies further out, including into central London. A pickup between 23:00 and 06:00 adds 20% to either fare.
Meet and greet is included either way, so your parents are looked for by name rather than left to search a crowd of boards themselves.
A card machine travels in the car and takes Visa, Mastercard and American Express by contactless, chip and PIN, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Payment happens at the end of the journey — no deposit is taken and no card is kept on file beforehand.
There's no cash to arrange in advance and no booking deposit to pay online before you've even met the driver. The fare is agreed in writing before you travel, and payment itself happens at the end of the journey, the same way it would with a card machine anywhere else.
One practical point worth knowing: UK contactless payments cap at £100, so a larger fare — a £150 airport run, or a £400 full day — needs a PIN entered or a phone tapped (Apple Pay or Google Pay don't carry the same £100 limit), rather than a single contactless tap. That's worth mentioning to a parent in advance if a PIN isn't something they use often, so it isn't a surprise at the end of the trip.
Booking itself is by WhatsApp message, with every journey confirmed in writing beforehand — useful if you're arranging the day on a parent's behalf from somewhere else entirely.
More guides: London Sightseeing Chauffeur | Crest Chauffeurs London · Car and Driver Hire for a Week in London | Crest Chauffeurs · Do London Chauffeurs Take American Credit Cards?
Where to meet at Heathrow Terminal 5. Drivers can't come inside T5 — the Pret a Manger just outside the arrivals exit is the spot drivers actually gather at, and giving that as the meeting point works better than a gate or stand number.
The car can't stop there. The method that works is to drop your parents off, drive on and circle nearby within five minutes, then collect them by text once they're done.
Source: driver, first-handWeekday mornings are heavy heading into London and weekday evenings are heavy heading back out towards Heathrow; Saturdays and Sundays into central London are comparatively clear.
Source: driver, first-handMore than three passengers. The Mercedes-Benz EQE seats up to three. A parent, a partner and two grandchildren won't all fit in one trip.
Hiring the car and driver by the hour or the day rather than booking single trips: the same chauffeur waits at each stop, drives between sights, and there's no bus, Tube or long car-park walk involved anywhere in the day.
£400 for a full day or £250 for a half day, both with the driver waiting throughout. Shorter outings can be booked hourly at £55/h with a three hour minimum.
Yes, almost everywhere — the exceptions are spots like Big Ben and Trafalgar Square where no car can stop, where the driver drops off, circles within five minutes and collects by text instead.
The flight is tracked, so the car arrives in line with the actual landing time, not the original schedule, and the fare includes 60 minutes' waiting from touchdown at no extra cost.
Card only, no cash needed. The driver carries a card machine for Visa, Mastercard and American Express, paid at the end of the journey — contactless under £100, or PIN, Apple Pay or Google Pay for larger fares.
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