Hourly hire from £55/h (3h min), £250 half day, £400 full day in a 3-passenger electric Mercedes EQE. No meter, fixed price agreed before you set off.
A private half-day (£250) or full-day (£400) hire gets you to Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden and more in one Mercedes EQE, with the driver circling nearby landmarks where parking isn't possible and waiting until you text.
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 | A short run of meetings or a loosely planned few hours | 3 hour minimum applies even for shorter use | £55/h, 3h min (£165) |
| Half day | A loop around two or three central areas | Flat fee regardless of exact hours used | £250 |
| Full day | A wider route taking in landmarks across London | Highest flat cost of the three hire options | £400 |
| Point-to-point | A single journey between two fixed addresses | No waiting time built in as with hourly hire | From £45 |
| Heathrow start | A day that begins with a flight arrival | Covers the airport leg only, not the sightseeing | £80 or £115 |
| Night supplement | Any part of the day after 23:00 | Adds to whichever rate already applies | +20% |
A full day of as-directed hire is a flat £400 and a half day is £250, with no mileage cap and no meter running. Shorter outings run on the hourly rate of £55 an hour with a 3 hour minimum, so £165 is the smallest hourly booking. Every price is agreed in writing before you set off, so there's no surprise bill at the end of the day.
The choice is really about how much ground you want to cover. A half day at £250 suits a loop around two or three central areas — Westminster, Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden, say — with time to get out, look around and move on without watching a clock. A full day at £400 stretches that further, east to St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London and back, still at one flat price. If you only need a single leg — a hotel to a theatre, or a lunch booking to a gallery — a point-to-point fare from £45 is usually cheaper than booking the car by the hour.
Hourly hire sits between the two: useful for a short run of meetings or a half-formed plan where you're not sure how long you'll need the car, at £55 an hour with a 3 hour minimum. Beyond about three hours, the flat half day and full day rates generally work out better value because the price doesn't climb with every extra stop or hour.
Every booking is in the same electric Mercedes-Benz EQE, seating up to three passengers, and any part of the day that runs between 23:00 and 06:00 carries a 20% night supplement on top of whichever rate applies.
A half day (£250) comfortably covers a loop through Westminster, Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden; a full day (£400) stretches that out to St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London as well, all in the same car with no mileage limit.
Westminster and Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden and the river east towards St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London sit close enough together that a single day's hire can realistically take in all of them, provided each stop is kept short. The constraint isn't distance, it's parking — the car can pull in to drop you and collect you, but it can't sit waiting outside Big Ben or on Trafalgar Square, so the itinerary works best as a series of drop-offs rather than a kerb-to-kerb tour.
Covent Garden works differently again: the workable drop-off and pickup point is Covent Garden Underground station, with a short walk to the piazza from there, and Trafalgar Square station as a fallback collection point if the streets around the piazza are busy.
None of this is guided — there's no commentary on what you're looking at, just transport between the places you've chosen, which keeps the price to the flat half day or full day rate rather than anything bundled with a tour guide. If the day starts with an arrival at Heathrow rather than from home, that leg is a separate fixed fare — £80 within around 12 miles of the airport or £115 further out — with 60 minutes of waiting built in if the flight is delayed.
If you are planning the day itself, see a full day in London with a driver.
Weekday mornings are heaviest heading into London and weekday evenings are heaviest heading back out towards Heathrow; Saturday and Sunday into central London are comparatively clear. A weekday quote is given as a range rather than a single number for this reason.
Traffic shapes a day tour more than distance does. On a weekday, the run into town first thing in the morning is the slow leg, and the same roads reverse in the evening as people head back out towards Heathrow and the west — so a day that starts at 8am and finishes at 6pm can hit both rush hours without the itinerary changing at all. A Saturday or Sunday booking covering the same route into central London is usually a noticeably easier drive.
One concrete example: a transfer from a Heathrow hotel such as the Hilton at Terminal 5 to the South Bank is unpredictable on a weekday morning and straightforward at the weekend, even though the mileage doesn't change. For that reason, a weekday quote is given as a time range rather than a fixed number of minutes, so there's a realistic expectation going into the day rather than a promise the traffic can't keep.
The car stops to let you out, drives on and circles nearby rather than waiting kerbside, staying within about five minutes of you and coming back the moment you text. You get the photo stop; the car just isn't parked in it.
Big Ben and Trafalgar Square are two of the places where stopping the car and leaving it is simply not possible — there's nowhere to wait that doesn't block traffic or a bus lane. The method that works is for the driver to pull in only long enough for passengers to get out, then move on and loop the surrounding streets, staying close by rather than parking somewhere distant and asking you to find your way back.
WhatsApp is what makes this practical: it shares live location, so you can send a pin or just type that you're ready, and the car can be back at the kerb within a few minutes rather than you standing around trying to describe where you are over a phone call. The same approach applies at any landmark where there's no legal stopping place, not just the two mentioned here.
A card machine travels in the car and takes Visa, Mastercard and American Express by contactless, chip and PIN, Apple Pay or Google Pay, settled at the end of the day. No deposit is taken and no card is held on file beforehand.
Nothing is charged in advance. The fare for a half day (£250) or full day (£400) is agreed in writing before the booking starts, and payment happens only once the day is finished, in the car, on the machine the driver carries. UK contactless payments cap at £100, so a half day or full day fare sits above that limit and needs chip and PIN or a phone payment — Apple Pay or Google Pay — rather than a single tap. A smaller point-to-point fare from £45 can usually be tapped under the contactless limit if that's preferred.
Because there's no deposit and no card held on file, nothing is pre-authorised or charged if a plan changes before the day — the only payment that happens is the one at the end of the journey, for the journey actually taken.
More guides: Chauffeur for Elderly Parents in London | Crest Chauffeurs · London Sightseeing Chauffeur | Crest Chauffeurs London · Car and Driver Hire for a Week in London | Crest Chauffeurs
Why you can't park at Big Ben or Trafalgar Square. The car drops passengers, then drives on and circles within about five minutes rather than waiting kerbside, picking up again by text when you're ready.
Covent Garden Underground station is the usable drop-off and collection point; Trafalgar Square station is the fallback if the piazza streets are busy.
Source: driver, first-handWeekday mornings are heaviest heading into London and weekday evenings are heaviest heading back out towards Heathrow, while Saturday and Sunday into central London are comparatively clear.
Source: driver, first-handYou need four or more seats or several cars at once. The car is a single Mercedes-Benz EQE seating up to three passengers — larger groups or multi-car days aren't something one driver in one car can cover.
With a full day's hire (£400) or half day (£250) in the Mercedes-Benz EQE, a realistic loop takes in Westminster and Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, and — on a full day — St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London, with the driver managing photo stops where the car can't park.
A flat £400 for a full day or £250 for a half day in the Mercedes-Benz EQE, agreed in writing before you set off — no meter and no mileage cap.
Three hours. Hourly hire is £55 an hour with a 3 hour minimum, so £165 is the smallest hourly booking; longer than that is usually better value as a half or full day.
Yes, though the car can't park there — it drops you, circles nearby for a few minutes, and comes back when you text, so you get the photo without a parked car in the way.
Any part of the booking between 23:00 and 06:00 carries a 20% night supplement on top of the hourly, half day or full day rate.
Get the price above, or send us the journey on WhatsApp. A fixed price comes back in minutes.
WhatsApp for a fixed quoteThe Crest guarantee. If anything about your journey isn’t right, tell us and we’ll put it right before you pay. No deposit, nothing held on your card — you pay at the end.