Chester Sightseeing Chauffeur Service – Exploring the Walled City in Comfort
Few cities reward unhurried exploration quite like Chester, and few are as poorly suited to navigating behind the wheel. Its tightly built medieval core, pedestrianised streets and limited central parking make driving and parking a genuine chore for a visitor who simply wants to enjoy the place. A Chester sightseeing chauffeur service answers that problem directly, and the luxury chauffeur service provided by Manner Borne lets visitors move between the city’s landmarks without once thinking about a car park. This guide sets out how a chauffeured day through the walled city actually works, and what there is to see along the way.
Why Chester suits chauffeured sightseeing
Chester is a compact city with its best sights spread just far enough apart to make walking the whole circuit tiring, and the historic centre is largely closed to traffic in any case. A chauffeur who knows the city sets visitors down close to each landmark at the points where vehicles are permitted, then collects them afterwards, so there is no circling for a space and no long walk back to a distant car park. On race days at the Roodee, when roads close and parking disappears across the centre, that local knowledge becomes more valuable still. The result is a day shaped around the sights rather than around the search for somewhere to leave the car.
The walls, the Rows and the Eastgate Clock
The obvious place to begin is the Roman wall that still encircles the city. Chester has the most complete Roman city walls in Britain, a roughly two-mile circuit that a chauffeur can drop visitors onto at one of the historic gateways. From the wall the route passes the Eastgate Clock, raised in 1899 to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and said to be the most photographed clock in the country after Big Ben. Below lies the great architectural curiosity of Chester, the Rows, a set of galleried medieval walkways some seven centuries old that stack shops on two levels in a form found nowhere else. A chauffeur can set down close to Eastgate Street so that a visit to the Rows begins on foot exactly where it should.
The Cathedral, the amphitheatre and the Roodee
Chester Cathedral repays a slow visit, holding one of the finest collections of medieval carving in Europe within walls that have served as a place of worship for many centuries. A short distance away sits the largest Roman amphitheatre ever excavated in Britain, a reminder that this was once the fortress of Deva. The western stretch of the wall looks down over the Roodee, the meadow beside the River Dee that has hosted Chester Racecourse since 1539, making it the oldest racecourse still in use anywhere in the world and the smallest course in the country. Visitors timing a trip around a meeting will find the dedicated Chester Racecourse chauffeur service covers race-day travel in full, and an evening at the theatre is handled by the Chester Storyhouse Theatre chauffeur service.
Arriving in the city and travelling on
Many visitors reach Chester by rail and begin the day at the station, a short run from the centre that a chauffeur turns into a seamless start through the Chester train station chauffeur service. A touring day is comfortable in an executive car such as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class chauffeur for two or three, while a larger family or group of friends is better suited to a passenger vehicle with more room. Chester also makes an ideal base for travelling further afield, whether that means the designer outlet covered by the guide to chauffeur-driven shopping trips from Chester to Cheshire Oaks or the mountains and coast reached through chauffeured day trips from Chester to North Wales and Snowdonia.
A day built around your interests
No two visitors want the same day, and a chauffeured itinerary flexes around the people in the car. Some prefer to spend the morning walking the walls and the afternoon among the Rows, others want the Cathedral and the amphitheatre before lunch beside the river, and a few simply want to see as much as a single day allows. Because the chauffeur waits nearby rather than disappearing to park, plans can change on the spot without difficulty. The fuller local service for residents and regular visitors is set out on the chauffeur service Chester page.
Chester sits within the area covered by several regional offices. Chester and West Cheshire are looked after on 01244 455 933, the Wirral and Ellesmere Port side on 0151 909 3855, and Mid-Cheshire and Northwich on 01606 822 955. A sightseeing day is best arranged a little in advance so that the right vehicle is set aside. Why just arrive when you can arrive in style.
