Cheltenham Festival Chauffeur Hire, Gloucestershire

The Festival takes over Prestbury Park for four days each March, building from the roar that greets the first race on the opening day to the Gold Cup at the end of the week. Racing begins in the early afternoon and runs into the late afternoon, but the day starts far earlier for most people and continues in the town long after the last horse has come back in. March on the edge of the Cotswolds is cold, often wet and frequently muddy.

Cheltenham itself does not cope well with the traffic. Approach roads fill from late morning, racecourse car parks close as they reach capacity, and the town centre becomes very slow indeed in the hour after racing ends. A chauffeur takes all of that away: you are dropped close to your entrance and collected from a road your driver has chosen rather than the one everybody else is queueing on.

Many clients base themselves in the Cotswolds, around Broadway, Stow, Painswick and the villages nearby, and travel in daily. That run takes anywhere from half an hour to well over an hour on Festival mornings depending on route and weather, so we set out earlier than the map suggests. Tickets, enclosure badges and hospitality are arranged through the racecourse or your host; as an independent chauffeur service we do not supply them.

Given March conditions, a Range Rover Autobiography is the most useful vehicle of the week: high enough for verges and field entrances, warm, and untroubled by a wet lane. Six people travelling together are best in a V-Class, with room for coats, boots and racing kit. For a couple staying at a country house hotel, an S-Class makes the evening return genuinely restful.