Cheltenham Festival 2027. Four days of jump racing, and a chauffeur who waits while you stay.
Prestbury Park in March: the roar at the start of the Champion Hurdle, the Gold Cup on the Friday, and a car timed around the road closures so you arrive ahead of the crowd and leave when you choose.
The meeting
Cheltenham Festival 2027 at a glance
- DatesTuesday 16 to Friday 19 March 2027Champion Day, Ladies Day, St Patrick's Thursday and Gold Cup Day.
- WhereCheltenham Racecourse, Prestbury Park, Evesham Road, Cheltenham, GL50 4SHOn the edge of town beneath Cleeve Hill, roughly 100 miles from central London.
- By roadM5 junction 10 from the north, junction 11 from the southThen the A435 Evesham Road. Racecourse signs are posted on every approach during the meeting.
- By airGloucestershire Airport, about four miles awayLight and midsize jets, and the racecourse takes pre-booked helicopter arrivals on racedays.
Dates as published by The Jockey Club. Racing usually starts in the early afternoon and the Gold Cup is the Friday feature. We review this page each year.
Getting there
The Festival closes the road. Plan around that, not the map
Cheltenham is not a difficult drive. The M40 and A40 across the Cotswolds, or the M4 and M5, both get you to the edge of Gloucestershire in comfortable time. What catches people out is the last mile, where the county runs a traffic plan for the Festival that closes parts of the A435 and Evesham Road southbound in two windows: late morning as the crowd arrives, and again from late afternoon until the evening as it leaves. The exact timings and the exact stretches are published each year and change.
In practice that means two things. Arrive before the late-morning window rather than into it. And accept that after the last race the roads immediately around the course stand still for a while, which is why a lot of regulars stay on site for an hour, have a drink, and leave when the queue has gone. Your chauffeur waits with you either way, so that hour is yours to spend inside in the warm rather than in a queue.
We confirm the year's published closures before your first day and set the departure time and the approach accordingly, rather than pointing a sat nav at the postcode and hoping.
Journey times
To Cheltenham Racecourse
| From | Normal day | Festival week |
|---|---|---|
| Central London | 2 hours 15 to 2 hours 45 | Allow 3 to 4 hours |
| Farnborough Airport | 2 hours to 2 hours 30 | Allow 2 hours 45 to 3 hours 30 |
| Gloucestershire Airport | 15 to 25 minutes | Allow 30 to 60 minutes |
| Birmingham Airport | 60 to 75 minutes | Allow 1 hour 30 to 2 hours 15 |
| The Cotswolds, Broadway or Burford | 35 to 55 minutes | Allow 1 hour to 1 hour 45 |
| Manchester | 3 hours to 3 hours 30 | Allow 3 hours 30 to 4 hours 30 |
Planning guidance, not promises. The published road closures, not the motorway, decide the last half hour.
What clients usually book
A car for the day, and somewhere warm to sit
- An S-Class or V-Class with the same chauffeur from your door in the morning until you are home at night
- Daily cars from a Cotswolds house or hotel for guests staying the week
- Several cars arriving together for a box or a hospitality party
- Collection from Gloucestershire Airport or Birmingham for guests flying in for a single day
- A helicopter in, pre-booked with the racecourse, with a car on the ground
- Guests arriving from Dublin for the Irish days, met at the airport and driven straight down
Arriving by air
Gloucestershire Airport is four miles away
Gloucestershire Airport at Staverton, about four miles west of Cheltenham, is the obvious private arrival point for the Festival. It handles light and midsize business jets, the Phenom 300 and Citation class rather than anything heavy, and the drive from the apron to the racecourse is short even in Festival traffic. Slots during the meeting are limited and go early.
Larger aircraft use Birmingham, about an hour away on a normal day, or Bristol. The racecourse also accepts pre-booked helicopter arrivals on racedays through its own arrangements, which remains the quickest way in and out of Prestbury Park on Gold Cup Friday. We arrange the aircraft or the helicopter and have a car waiting at each end.
We own and run our own cars and employ our chauffeurs in London and Manchester, and we drive to Cheltenham from both. There is no local subcontractor meeting you at the gate.
Book early
Gold Cup Friday goes first
The Festival fills hotels across Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds months ahead, and cars follow the same pattern. Tell us your days as soon as your badges and your beds are confirmed.
Around the week
Related pages
Arriving by air
Nearby and useful
The racing season
Request a quote
Tell us which days
Which days, how many of you, where you are staying and whether you are in a box or the enclosures. We reply with a clear price for the day. Nothing is booked or charged online.
Prefer to talk? +44 2030 048300 or WhatsApp, at any hour.
Questions people ask
About Cheltenham Festival travel
Can the car wait all day?
Yes, and in March you will be glad of it. Your chauffeur stays for the day, keeps the car warm and is ready when you decide to leave, including an hour after the last race if you would rather let the queue clear.
How bad is the traffic really?
The motorway run is fine. The closures on the A435 and Evesham Road in the late morning and from late afternoon are what add the time, and they are published by the county each year. We plan the arrival and departure around them.
Can we fly in?
Gloucestershire Airport at Staverton is four miles away and takes light and midsize jets. Birmingham and Bristol take anything larger. The racecourse also accepts pre-booked helicopter arrivals on racedays.
We are staying in the Cotswolds. Can you run us in each day?
Yes. Daily cars from a house or hotel in the Cotswolds are one of the most common bookings we take for this week.
Are you an official partner of the Cheltenham Festival?
No. We are an independent chauffeur company providing transport to and from the meeting.