Art fair season. Every fair in your year on one plan, with a car held for each day.
A collector's year is not a list of fairs. It is a set of weeks in which a small city is comprehensively outnumbered by its own event, the hotel rooms went months ago, and the useful hours are the private ones before the doors open. The fairs are the easy part to find. The week around each of them is what needs arranging.
The shape of it
An as-directed week, not a set of transfers
Almost nobody who books a car for a fair uses it only to reach the fair. The pattern is the same in every city: the halls in the morning, a private viewing at eleven that was agreed yesterday, lunch somewhere that was decided at half past twelve, two galleries in the afternoon, a collection visit that runs long, a dinner that starts late and a party afterwards. That is five or six moves, most of them settled an hour in advance, several of them in the rain.
Booked as separate journeys, it falls apart by the second afternoon. Booked as hourly, as-directed hire with the same chauffeur for the week, the day can change at eleven in the morning without anybody renegotiating anything, and the car holds the coats and the catalogues while you walk round a fair that has no cloakroom worth the queue. For an adviser or an assistant running a collector's week, that is the difference between a schedule and a scramble.
The second pattern worth naming is that the serious business happens on the preview days, before the public ones. Flights are timed to the previews rather than to the opening weekend, which is precisely when the aprons and the hotel rooms are tightest. Plan the aircraft and the car around the invitation, not around the published dates.
The calendar
October 2026 to October 2027
| When | The fair | The travel note |
|---|---|---|
| 14 to 18 October 2026 | Frieze London and Frieze Masters, The Regent's Park | Two tents in one park with a free shuttle between them every fifteen minutes or so, no visitor parking at either, and a set down on the Outer Circle as far as the stewards allow. Wednesday is the invitation preview. The whole of Mayfair, Cork Street and St James's is working that week too |
| 21 to 25 October 2026 | Art Basel Paris, the Grand Palais | The following week, which is why so many people fly Frieze to Paris rather than home. The Grand Palais sits in one of the most restricted corners of Paris for traffic, and knowing where the driver may wait matters more than where the car sets down. Le Bourget is thirty to fifty minutes away, Eurostar about two hours twenty |
| To 22 November 2026 | Biennale Arte 2026, Venice | The autumn is the civilised time to go: the Giardini are walkable and a boat can be had at shorter notice than in vernissage week. Remember that road access to Venice ends at Piazzale Roma and everything after that is on foot or on water |
| 4 to 6 December 2026 | Art Basel Miami Beach | The Miami art week collides with the Gulf motor racing finale and with the start of the ski departures, so the same long-haul aircraft are wanted by three different crowds in the same fortnight |
| 13 to 18 March 2027 | TEFAF Maastricht, the MECC | A city of about 120,000 people hosting around 270 dealers. Most of the trade sleeps in another country and commutes in, so the useful booking is a driver who is comfortable crossing the Dutch, Belgian and German borders twice a day. Maastricht Aachen is about fifteen minutes from the halls and fills in fair week; Liege is forty to fifty five minutes |
| 25 to 27 March 2027 | Art Basel Hong Kong | The Asian anchor of the year, a fortnight after TEFAF. For anyone doing both, the aircraft decision is made once, in January |
| 8 May to 21 November 2027 | Biennale Architettura 2027, Venice | The 20th International Architecture Exhibition, with a pre-opening on 6 and 7 May. Vernissage week is a different city: hotels on the water go many months ahead and the water taxis are spoken for by breakfast, so the boat is held from the start of the day rather than called for |
| 17 to 20 June 2027 | Art Basel, Messe Basel | Invited previews run immediately before the public days. Basel has fewer rooms than visitors, so a large part of the fair stays in Zurich, in the countryside or across the French and German borders and commutes forty minutes to an hour and a quarter each way. Aprons at EuroAirport fill before the runway does |
| Late June 2027 | The Treasure House Fair, Royal Hospital Chelsea | London's summer fair, in the slot and the venue Masterpiece London used until 2022, and founded by two of that fair's co-founders. It sits in the middle of the British season, so cars, chauffeurs and hotel rooms in London are competing with Royal Ascot and Wimbledon at the same time |
| October 2027 | Frieze London and Art Basel Paris | The autumn pair again. Neither organiser had published 2027 dates when this was written, so plan on the middle and third weeks of October and confirm on the event pages |
Dates are taken from our own event pages, where each is sourced and dated, and reviewed every January. Where an organiser has not published the next edition we give the month only rather than a date we would have to correct. The London auction weeks that shadow these fairs have their own page: see London major auction weeks.
The line we draw
We move people, not artworks
Every season somebody asks whether a purchase can go home in the car. The answer is no, and it is the right answer. Fine art moves with specialist shippers who understand customs, condition, climate and insurance, and a chauffeur car is not the vehicle for any of that. The same goes for the paperwork: cross-border movement of art and antiques has its own rules, and your dealer, shipper and adviser are the people who handle them.
What we will do is work alongside whichever shipper you or the gallery appoints, so that a viewing, a collection and your own movements line up sensibly across a week rather than colliding on the Thursday afternoon. That is a real part of the job, and it is a different job from carrying the work.
City by city
Each fair breaks its city in a different way
The fairs look alike from a distance. On the ground the constraint is different in every one, and knowing which constraint you are dealing with is most of the planning.
London
Frieze, October
The Regent's Park has one road around it and no visitor parking at either fair. The problem is not reaching the park, it is where the car goes afterwards and how quickly it comes back at half past six when both tents empty into the same private views.
Paris
Art Basel Paris, October
The Grand Palais sits between the Champs Elysees and the Seine, in an area that is controlled during large events and crawling at the end of the working day. The evening is in the Marais and Saint Germain, which is five or six moves from the eighth.
Basel
Art Basel, June
A small city outnumbered by its own fair. Rooms go early and many visitors stay in Zurich or across two borders, so the day begins and ends with a commute of forty minutes to an hour and a quarter that cannot slip.
Maastricht
TEFAF, March
Everyone sleeps in another country. The moves that matter are short and frequent: a dealer's dinner in the old town, the station to meet a colleague, then back across the Belgian border at midnight.
Venice
Biennale, May to November
The only city on the calendar where a car cannot reach the door. The road ends at Piazzale Roma and the rest is on foot or on water, so the boat is the booking and the car is the detail.
Miami and Hong Kong
December and March
The long-haul ends of the season, where the aircraft decision is made months ahead and the ground plan is simple by comparison. Both weeks compete with something else for the same aeroplanes.
What clients usually book
For collectors, advisers and the people organising them
The list barely changes from city to city, which is itself the useful observation.
- An hourly, as-directed car held for each day of the fair with the same chauffeur throughout, rather than a set of separate transfers
- A flight timed to the preview days rather than the public days, with an early arrival and a late departure, and parking settled at the same time as the aircraft
- Collection at the private terminal, with the flight tracked. Arrivals are spread across several days and several cities, and they rarely all go to plan
- A V-Class when there are four or more of you and a week's worth of catalogues, and a second vehicle for colleagues working a different list of galleries the same afternoon
- Evening work that runs late, with the car waiting outside the dinner rather than being called for at eleven at night
- Discretion as a default, under whatever name you choose to travel, with one point of contact who knows where every vehicle is. See auction houses, galleries and collectors
- Where the week is really a circuit, Frieze to Paris or TEFAF to Basel, one itinerary rather than three separate bookings
The timeline
Four conversations, spread across the year
- 01
January
The outline. Which fairs matter this year, roughly who is travelling, and whether any two of them join up into a circuit. Nothing committed, and it costs nothing to be in the diary early.
- 02
Three months out
The shape. Aircraft and hotel decisions, because in Basel and Maastricht the room decides the transport plan rather than the other way round.
- 03
Four to six weeks out
The detail. Preview invitations and their hours, gallery appointments, dinners, guests arriving separately, and the set down and waiting arrangements at each venue.
- 04
The week itself
One number. Appointments overrun, a collection visit is offered at short notice, a dinner moves. The desk moves the cars rather than asking you to.
The trade
If you are doing this professionally rather than personally
Auction houses, galleries, advisers and family offices run the same season every year with different people in the cars. An account puts it all on one plan, one contact and invoices split however your finance team needs them.
Questions people ask
About the fair season
Can you take a purchase back for us?
No. Fine art moves with specialist shippers who handle customs, condition, climate and insurance, and that is the right way round. We will work alongside the shipper the gallery appoints so that collections and viewings fit your week.
Why book a car for the day rather than journey by journey?
Because a fair week is not a set of journeys. Appointments overrun, invitations arrive at lunchtime and dinners move. A car held for the day absorbs all of that; separate bookings do not, and by the second afternoon you are negotiating instead of looking.
How early should we ask for Basel or TEFAF?
Months. In both cities the constraint is the hotel room and the aircraft parking rather than the car, and those decisions push everything else. Tell us your dates and we will tell you honestly what is available for that week.
Can you handle several people arriving from different places?
That is most of the work in a fair week. One written itinerary held by one person, with every arrival tracked, so a guest whose flight slips does not become five telephone calls. See family offices and private banks.
Are the cars abroad yours?
Our own cars and chauffeurs are in London and Manchester, and a trusted global network covers everywhere else. In Paris, Basel, Maastricht and Venice the cars come through operators we know, briefed the way ours are, and in Venice a good part of the day is on the water instead.
Do you have any official status with these fairs?
None. We are a transport company taking clients to them. Fair names belong to their organisers and we describe only the journey.
Request a proposal
Tell us which fairs are in your year
The fairs, the dates, who is travelling and where they are coming from. We reply with a plan for each week: aircraft, cars held by the day, set down and waiting at each venue, and the joins between one city and the next. Nothing is booked or charged online.
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