Seeing the Best of Chester Without Parking or Driving

There is a familiar routine that comes with driving into a city for the day. You check where the car parks are, work out which one is closest to where you want to go, sit in city centre traffic and hope there is still a space when you arrive.

Then, several hours later, wherever you happen to be in the city, you have to make your way back to the car.

Chester is one of those places where you can quite happily avoid all of that.

The historic centre is compact, many of Chester’s best-known sights are within walking distance of each other, and taxis can take care of the parts of the journey where walking becomes inconvenient. Arrive by train, take a taxi from home or leave the car behind at your hotel, and you can spend the day moving around Chester according to what you fancy doing next.

It is a much easier way to see the city, particularly if you would rather spend your time sightseeing than thinking about traffic, parking charges and where you left the car.

Seeing the Best of Chester Without Parking or Driving - Chester Taxi Services

Start Your Day Without Looking for a Parking Space

If you live in or around Chester, leaving the car at home means your day can begin at the front door. A taxi can take you directly into the city centre, so you don’t have to drive around looking for somewhere convenient to leave the car.

If you are travelling into Chester from further afield and still need to use the car for part of the journey, Chester’s Park & Ride services offer a useful alternative to driving into the centre. You can leave your car outside the busiest part of the city and take the bus in, giving you the freedom to spend the rest of the day exploring Chester on foot.

Visitors arriving by rail have an equally straightforward option. Chester Train Station is close to the historic centre, so you can walk from the station or take a short taxi journey if you have luggage, children with you or want to get straight to your first stop.

It also works well if you are staying outside the centre. Rather than driving from your accommodation and dealing with Chester city centre parking, you can arrange a taxi in and decide later where you would like to be collected.

Whether you arrive by taxi, Park & Ride or train, you are not tied to a particular city centre parking space. That makes a bigger difference than it might initially appear because your day no longer needs to finish where it started.

Chester Is Made for Exploring on Foot

Once you are in central Chester, you’ll find you need surprisingly little of a vehicle.

You can move between Eastgate, the Rows, Chester Cathedral, Northgate Street, Storyhouse and Chester Market without treating each one as a separate journey. Much of the enjoyment comes from the streets connecting them.

Start around Eastgate, and you can see one of Chester’s most recognisable landmarks, the Eastgate Clock, before wandering through the historic Rows. These unusual two-level galleries are part of central Chester’s character, with shops, cafés and businesses occupying buildings from several periods of the city’s history.

From there, Chester Cathedral and Northgate Street are only a short walk away. You do not have to tick everything off in a particular order either. Spot an interesting side street, stop for coffee or spend longer somewhere than expected and it does not cause a problem.

The compact nature of the centre is one reason enjoying more of Chester does not require a tightly packed itinerary. Pick a few places you genuinely want to visit and leave enough time between them to enjoy the city itself.

Take to the City Walls

Chester City Walls are particularly useful when you are exploring without a car because they offer both an attraction and a route around the city.

You do not have to walk the complete circuit. Join the walls wherever suits your plans, enjoy the views and come back down when something below catches your attention.

Along the route you can see some of the places that make Chester so distinctive, including the Roman Amphitheatre, Chester Castle, the River Dee and Chester Racecourse.

The Roman Amphitheatre is particularly easy to include because it sits close to the walls and the historic centre. You can stop for a look without turning it into a separate excursion, then continue towards the river.

On the other side of the centre, the walls take you towards Chester Castle and the racecourse. The Agricola Tower at Chester Castle is another reminder of just how many periods of history sit within a relatively small area of the city.

The elevated sections of the walls also give you a good sense of how close many parts of central Chester really are. What might look like several separate attractions on a map can often become one enjoyable walk.

You could leave the walls near the river, head back towards the city centre for lunch or continue towards the racecourse without having to think about getting back to a particular car park.

Stop for Lunch Rather Than Moving the Car

Chester’s layout means lunch does not need another journey.

If you have spent the morning around the Rows, Cathedral or walls, there are plenty of cafés, pubs and restaurants within walking distance. Chester Market is another easy option, particularly for a group where everyone wants something different.

The Market is close to Northgate Street, Storyhouse and the Cathedral, making it easy to include without reorganising your whole day. Chester’s long association with markets is also worth knowing about if you are interested in the city’s past, with Chester’s market history and heritage stretching back centuries.

Without a car waiting somewhere else, there is no reason lunch has to mark the point where you start retracing your steps. Leave in whichever direction takes you towards the next part of your day.

Head Down to the River Dee

After the busier streets around Eastgate and Northgate, the River Dee gives you a different side of Chester.

Walk towards The Groves, and you can spend some time beside the river, stop for a drink or ice cream, watch the boats or give your feet a rest. It is close enough to the main shopping streets to include easily, yet it can feel pleasantly removed from the busiest parts of the centre.

Grosvenor Park is also nearby and makes a useful stop if you are visiting with children, fancy a picnic or want somewhere to sit for a while. There is no need to treat it as another attraction that must be fitted into the schedule. If the weather is good and you have time, wander through. If not, carry on with your day.

That flexibility is one of the benefits of seeing Chester without a car. A sunny afternoon beside the river can easily become an unplanned extra hour without creating a problem elsewhere.

You might walk back into the centre afterwards. Alternatively, if you have already covered plenty of miles, you can arrange a taxi from nearby and save your legs for the evening.

Go Further Without Taking Your Own Car

Not everything worth visiting is within the historic centre.

Chester Zoo is the obvious example. If you want to combine the city with a few hours at the zoo, a taxi to Chester Zoo lets you make the journey without bringing your own car into the equation.

This can work particularly well for visitors staying in Chester for more than one day. Spend one day exploring the historic centre on foot, then use a taxi for the zoo rather than hiring a car simply for one journey.

The same principle works for accommodation outside the centre, visits to friends and family or anywhere else around Chester and Cheshire that is a little too far to walk comfortably.

You do not need to choose between walking everywhere and driving everywhere. Chester works particularly well when you combine walking where places are close together with taxis for the journeys where they are not.

Make an Evening of It

Leaving the car at home becomes even more useful if your day in Chester is going to continue into the evening.

You can have dinner without somebody having to remain the designated driver, stay for another drink if you fancy one or book tickets for a performance at Storyhouse without thinking about returning to a car park afterwards.

If theatre is part of your plans, getting home after an evening at Storyhouse can be arranged in advance rather than everybody reaching for their phones when the performance finishes.

The same applies to an evening around Northgate Street, Chester Market or elsewhere in the centre. Your taxi home can collect you from somewhere convenient to where the evening actually ends.

There is no final trek across Chester because the car is on the opposite side of town.

Car Free Days Works Well for Groups Too

Leaving the cars at home does not mean everybody needs to arrange separate transport.

Our 8 seater minibus taxis can keep larger families and groups together, which can work particularly well for birthdays, family days out, shopping trips and evenings in Chester.

It removes the usual discussion about who is driving, whose car everyone is taking and where multiple vehicles can be parked close together.

We also provide wheelchair-friendly vehicles. If someone in your group uses a wheelchair, contact us before travelling so we can confirm the wheelchair dimensions and arrange a suitable vehicle.

For local families travelling with our taxis in Chester, local children travel free, which can also make leaving the family car at home a practical option.

Arriving in Chester for a Weekend

The same approach works particularly well for an overnight stay.

If you are coming to Chester by train, you can arrange a taxi from the station to your hotel, leave your luggage and spend most of the weekend walking. A taxi can then fill in any gaps, whether that is getting to an attraction outside the centre, travelling to a restaurant or returning to your accommodation at night.

It also means you are not paying for a car to sit unused for most of the weekend.

For visitors arriving by air, our airport transfers from Chester cover Manchester Airport, Liverpool John Lennon Airport and other airports by arrangement.

You can therefore spend an entire Chester break without hiring a car at all.

For a city where so much of the character is found in historic streets, along the Rows, beside the river and on the City Walls, that is hardly a compromise.

Let the Day Finish Somewhere Different

Perhaps the nicest thing about seeing Chester without driving is that you do not need to plan a circular route.

You might start around Eastgate, wander through the Rows, walk part of the City Walls, stop at the Roman Amphitheatre, continue down towards the River Dee and Grosvenor Park, return through the centre for Chester Market and finish with dinner or a performance at Storyhouse.

Or your day could take a completely different direction.

That is really the point.

You are not trying to squeeze every Chester attraction into a single day. You are giving yourself the freedom to see the places that interest you, stop when something catches your eye and change your plans without wondering how far you have wandered from the car.

When you’re finished, arrange a taxi from wherever you happen to be.

Chester Taxi Services provides taxis around Chester city centre and the surrounding areas, including station journeys, shopping trips, nights out, larger group travel and wheelchair-friendly transport.

You can book by calling 01244 421024, online or through the Chester Taxis app.

Leave the driving to us, keep the comfortable shoes for yourself and spend the day seeing where Chester takes you.

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Things to Do in Chester