Chauffeur Services in Tonbridge

Dualling has come to the A21 in stages as far as Pembury, which has made the run south a great deal better, yet the northern stretch up to junction five of the M25 still queues in both peaks. Block it and the alternatives through Hildenborough and along the B2027 prove narrow and slow. After long rain, flooding on the Medway can also shut the lower roads around Haysden and the Cannon Lane approaches, which is worth mentioning when you book a winter journey.

Through the summer, weekends fill the hop country west of town, with Penshurst Place, Hever Castle and the vineyards drawing steady traffic onto lanes never widened to take it. Events at the castle and on the river close roads around the High Street and the Sportsground. Ahead of a morning departure from Gatwick, we would ordinarily suggest leaving Tonbridge about three hours before, and a little more when the M25 is the chosen route.

On a long journey, Britain's weather does more damage than its traffic ever will. Winter afternoons close in early, and that matters a great deal when the final leg is a single-track road. Highland and moorland routes can run substantially longer than any summer estimate suggests. Those allowances go into the timings from the start, rather than being discovered together halfway up a glen. Where a departure hour makes the schedule uncomfortable, we propose a better one.

Demand tracks the calendar closely. Bank holiday weekends fill fast, so do the weeks either side of Christmas, the summer wedding season and those university terms that all begin and end together. The further from London a journey runs, the sooner a car wants committing to it. Midweek travel in the shoulder months, by contrast, is the easiest thing in the world to arrange.