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ARSouth West England · Devon
Devon's county town, where the M5 ends its useful life and the roads to Cornwall begin. Two city stations, a cathedral and a very steep hill between them.
Written quotation, usually within the hour
Booked from Exeter for the journeys that bracket a flight or a meeting: an early car to Bristol, a late one back, or a chauffeur held for the day while you move between Exeter Underground Passages, Exeter Cathedral and wherever the diary sends you next. Exeter is in Devon, and A38 governs how the car gets in and out of it. Indicative drive from Exeter to Bristol is 85-125 minutes, about 75 miles. Waiting at Bristol, the meet inside the hall and flight tracking are part of the Exeter transfer rather than extras bolted on afterwards. No standing price list is published; the figure is confirmed on a written quotation for your own Exeter booking.
Exeter, South West England
Devon, England
Bristol
85-125 minutes
EX1, EX2, EX4, EX5 and EX6
A38, A377 and A376
Exeter St Thomas and Digby and Sowton
Exmouth and Newton Abbot
01Opening on Exeter
Exeter is the hinge of the West Country. The M5 finishes just south of the city, the A30 and A38 split there for Cornwall and Plymouth, and anything travelling further west stops being a motorway journey and becomes something slower. Understanding that changes how a long day is planned.
In the city itself the useful detail is the two stations. St Davids sits low by the river on Bonhay Road; Central is up the hill on Queen Street in the middle of town. They are twenty minutes apart on foot and the walk between them is properly steep, which surprises a good many arriving passengers.
02The essentials
03The area
A Roman wall, a cathedral close, and a high street that climbs from the river. The centre is part-pedestrianised with bus gates on the main route, so cars work around it. Steep streets connect the levels. The M5, A30 and A38 form a fast ring to the east and south, and the university's Streatham campus north of the centre is on a hill that is hard work in any vehicle.
04Demand
The Met Office headquarters and the technology and science businesses around it bring visitors from around the world. The university and the hospital both generate constant travel. Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park fill the eastern approaches on matchdays. And a great deal of our work is the long westward run: Exeter to Cornwall, or Exeter as the last civilised stop before it.
05Road time
The A377 and Cowley Bridge approach slow from 08:00 and the Exe Bridges are the pinch in both peaks. Sandy Park matchdays fill M5 junction 30 and the A379. For Bristol Airport allow an hour and a half; for Heathrow, three hours, and a morning flight from there means leaving Exeter in the small hours. Exeter Airport is fifteen minutes east on the A30.
06The kerb
St Davids has a set-down on the station approach and a car park; Central has a much smaller forecourt on Queen Street. Bus gates on the high street mean a car cannot cross the middle of the city, so we collect from the Cathedral Yard end or from a car park entrance. The Met Office and the business park sites have proper visitor entrances.
07Included as standard
The same person drives you out of Exeter to Bristol and, on a return booking, meets the flight. By the second journey they already know which side of Exeter Underground Passages you would rather be dropped on.
The return leg into Exeter follows the same rule in reverse. Whatever left Exeter plus whatever was bought has to fit, so if the way home is heavier than the way out, put it on the booking.
The point of tracking is that the chauffeur's start time in Exeter is ours to move and not yours. You do not message us from the aisle, and no Exeter booking is charged for the hour the airline lost before it ever reached Bristol.
A meet is a person inside Bristol, holding a board with your name on it and a car pointed at Exeter. Not a pin on a map and not a call from the roadside on A38. The distinction sounds small until you are the one at Bristol with three cases, a dead phone and a Exeter address to reach.
Short stops on the way out of Exeter are worth mentioning when you enquire: a pharmacy, a school gate, ten minutes at Met Office to collect something. They cost nothing to plan into a Exeter booking and time to improvise.
The written figure covers the drive out of Exeter, the waiting at Bristol and the meet inside the hall. What it does not cover is listed as plainly as the drive out of Exeter and the Bristol waiting that it does.
08Terminals
| Airport | Indicative drive | Distance | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol | 85-125 minutes | 75 miles | Waiting from touchdown at Bristol is part of the Exeter transfer, not an extra line. |
| Cardiff | 120-170 minutes | 110 miles | Name board inside Cardiff arrivals, the parking paid, and Exeter an indicative 120-170 minutes away. |
| Southampton | 120-175 minutes | 110 miles | 120-175 minutes is the mid-morning figure. A Friday afternoon out of Exeter is not that. |
| Heathrow | 175-250 minutes | 165 miles | Cases go from the Exeter kerb to the trolley at Heathrow without you lifting one. |
Waiting from touchdown at Bristol is part of the Exeter transfer, not an extra line.
Name board inside Cardiff arrivals, the parking paid, and Exeter an indicative 120-170 minutes away.
120-175 minutes is the mid-morning figure. A Friday afternoon out of Exeter is not that.
Cases go from the Exeter kerb to the trolley at Heathrow without you lifting one.
The same runs are quoted from Exmouth and Newton Abbot, adjusted for the extra distance rather than reused unchanged.
09In detail
LF-01Hourly hire, Exeter to Exmouth
Hourly hire in Exeter is quoted per vehicle with the minimum stated up front. What the written quotation adds for a Exeter day is the start address, the expected finish and what happens if it overruns.
An evening that begins at Sandy Park and ends somewhere nobody has decided yet is an ordinary booking rather than a difficult one. That is more or less the whole reason for holding a car in Exeter.
LF-02Being met when you land at Bristol
Landing at Bristol after a long flight, with Exeter still to come, is the point at which most ground arrangements fall over. A Exeter return is built for it. The chauffeur is inside arrivals, the car is close, and the drive back into Exeter starts within a few minutes of you clearing customs.
The car leaves Bristol by whichever exit is moving, which is not always the one the signs suggest, and comes into Exeter on A377. You will be at your Exeter door within the time the confirmation gave you.
LF-03Departures from Exeter, and what time to be ready
A pre-dawn departure out of Exeter is easier to plan than a nine o'clock one. A38 is empty, the drive sits close to its lower bound, and the only variable left is how long you take to reach the car.
Where somebody is staying behind, the car carries on afterwards: back into Exeter, on to Newton Abbot, or held for a later collection. It remains one Exeter booking and one price either way.
10The cars
Cabin MPV
First Saloon
Suite
Those two airport columns describe the London runs the card is built on, not the run out of Exeter. For Exeter the relevant number is the drive to Bristol, and we price it directly.
11Longer bookings
LF-04The kerb outside your Exeter door
The chauffeur reaches Exeter with a margin, parks, and then does nothing at all. That waiting on a Exeter street is deliberate. It is what turns a time printed on a confirmation into a car genuinely standing in Exeter when the door opens.
Loading at the Exeter kerb is the chauffeur's job. So is holding the door, which sounds like theatre until you are doing it yourself in rain on A38 with a laptop bag under one arm. Once you are in, the car leaves Exeter on the route that suits the hour rather than the shortest one.
LF-05Cabin, saloon, SUV or MPV in Exeter
Most of the time the right answer for Exeter is one class below where people start looking. That is worth knowing before you read the card for a run off A38.
Child seats, extra luggage, skis and golf bags all change the answer for a Exeter booking. Tell us what is going in the boot when you enquire from Exeter and we will name the class that takes it rather than the one that nearly does.
12Local reference
EX1 · EX2 · EX4 · EX5 · EX6
13Practicalities
LF-06When Exeter arrives by rail
A collection at Exeter St Thomas has a small choreography to it: the right entrance, the right side of the barrier, and a chauffeur standing on the concourse rather than sending a map pin and hoping.
Pick-ups at Exeter St Thomas are quoted like any other journey, with the train number on the booking so the chauffeur can watch it. If you miss the train and take the next one into Exeter St Thomas, tell us and the car simply waits.
LF-07Getting a price for a Exeter run
We would rather have too much detail than too little about Exeter. One sentence about where you will actually be standing in Exeter saves more time on the day than anything else you could tell us.
Very early and very late Exeter bookings go through the same process with more margin built in. A car leaving Exeter before dawn is confirmed in writing exactly like one leaving at noon.
14Services
15What it costs
By the block
The car held for you between stops, with a minimum block named on the quotation.
Quoted per journey
Priced against the drive from Exeter, not against a zone map. Searching for a chauffeur service near me in Exeter? This is that local service, quoted in writing before you travel.
By the route
One car and one chauffeur from Exeter to the far end of the run.
No standing price list. Send the journey on WhatsApp and the written quotation confirms the price, what it includes and any applicable tax. The pricing page sets out what moves a figure, and one message on WhatsApp fixes it for your journey.
16Nearby coverage
Exeter sits in South West England. Every South West England area we cover is listed on one page, and the full coverage index runs to every town and district on the list.
17Answers
It depends on your train, and they are not interchangeable. St Davids is the main one, down by the river on Bonhay Road, and most long-distance services call there. Central is up the hill on Queen Street, right in the middle of town. The walk between them is twenty minutes uphill, which nobody enjoys with luggage.
Around three hours for a hundred and sixty-five miles on the M5 and M4, and more in the morning. For a flight before ten that means leaving between one and three in the morning. It is a genuinely long ground leg, and for many itineraries the sensible answer is Exeter Airport or Bristol instead.
Frequently, and it is where the distances start to bite. Plymouth is an hour and a quarter, Truro two and a half hours, Penzance closer to three and a half. The A30 is dual carriageway for much of the way now, which helps, but a Cornish day out of Exeter is a full day and we plan it as one.
Both. The Met Office and the surrounding business park sites have proper visitor entrances where a car can wait briefly. The university's Streatham campus is on a steep hill with several entrances, so we need the building or hall name; the difference between the top and the bottom of that site is a long walk.
FCReservations
Message us the date, the pick-up and where you are going. You will get a fixed written quotation with the vehicle, the chauffeur’s arrival time and what the figure includes — no form to fill in, and no estimate that moves later.