The Chelsea Flower Show, and the streets around the Royal Hospital

Chelsea Embankment and Royal Hospital Road do not relax their restrictions because there is an event on. If anything the enforcement is firmer, because the pavements are full and the traffic needs to keep moving.

So the car does not wait, and any driver who tells you otherwise is planning to collect a penalty. Set down, clear the area, return on call: it is the same discipline as Wimbledon, applied to a considerably more central postcode.

On the final afternoon the exhibitors sell their plants, and a great many visitors leave with more than they intended to carry. Trees in pots, trays of perennials, a shrub that seemed reasonable at the time.

A saloon boot holds a surprising amount if the plants are packed properly and the driver has thought about it. An MPV holds considerably more with the rear seats folded, and for anyone attending on the last day with intent, that is the vehicle to book.

The early days of the week are for RHS members and are noticeably quieter, both inside the show and on the roads outside it. The public days at the end are busier in every respect, and the difference in the surrounding streets is real.

Guests with a choice of day generally have a better time earlier in the week, and the car gets closer. It is the same pattern as every event on this site: the quiet day is the one where the ground logistics disappear.

Chelsea is surrounded by places to eat, and a great many visits turn into a longer day with lunch in Sloane Square or dinner afterwards. Because the car is already booked by the hour, adding that costs nothing beyond the time.

It also solves a small practical problem. Nobody wants to carry a tray of plants into a restaurant, and the boot is a considerably better place for them than a cloakroom.

A large share of Chelsea visitors travel in for the day from Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex and the Cotswolds, and for them the journey is a long drive followed by the hardest three hundred yards in London.

Being driven in removes the part that people find genuinely stressful, which is not the motorway but the arrival. From Guildford, Oxford or Tunbridge Wells the run in is an hour to ninety minutes, and the difference is entirely at the Chelsea end.

The show is a great deal of walking on temporary surfaces, and for anyone who finds that difficult, where the car stops matters more than usual. A drop as close to the correct gate as the restrictions allow can be the difference between a good day and an exhausting one.

Tell us at the booking stage if that applies. We will plan the set-down and the collection around it, and choose a vehicle that is easy to get into and out of rather than the one that looks best on the street.