Choosing a Leeds Castle Tour: Coach Day, Private Car or Going Alone

There are three genuinely different ways into Leeds Castle and the gap between them is much wider than the gap between operators. This sets every captured fare against the four things that actually decide it: how long you get at the castle, whether admission is in the price, how big the group is, and where the day starts.

Three ways into Leeds Castle, and what separates them

Every fare for Leeds Castle falls into one of three shapes, and the differences between them are much larger than the differences within them.

A coach day from London leaves Victoria between 8:15 and 8:30 in the morning, runs ten or eleven hours, includes castle admission in the fare, and treats Leeds Castle as one stop of three or four. A private car is priced for the vehicle or on a sliding per-person scale, collects you from an address, lets you move the order of the day, and includes no admission at all. The castle's own ticket gets you through the gate, leaves the transport entirely to you, and stays valid for twelve months rather than a day.

Pick the shape first. The choice within each shape is comparatively minor.

How much time do you actually get at the castle?

This is the number that decides most bookings and the one nobody puts in a headline.

• 90 minutes — every Evan Evans and Premium Tours coach day. Enough for the castle building and the nearest gardens.
• 2 hours — all three private cars. Enough to add the maze or a falconry display.
• 3 hours — the two-castle day with Hever. The building, the maze and a walk round the Great Water.
• 3 to 5 hours — the castle's own ticket, or as long as you like inside the opening hours.

One captured listing, the Golden Tours day, gives no duration at the castle in its own itinerary at all, so no figure is quoted for it here. What it does state is early entry before the general gates open, which is a different kind of advantage.

Does the price include getting in?

Most do, and the split is not where you would guess. Every coach day includes castle admission. Not one of the private cars does — you are buying the vehicle and the driving, and the tickets are yours.

On a private day for two, that is another £69 to £91 on top of a four-figure fare. On a private day for seven it barely registers. Buy the tickets online rather than at the gate and you save £4.00 a head; every band is on Leeds Castle ticket prices.

Every Leeds Castle tour, side by side

What does a coach day really cost per hour at the castle?

Do the arithmetic before you assume the cheap fare is the cheap day. A coach day at From $130 buys ninety minutes at Leeds Castle, plus Canterbury Cathedral and a stop below the White Cliffs. That is about $87 per hour at the castle — but you are not only buying castle hours, you are buying two more landmarks and the transport between them.

The castle's own ticket at From $59 buys five hours if you want them, which is about $12 an hour, plus a year of return visits. What it does not buy is a way of getting to Maidstone.

So the question is not which is cheaper. It is whether you want three Kent landmarks in a day, or one done properly.

When is a private car worth four figures?

At four travellers and above, on the per-group fares. The Tailored Tours day is priced for the vehicle up to seven people: at two it is roughly four times a coach seat, at five it undercuts one, and at seven it is the cheapest per head of anything here.

The Visit London day is priced differently — per person, on a sliding scale, with an additional charge listed for each extra traveller — and covers three ticketed sites including Dover Castle, which no coach day enters. Unique Tours quotes for a six-seat vehicle and lists a fifteen-seat grade for larger parties, with a separate driver and guide rather than one person doing both.

Can you just buy the ticket and drive?

Yes, and for a good number of visitors that is the answer. Junction 8 of the M20, sat nav ME17 1RG rather than the postal ME17 1PL, parking included in the ticket, about an hour from London. By train it is Bearsted or Hollingbourne, 70 to 75 minutes from London Victoria, then a five-minute taxi. Arrive by train, bus or bike with a valid ticket and the castle takes 20% off admission.

The full comparison, with the numbers added up, is in Leeds Castle without a tour.

Which tours stop at Canterbury, and which only pass Dover?

Almost all of them include Canterbury. On several the cathedral entry is a grade you select rather than something the base fare covers, so read what you are buying. The difference is standing outside the building or taking a guided tour of the nave.

Dover is the one to watch. Two Evan Evans days list Dover Castle in the itinerary as a pass-by with no stop — the coach drives past it on the coast road. Only the Visit London private day actually stops there, for two hours, with admission excluded. The White Cliffs stop on the coach days is twenty minutes at shore level rather than a clifftop walk, and it is the single most common source of disappointment in the reviews.

How big is the group going to be?

Coach capacities are published and they are large: 50, 52 and 53 travellers on the Premium Tours, Golden Tours and Evan Evans days. The two-castle day caps at 29. Private vehicles run to seven, eight or fifteen depending on the grade.

None of the coaches describes itself as a small group, and none of them claims to be. What you get on a full coach is a guide with a microphone and headsets at every seat, which works better than it sounds — the reviews that praise these days almost all name the guide.

What happens if it rains?

The coach days run regardless; the castle building, the Dog Collar Museum and the Gloriette are all indoors. What changes is the value: 500 acres of parkland in the rain is a smaller proposition than it is in June. The castle's own ticket handles this better than any guided day, because it is valid for twelve months and a washed-out afternoon becomes the first half of a year.

Month-by-month detail, with Met Office averages, is on the weather page.

Who should not book a guided day at all?

Three kinds of visitor.

• Anyone whose reason for going is Leeds Castle itself. Ninety minutes will not reach the maze, the falconry ground or the playgrounds, and no coach on this list gives more than three hours.
• Families with young children. Ten hours on a coach with ninety minutes of castle in the middle is the wrong shape; the estate on its own terms is the right one. The reasoning is in Leeds Castle with kids.
• Couples considering a private car. At two travellers the per-head cost is roughly four times a coach seat, and the fare excludes admission the coach includes.

How far ahead should you book?

For a summer coach day, several days at least — June to August is when these sell out, and two of the captured listings are flagged as likely to sell out. Every one of them refunds in full up to 24 hours before departure, so an early booking costs nothing in flexibility.

For the castle alone there is no timed entry, so a Leeds Castle booking is a price decision rather than a slot decision: the online fare is lower than the gate fare, and that is the whole reason to buy ahead.

The short version

Leeds Castle is the day → buy the ticket and take the train. One day for Kent → take the Evan Evans coach. Four or more of you who want the timings → take a private car and buy the tickets separately. Everything else is a detail, and a Leeds Castle private tour booked on the wrong one of those three is the only real mistake available here.

Frequently asked questions

Choose the shape before the operator, and the rest of the decision makes itself. Leeds Castle Tours keeps every fare in one place.