Is it worth driving to London for a family visit?
Your parents want to visit for a week. They live outside London and plan to drive. Should they bring the car—or leave it at an airport car park and take the train in?
The answer depends on where you live and whether they'll actually need the car once they arrive. But the costs have changed dramatically. A decade ago, the main expense was petrol and maybe a parking fine if you forgot a permit. Today, visitors face a stack of charges and unecessary administrative burden: visitor parking permits, the Congestion Charge (£15/day), and ULEZ (£12.50/day for older vehicles). Add them up and a five-day visit can cost anywhere from £3 to £175—depending entirely on which borough you're in and what car they drive.
This article breaks down the real cost of driving to London for a family visit. We priced visitor parking across all 33 boroughs, factored in the other charges, and asked: when does it make sense to bring the car?
- Outer boroughs, low CPZ coverage (Sutton, Richmond, Barnet): Usually worth driving. Low permit costs, often outside charge zones, and you might find free street parking.
- Inner boroughs, high CPZ coverage (Camden, Islington, Hammersmith): Consider leaving the car. Permits + Congestion Charge + ULEZ can exceed £150, and almost every street requires a permit.
- Central London (Westminster, City): Almost never worth it. No visitor scheme, £15/day Congestion Charge, expensive pay-and-display.
The borough lottery: permit cost vs. booking hassle
Before we add up the full cost, let's look at just the visitor parking permits. The chart maps every borough on two axes: how much a five-day permit costs (horizontal) and how easy the booking process is (vertical, 0–10 scale).
Log scale on x-axis. Shape indicates booking system. Hover for details.
The full picture: permits + Congestion Charge + ULEZ
Visitor parking is just one piece. For a five-day visit to inner London, the costs stack up:
| Charge | Cost (5-day visit, 3 driving days) | Who pays? |
|---|---|---|
| Visitor parking permit | £3 – £92 | Everyone in a CPZ |
| Congestion Charge | £45 (£15 × 3 trips) | Anyone driving into the zone (7am–6pm Mon–Fri, 12pm–6pm Sat–Sun) |
| ULEZ | £37.50 (£12.50 × 3 trips) | Non-compliant vehicles (pre-2015 petrol, pre-2016 diesel) |
| Total (inner, worst case) | £175 | Hammersmith + Congestion Charge + ULEZ |
| Total (outer, best case) | £3 | Sutton, compliant car, outside Congestion Charge zone |
Compared to 10 years ago: In 2016, the Congestion Charge was £11.50 (not £15), ULEZ didn't exist, and most visitor permits cost under £10 for a week. A five-day visit that now costs £150+ would have been under £30.
Visitor permit costs by borough
Source: Council websites, February 2026. Typical petrol vehicle. See methodology.
The booking hassle: why some councils are painful
Cost is one thing. The other is: how much admin does your relative dump on you? We scored each borough on whether you can book multiple days at once, save vehicles, and use a mobile app.
Score based on portal testing. RingGo boroughs have a native app. Taranto boroughs require per-day form submissions.
Some systems (notably Taranto) are not mobile-friendly and require a separate form submission for each day. In boroughs with short CPZ windows—2 hours in some zones—this creates an absurd administrative burden: five form submissions for ten hours of parking. Older relatives won't navigate these systems—which means you will.
The alternatives: other ways to park
If visitor permits are expensive or the booking hassle isn't worth it, consider these options:
Rent a private driveway
Apps like JustPark and YourParkingSpace let you rent driveways and private parking spaces directly from homeowners:
- Residential areas: £5–15/day (often cheaper than permits in expensive boroughs)
- Central London: £15–25/day
- Weekly deals: Often available at a discount
Pros: Guaranteed space, avoids permit admin, often cheaper than permits + Congestion Charge combined. Cons: Check reviews for security (some driveways are more exposed than others), may not be walkable from your home, availability varies by area.
Leave the car outside the zone
- Airport long-stay: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted offer Park & Ride from ~£40–60/week. Park, take the express train in.
- Suburban station car parks: Park at an outer Zone 4-6 station (often free on weekends), take the Tube.
- Leave it at home: If your visitors can get a direct train, that's often simplest.
The calculation: If permits + Congestion Charge + ULEZ exceeds ~£100 for 5 days, the train or private parking is probably cheaper and less hassle.
How much of London actually needs permits?
Not everywhere requires a visitor permit. In outer boroughs, CPZ coverage can be under 20%—your visitors might park on an unrestricted street. In inner London, almost every street is controlled.
Source: Healthy Streets Scorecard 2024. Inner London averages 81% CPZ coverage, outer London just 24%.
Four boroughs have 100% coverage: Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Camden, and City of London. If you live there, your visitors will need a permit.
The match day trap
Planning a visit near a football stadium? Match days can triple your parking costs—even if you're not going to the game.
| Stadium | Borough | Match Day Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Arsenal (Emirates) | Islington | Visitor permits jump from £1.50/hr to £4.55/hr (3× more). Plus fuel surcharges. Paper vouchers don't work—e-vouchers only. |
| Tottenham | Haringey / Enfield | Event Day CPZ activates across both boroughs. Road closures 2-3 hours before kick-off. Visitors must arrive before closures start. |
| Chelsea (Stamford Bridge) | Hammersmith & Fulham | Zones F and S enforce 8:30am-10pm, 7 days a week—even without a match. 2-hour max stay for non-resident visitors. Fulham Road closes pre/post match. |
| West Ham (London Stadium) | Newham | RPZ hours extend to 8am-9pm on event days. Roads around Olympic Park close. Very limited street parking. |
The lesson: Check the fixture list before visiting. A midweek evening game can turn a cheap parking day into an expensive one—or make parking impossible altogether.
The Christmas exception
Good news if your family visits over the holidays: most councils suspend CPZ enforcement on bank holidays, including Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day. Visitor permits are typically not required on these days. However, rules vary by borough—some (like Hammersmith's central zones) still enforce on Boxing Day. Always check the signs and your council's holiday parking page before assuming it's free.
The utility works wildcard
Even in areas with ample parking, roadworks can change the equation overnight. Thames Water, gas companies, and other utilities regularly suspend parking bays for weeks at a time—often with minimal notice. If your visitors arrive to find half the street coned off, the permit you bought becomes less useful. In CPZ-heavy areas with narrow streets, one set of roadworks can eliminate parking for an entire block. Worth checking before a visit.
The Bottom Line
Should your visitors drive to London? It depends on three things: the borough's permit cost, how much of the borough is controlled parking (CPZ coverage), and whether they'll enter the Congestion Charge zone.
- Outer borough, low CPZ coverage (<30%), compliant car: Yes, drive. Permits are cheap (£3–15), and there's a good chance of finding unrestricted parking anyway.
- Inner borough, high CPZ coverage, inside Congestion Charge zone: Do the maths. If permits + Congestion Charge + ULEZ > £100, consider the train, a private driveway, or airport parking.
- Central London (Westminster, City): Almost never worth it. No visitor scheme, every street controlled, £15/day Congestion Charge. Leave the car somewhere else.
Ten years ago, this calculation was simple. Today, London has made driving expensive enough that you need a spreadsheet to decide.
What we're building
For the boroughs with the worst booking systems, we built a tool that lets you book a week of visitor parking in one go—instead of filling out the same form five times. If you're managing recurring visitors (family who visit often, regular carers), it saves hours of admin.
Methodology & Data Sources
Dataset: 33 London boroughs, February 2026.
Visitor permit prices: Collected from official council websites. Where boroughs have no visitor scheme (Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea), we use pay-and-display rates. For emissions-based boroughs (Hammersmith, Camden, Lambeth), we use typical petrol vehicle rates.
Other charges: Congestion Charge £15/day (TfL). ULEZ £12.50/day for non-compliant vehicles (TfL).
Historical comparison: 2016 figures from archived council websites and TfL historical data. Congestion Charge was £11.50 in 2016; ULEZ launched in 2019.
Ease of booking score (0–10): Multi-day booking (4pts), saved vehicles (3pts), mobile app quality (2pts), general UX (1pt). Scored via direct portal and app testing. RingGo and PayByPhone both scored 10/10 (native apps with full features). MiPermit scored 7/10 (native app but mixed reviews for reliability). NSL scored 5/10 (mobile-friendly web, variable by council). PaySmarti scored 4/10 (web-only, not mobile-optimised). Taranto scored 2/10 (no multi-day, no saved vehicles, requires per-day form submission).
Private parking: Prices from JustPark and YourParkingSpace (February 2026).
Sources: Healthy Streets Scorecard (CPZ coverage) · TfL Congestion Charge · TfL ULEZ · London CPZ map (Felt)
Corrections: Spot an error? Let us know.
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