Getting around Chester

Virtually equidistant between Manchester Airport and Liverpool John Lennon Airport, getting in and out of Chester couldn’t be easier.

Manchester Airport is 30 miles away and takes around 35 minutes by car or taxi, with direct trains taking around 90 minutes. A main international airport, there are three terminals at Manchester with regular flights to Canada, America, Russia, China and beyond. The airport is well equipped with various restaurants and bars, duty-free offerings and plenty of areas in which to wait and relax.

There are a host of our hotels near Manchester Airport too.

Alternatively, Liverpool John Lennon Airport is half an hour away by road and services nearly five million passengers each year, with main airlines easyJet, Ryanair and TUI Airways flying across the UK, Europe and North Africa. Train journeys involve at least two stops and will take around two hours. Flights to Ireland remain their most popular, with nearly a million passengers making the short trip to Dublin or Belfast, with Barcelona and Amsterdam the next most popular. Our Liverpool John Lennon Airport hotel is about 40 minutes away from Chester via the M56.

Spread over seven platforms, Chester Train Station is a well-connected rail terminal that dates back to the mid-19th century. Offering regular services to Liverpool (40 minutes), London (two hours) and Manchester (60 minutes), the station is located to the east of the cathedral, just outside the city walls. The station offers plenty of parking for bikes (76 stands) and cars (113 spaces) and has several coffee shops and stands, a bar and a magazine and bookshop. Our Chester (Railway Station) hotel is a short distance away along City Road.

There are four park and ride venues in operation around Chester running every 12 minutes between 7am and 7pm Monday–Friday and from 8am on Saturdays. The buses all boast leather seats, free 4G Wi-Fi and air conditioning, and are wheelchair friendly. The Boughton Heath Park and Ride is less than a mile from our Central (South East) hotel.

Most of the main bus operators, including Stagecoach and Arriva, operate around the city. The Stagecoach 1 runs through Liverpool and by Chester Zoo and is a popular route that runs every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday. A PlusBus ticket will let you ride on any service around Chester on just one ticket for a day, and is a great way to get to grips with the city.