Call020 4520 0094 Emailinfo@dartfordminibushire.co.uk Quote within the hour

Minibus & coach hire · Dartford DA1, DA2 · Kent

Minibus hire in Dartford, drawn as a map because that is how the job works

Everything about a Dartford booking comes down to which way you cross the river and which lane you are in when you do. Sixteen to seventy seats, with a driver, quoted within the hour.

Schematic map of Dartford and the Dartford Crossing A diagram showing the River Thames across the top, the two Dartford Crossing tunnels northbound with height limits of 4.8 metres and 5.03 metres, the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge southbound, and the A282, A2 and M25 around Dartford town centre. Bluewater is 5 kilometres west, Ebbsfleet 7 kilometres east, Bexley 6 kilometres west, Lullingstone Castle 10 kilometres south and Cobham Hall 15 kilometres east. All of this information is repeated in the text below. River Thames Tunnels · northbound west bore 4.80 m east bore 5.03 m QEII Bridge southbound shuts in high wind A282 / M25 A2 A2 Junction 1a last exit if over 5.03 m Dartford DA1 · DA2 Bexley 6 km Bluewater 5 km · DA9 Ebbsfleet 7 km Lullingstone 10 km · coach gate DA4 0HX Cobham Hall 15 km
Trunk road Tunnel Bridge Local road

A schematic, not a survey — distances are straight-line and rounded. Every figure on it is repeated in words further down this page.

Get a price

A few plain questions. Quote within the hour, no obligation.

Your journey and how to reach you
A street, a school, a station — whatever the group knows it by.
Is it a return trip, or one way?
When do you need it?
And coming back?
How should we reach you? Either is fine — we only need one.
  • Our tallest vehicle is 4.4 m. That clears both Dartford tunnels, so we are never the coach turned back at Junction 1a.
  • Dartford is in Kent, outside the London LEZ and ULEZ. Your trip into London is not.
  • DBS-checked drivers for school and youth groups, seatbelts throughout, risk assessments on request.
Talk to a person 020 4520 0094
The bit the map is really about

The Dartford Crossing decides your journey

Northbound, out of Kent, you go under the river through one of two tunnels. Southbound, into Kent, you go over it on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. They are not interchangeable, and the tunnels are not interchangeable with each other either.

Two tunnels, two different height limits

  • The west bore takes vehicles up to 4.8 m — 15 feet 9 inches.
  • The east bore takes vehicles up to 5.03 m — 16 feet 6 inches.

A vehicle of 4.8 m or less can approach in any lane. Anything taller than 4.8 m has to be in the two right-hand lanes after Junction 1a to use the east bore. Anything over 5.03 m fits in neither and must leave the road at Junction 1a altogether. The QEII Bridge, going the other way, has no height limit at all — it is the wind that closes it, not the roof of your vehicle.

Our tallest vehicle — a 70-seat double-decker — stands about 4.4 metres, and a 49–53 seat coach only about 3.9. Both are comfortably inside both bores, so a coach of ours is never the vehicle sitting on the hard shoulder at Junction 1a wondering what to do. It matters more than it sounds: an over-height lorry striking a tunnel closes the Crossing, and a closed Crossing rearranges everybody’s day.

When the bridge shuts, everything changes

The QEII Bridge closes in high winds. When it does, southbound traffic is put through the tunnels alongside the northbound flow, and a height restriction comes in — vehicles over 4.8 m are sent the long way round the M25 instead. If the forecast is rough on the day of your trip we will tell you, and we will build the extra time in rather than discover it at the barrier.

There is also the charge. Dart Charge replaced the booths and barriers with an online scheme, so nobody stops to pay any more — but somebody still has to pay. On our jobs that is us. It is in the quote, and you will not get a penalty notice three weeks later because a driver forgot.

What people hire us for

Groups coming to Dartford, and groups leaving it

01

Bluewater

Five kilometres west at Greenhithe, and the single most common Dartford booking. Undercover, level, and built to take groups arriving together.

02

School trips

DBS-checked drivers and seatbelts throughout. Lullingstone Castle, the Roman villa next door and the Kent Downs are all inside half an hour of the school gate.

03

Airport transfers

Gatwick round the M25 anticlockwise, Stansted and Luton clockwise over the bridge, City and Heathrow through London. Luggage space for the whole group rather than a car boot each.

04

Ebbsfleet and the Continent

Ebbsfleet International is seven kilometres east. A minibus to the terminal beats six taxis and a fight over who is paying for the parking.

05

Nights out and theatre

Into central London in under an hour on a clear road. One drop-off, one late pick-up, nobody driving back through the tunnel at midnight.

06

Weddings & funerals

Guest shuttles between church, reception and hotel, so nobody drives. Handled quietly and on time when it matters most.

Things to do

What’s actually in and around Dartford

Bluewater is the anchor, in a chalk quarry at Greenhithe with its own coach parking. Dartford Borough Museum is a hundred and fifty metres from the town centre. Beyond that, the pull is southward into the Darent valley and the Kent Downs, which start almost immediately once you clear the A2.

Do not book a theatre trip to the Orchard without checking the date

The Orchard Theatre has been closed since September 2023, after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete — RAAC — was found in its roof. Dartford Borough Council approved up to £11.6 million in January 2026 to finish the works, and the building is due to be handed to Trafalgar Theatres at the end of November 2026 for a December reopening. A temporary venue, Orchard West, has carried the programme in the meantime, funded to September 2026.

We mention it because it is the sort of thing a coach page normally lists as an attraction and quietly gets wrong.

Dartford Borough Council and Trafalgar Entertainment · checked 28 August 2026
Bluewater · 5 km · DA9 Dartford Borough Museum · DA1 1EU Lullingstone Castle · 10 km Cobham Hall · 15 km · DA12 3BL Ebbsfleet International · 7 km Dartford Heath · open common
The local day out

Lullingstone Castle, and the gate only coaches may use

Ten kilometres south in the Darent valley. It is the best-documented venue on this page for a coach, and it is worth reading the detail because getting it wrong means a 12-metre vehicle on a private lane.

The coach entrance is not the car entrance

“The entrance to Lullingstone’s coach park is via the (A225) Shoreham Road, less than 10 minutes from the M25 (Junction 3 exit for Swanley - A20 not M20).”lullingstonecastle.co.uk · checked 19 August 2026

Coach navigation postcode DA4 0HX — not the general DA4 0JA

And it is open to nobody else

“ENTRANCE IS ONLY OPEN for GROUP COACH VISITS ONLY”lullingstonecastle.co.uk · checked 19 August 2026

Cars and pedestrians are sent a different way entirely, along a narrow private road that the castle explicitly tells coaches not to use.

Reserve the space, not just the tickets

“please call ahead to reserve parking for your coach”lullingstonecastle.co.uk · checked 19 August 2026

We do this as part of the booking rather than leaving it to the day.

Watch the ticket small print

“RHS Members… NOT VALID on events days or Bank Holiday weekends (Friday to Bank Holiday Monday) or pre-booked group/coach visits.”lullingstonecastle.co.uk · checked 19 August 2026

If half your party is counting on RHS membership, it will not apply on a coach booking.

The bit nobody publishes

12 roads and two car parks near Dartford, and the five that stop a full coach

“A coach” is not one height. A 16-seat minibus stands about 2.8 m. A 49–53 seat single-deck coach stands about 3.9 m — Mercedes-Benz lists the Tourismo, the commonest 49–53 seater on British roads, at 3.68 m with its roof air conditioning, and a 53-seat MAN Lion’s Coach is 3.87 m. Only the 70-seat double-decker needs 4.4 m, and that is the figure most published lists wrongly give for everything. Against those three numbers: five of the twelve roads stop a full coach, nine stop the double-decker, one road and both car parks stop even a minibus.

Signed height limits on roads and car parks near Dartford, in metres and imperial, with the effect on a 2.8 metre minibus, a 3.9 metre coach and a 4.4 metre double-decker
Road or car parkLimitImperialEffect
Peep-bo Alley (tunnel)2.00 m6′6″Even a minibus
Highfield Road car park (south)2.10 m6′10″Even a minibus
Victoria Road car park2.60 m8′6″Even a minibus
Manor Way2.80 m9′2″Level with a minibus roof — no coach
Wharf Road (tunnel)3.20 m10′5″Minibus only — no coach
Priory Road3.30 m10′9″Minibus only — no coach
Maiden Lane3.40 m11′1″Minibus only — no coach
Eversley Cross3.90 m12′9″Coach level with the sign — no decker
Old Manor Way3.90 m12′9″Coach level with the sign — no decker
Overy Street4.04 m13′3″Coach by 14 cm — no decker
Craylands Lane (tunnel)4.10 m13′5″Coach by 20 cm — no decker
St Clements Way4.50 m14′9″Coach clears — decker tight
Station Road4.50 m14′9″Coach clears — decker tight
Bexley High Street4.50 m14′9″Coach clears — decker tight

Road heights from OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. A thirteenth entry in the data carried no usable street name, so it is not listed rather than guessed at. Vehicle heights are typical for the class, not a promise about one vehicle — we check the actual roof height against the actual route before the day, which is why anything inside about twenty centimetres is written here as a warning rather than a pass. Signed limits change, and a driver should always trust the sign over any list, including this one.

Before you compare quotes

Dartford is outside the LEZ and the ULEZ. Most Dartford trips are not.

Dartford is in Kent, not Greater London, so neither the Low Emission Zone nor the Ultra Low Emission Zone applies to a job that starts and ends here. Bluewater, Ebbsfleet, Lullingstone and the Kent Downs are all outside as well.

Cross the boundary — which is about six kilometres west, at Bexley — and both zones apply for the whole journey:

  • Coaches over 5 tonnes fall under the Low Emission Zone.
  • Minibuses under 5 tonnes fall under the Ultra Low Emission Zone.

Our vehicles are compliant either way, so nothing is passed on in either direction. Dartford is a place where this is worth asking about: plenty of operators here work almost entirely in Kent and their vehicles have never needed to be compliant, which is fine right up until your group wants to go into London.

Charges and boundaries are set by TfL and change. The Dart Charge is separate and is set by National Highways. We confirm both for your vehicle when we quote.

Further afield

Where Dartford groups go by coach

Four where the venue publishes its own coach arrangements. Their words, with the date we checked:

Tropical Butterfly House

234 km · South Yorkshire

“We offer discounted admission for groups of fifteen or more full paying visitors, with free coach parking and free admission and refreshments for the driver.”checked 19 Aug 2026

Bryngarw Country Park

263 km · Bridgend

“A single access road runs from the main gates to the visitor car park, which can accommodate 120 cars and three coaches.”checked 19 Aug 2026

Three coach spaces. Worth booking early if you are one of several groups.

Oceanarium

173 km · Bournemouth

“Coaches can drop off their passengers in the turning area behind the Oceanarium, next to the BIC, just a minute walk from the Oceanarium.”checked 18 Aug 2026

Hadleigh Castle

29 km · Essex

“English Heritage says there is no car park; on-street parking is available on Castle Lane about 200m away.”checked 20 Aug 2026

And then a steep, undulating earth footpath with no facilities at the end of it. A good day out, but not one to promise an older group without warning them first.

Also popular from Dartford

British Wildlife Centre35 km · Surrey
de Havilland Aircraft Museum45 km · Hertfordshire
Russell-Cotes Gallery167 km · Bournemouth
Littledean Jail191 km · Gloucestershire
Alton Towers224 km · Staffordshire
Torquay’s Crime Museum284 km · Torbay
Grimspound298 km · Dartmoor
North Yorkshire Moors Railway319 km · N Yorkshire
The fleet

Sizes we run from Dartford

16
Minibus
24
Midi coach
33
Midi coach
49
Full coach
53
Full coach
70
Double-decker

Every job comes with a professional driver. Even the double-decker, at about 4.4 metres, clears both Dartford tunnels — so the vehicle size never decides your route across the river.

Get a price 020 4520 0094
Platform 2 · 17 October 1961

The most famous thing that ever happened in Dartford happened on a railway platform

Two teenagers waiting for the same train recognised each other, and one of them was carrying the wrong records to be ignored. There is a plaque. One of the Rolling Stones thinks it is wrong.

We move people between places for a living, so we have a soft spot for the ones where the moving was the event. Dartford has the best example in the country, and it is four minutes’ walk from where our coaches set down.

The morning

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had been at primary school together in Dartford and then lost touch. On the morning of 17 October 1961 they found themselves on the same platform at Dartford station. Jagger was carrying a small stack of imported American blues records — the sort of thing that, in Kent in 1961, functioned as a password. They started talking. The Rolling Stones followed the next year.

“Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met on platform 2 on 17 October 1961 and went on to form The Rolling Stones – one of the most successful rock bands of all time.” Blue plaque, Dartford station · unveiled February 2015

The argument

Not everyone approved. Bill Wyman, the band’s original bassist, said publicly that he was disgusted by the plaque, on the grounds that it gets the history wrong: Brian Jones formed the Rolling Stones, named them, chose the music and led them. Wyman has a point, and it is a better story for being contested. We are a coach company, not a jury.

The statues

Whatever the plaque says, Dartford has committed. On 9 August 2023 two life-size bronzes were unveiled at One Bell Corner in the town centre — The Glimmer Twins, by the sculptor Amy Goodman, showing Jagger mid-performance with a microphone and one foot off the ground, and Richards braced back over his Telecaster. They cost £130,000, paid for by a housebuilder as part of a planning agreement, and they were unveiled by the leader of the council, the sculptor, and Keith Richards’ granddaughter.

Why we bring it up

Because it is genuinely a good twenty minutes for a group with time to fill, it is free, and it is in the middle of town rather than out at the end of a lane. If your party is waiting for a coach in Dartford, One Bell Corner and platform 2 are both closer than the nearest coffee.

Ask the driver. Ours know where both of them are, and one or two have opinions about Bill Wyman.