Cars on a palace lawn,
and gravel underfoot.
A concours is a garden party with a judging panel. The cars stand on grass in front of a former royal residence, the dress code is closer to a wedding than a race meeting, and the walk from the gate is long enough that where your car stops genuinely matters.
A white palace between two small towns, with a park behind it.
Paleis Soestdijk stands on the Amsterdamsestraatweg, the N221, on the stretch of road that joins Baarn to Soest in the province of Utrecht. It is long, low and white, with two wings reaching towards the road and a formal park running away behind it into the woods. Directly opposite the front gates, on the far side of the road, rises the Naald van Waterloo, the stone obelisk that has watched the traffic there for generations.
A concours uses the grounds rather than the building. Cars are placed on the lawns in the order the organisers want them read, judging classes work their way along the rows through the morning, and the rest of the estate turns into a long picnic under old trees. Nothing about it is hurried, which is exactly why the arrival and the departure are the two moments that can spoil a day.
The geography is kind and the roads are not. Baarn sits just south of the A1 between Amsterdam and Amersfoort, close to where the A27 comes up from Utrecht, so the motorway part of the journey is short and simple. The last few kilometres are country lanes through the Gooi woods, single-carriageway and heavily used on a fine weekend, funnelling everyone onto the same approach to the same gate at the same hour.
Who arrives at Soestdijk with a chauffeur.
The entry goes in on a trailer the day before and stays on the grass until judging is done. You still have to reach Baarn in something, and after a day standing beside a rope you would rather not drive home.
An invitation to a concours usually means linen, a hat and a champagne flute at eleven in the morning. Being set down at the gate rather than in a parking field keeps all three intact.
A concours makes an unusually good client day, and it works far better when the group arrives together. We collect from several addresses, bring everyone in as one party and hold a single point of contact all day.
From the city it is about forty kilometres east on the A1, some forty minutes outside the peaks. A morning run out and an evening run back, both quoted before you leave.
The nearer base, barely ten kilometres away, with a walled old town of Muurhuizen, the Koppelpoort and enough restaurants for the evening. Ten minutes of driving instead of forty.
Schiphol is roughly fifty-five kilometres away, about forty minutes on a clear run. Your flight is followed from booking, a chauffeur waits in arrivals with a board bearing whatever name you like, and the road east begins there.
How a concours day is planned from the driver’s seat.
Which gate is open to cars, where guests may be set down, which of the lanes around the palace are made one-way for the day. Dispatch settles that before your booking is confirmed rather than on the morning.
The motorway run is easy; the last stretch through the woods is not. We leave in time to reach the gate while the approach is still moving, and tell you honestly if the hour you wanted will not hold.
Your chauffeur settles the pickup point with you before leaving and then parks well away from the estate traffic. Where the car stands stays visible to you on the My Ride page throughout.
One message and the car comes back. Leave before the last class is read and the lanes are empty; leave after the picnic hampers are packed and they are emptier still.
Soestdijk from three familiar doors.
Round the ring and east on the A1 towards Amersfoort, about forty minutes when the motorway is clear.
Straight out on the A1 past Naarden and Laren, then south into Baarn on the country roads.
Barely fifteen minutes from the walled centre, which is why so many guests use the town as their base.
Every figure holds on an ordinary morning and none of them holds in the hour the gates open. Dispatch plans against the day you are actually travelling.
A fixed quote out and back, or a car kept for the day.
A run from Amsterdam, Amersfoort or Schiphol to the estate is priced as a single all-in amount for the car, settled before you leave. Hourly hire is the alternative when you want a chauffeur on hand inside one town all day.
The Maybach runs to fixed prices only between Schiphol and Amsterdam — €225 out and €250 from arrivals. Everywhere else, including Baarn, it is quoted individually and never taken first-come. An hourly booking has a two-hour floor, carries forty kilometres within every hour, and has to open and close inside a single town. Prices are per car, taxes included; booking inside twelve hours of pickup adds ten per cent.
The car, the nearest town and the rest of the season.
Reclining rear seats and two passengers — the arrival most concours guests have in mind.
Ten kilometres from the palace gates: the walled old town, the Koppelpoort and the hotels.
The Gooi woods, the heath and the villages around them, driven at your own pace.
Concours, car fairs, horse shows and galas across the country.
On the Amsterdamsestraatweg, the N221, on the road between Baarn and Soest in the province of Utrecht. The Naald van Waterloo, the stone obelisk, stands directly opposite the front gates. The A1 passes a short way to the north, which keeps the motorway part of any journey brief.
About forty minutes on a clear run, roughly fifty-five kilometres by way of the ring and the A1. Allow more on the morning of a well-attended concours, when the country lanes around the estate carry far more traffic than they were built for.
Yes, by arrangement. The Mercedes-Maybach S-Class seats two with reclining rear seats and is never released on a first-come basis, so send dispatch your date on WhatsApp and we will confirm availability and a fixed price for the day.
Amersfoort is far closer — around ten kilometres, some fifteen minutes — and its walled centre makes a pleasant evening. Amsterdam is about forty kilometres away with much more choice of hotel. Both work by car; the difference is roughly half an hour in each direction.
Yes. The car waits outside the estate traffic and returns the moment you message, which means no departure time has to be settled in advance. For a full day we usually quote this as a return trip with waiting included rather than by the hour.
Of course. A dinner in Amersfoort, a hotel in the Gooi or straight back to Amsterdam are all normal continuations, and adding a stop is simply part of the quote. Tell us when you book so the timing is built in rather than improvised.