Your classic is on the stand,
so you travel in something else.
InterClassics fills the halls of the MECC in Maastricht with collector cars, dealer stands and a parts market that rewards a full day of walking. Almost nobody who exhibits arrives in the car they are exhibiting, which leaves the small question of how you get to Randwyck and back to your hotel.
Collector cars indoors, at the far end of the Netherlands.
The MECC is Maastricht’s exhibition and congress centre, a low spread of interlinked halls in Randwyck on the south-eastern edge of the city, next to the university’s medical campus and its own railway stop. It is the sort of venue where one hall holds polished coachwork on carpet, the next holds an auction rostrum, and a third holds trestle tables of parts, literature and automobilia that people travel a long way to sift through.
What makes the fair distinctive is who walks it. Dealers and restorers come to trade, collectors come to buy and to be seen buying, marque clubs bring stands and members, and a good share of the visitors have a car of their own parked at home under a cover. Conversations start at a stand and finish over dinner, which is why the old town matters as much as the halls do.
That old town is a twenty-minute drive or a very pleasant walk away. Maastricht wraps itself around the Maas: the Vrijthof with the Sint-Servaasbasiliek and the red tower of the Sint-Janskerk on one side, the Onze-Lieve-Vrouweplein a few streets south, the Sint-Servaasbrug crossing to Wyck, and the Rechtstraat and Stationsstraat behind it full of small kitchens. Hotels are split between the two banks, and both are minutes from Randwyck by road.
Who books a car for a weekend at the MECC.
The car went down on a covered trailer days ago and will not move again until the fair closes. You still need to reach Randwyck each morning, and you still need to get back after the stand is locked.
Several halls, an auction preview and a lunch appointment make for a long day on your feet. A car on standby at the entrance means you can carry what you buy instead of judging it by weight.
Bringing a buyer to a fair is half sales call, half hospitality. We collect from separate hotels, bring everyone in together and hold one contact point for the party all day.
Maastricht is about two hundred and fifteen kilometres south, most of it on the A2 — a little over two hours. We track the flight and meet you inside the arrivals hall with a name sign.
Both airports sit roughly a hundred and twenty kilometres away, around an hour and a half by road. For guests coming from Germany or Belgium they are often the shorter door than Schiphol.
The square is where the fair carries on after hours. Being driven to it and collected from it turns a long table and a good bottle into an easy decision.
How a fair weekend runs when someone else drives.
Which days you are at the halls, whether you are exhibiting, where you are staying and when the dinners are. Dispatch builds the timetable around those fixed points rather than around a single pickup.
The MECC sits on the A2 corridor at the southern edge of the city, so the approach is short from either bank of the Maas. We aim to arrive before the entrance queues form rather than in the middle of them.
Your chauffeur parks clear of the venue traffic and comes back to an agreed point when you message. The My Ride page shows where the car is while you are inside.
Straight from the halls to the Vrijthof or Wyck, then back to the hotel whenever the table breaks up. Nobody counts glasses and nobody looks for a taxi rank at midnight.
Maastricht from three directions.
The full run south on the A2 through Utrecht, Eindhoven and Limburg — a little over two hours on a clear road.
West across the German border through the Aachen corner, roughly an hour and a half to the halls.
East through Leuven and the Limburg motorways, about the same again — the practical door for guests arriving from Belgium.
Maastricht Aachen Airport at Beek lies about ten kilometres north of the city, which makes it the shortest hop of all when a private aircraft is involved.
A fixed quote for the journey, hourly for the days in between.
The long runs — Schiphol, Düsseldorf, Brussels, Amsterdam — are quoted as one fixed all-in amount for the car, settled at booking. Once you are in Maastricht, hourly hire is the cleaner way to keep a chauffeur on hand.
Hourly work is sold in blocks from two hours upwards, each carrying forty kilometres of driving, and it has to start and stop within one city — so the journey down is always priced as a trip. All amounts are per car and include taxes; a booking made inside twelve hours of pickup adds ten per cent.
The city, the road down and the car itself.
The city in full: both banks of the Maas, the business quarters and the airport at Beek.
The long A2 run south, door to door, as one fixed quote.
The car most exhibitors end up in while their own is under the lights.
Car fairs, horse shows, concours and galas across the Netherlands.
Only a few kilometres. The halls stand in Randwyck on the south-eastern side of the city, beside the medical campus, and the drive in from either the old town or Wyck takes minutes outside the arrival rush. Walking is possible but long with anything in your hands.
Yes, and for many guests it is the shorter journey. Both airports are roughly a hundred and twenty kilometres from Maastricht, about an hour and a half by road, against a little over two hours from Schiphol. Cross-border runs are quoted as one fixed all-in amount.
No. We drive people, not vehicles or freight — a collector car belongs on an enclosed transporter arranged with a specialist. What we can do is get you, your co-driver and your stand crew to the halls each morning and back afterwards.
Yes. The car parks clear of the venue traffic and returns to an agreed point when you send a message, so there is no fixed collection time to work back from. For a full day this is usually quoted as a return trip with waiting included.
A Business Class takes three passengers and three bags; a Van Class takes up to seven of each and swallows a good deal more. If you expect to leave with boxes, book the larger car and tell dispatch in advance so the boot stays empty.
Yes. Most guests book the fair run and the evening run as one arrangement, which means the same chauffeur takes you from the halls to the Vrijthof or Wyck and back to the hotel when you are ready. Nobody has to think about the drive home.