Areas
Lessons start at your door.
Four areas, four instructors, two test centres. Nobody comes to the office except to collect a gift voucher; the lessons start from home, school, work or the university, anywhere in your instructor's area, and the routes are the ones the test uses.
Areas, test centres and the office
Where
The office is Unit 4 on Whitchurch Road, but lessons start from your door: home, school, work or the university, anywhere in your instructor's area. Nobody needs to come to the office except to collect a gift voucher.
North
Sarah: Whitchurch, Llandaff North, Rhiwbina, Birchgrove, Heath, Llanishen, Thornhill and Lisvane. Tests at Llanishen.
East
Dave: Roath, Cathays, Penylan, Cyncoed, Pentwyn, Llanrumney, Rumney and St Mellons. Tests at Llanishen.
West
Amara: Canton, Pontcanna, Riverside, Ely, Fairwater, Danescourt, Llandaff and Caerau, in the automatic. Tests at Llantrisant Road.
South and the Bay
Raj: Grangetown, Butetown, Cardiff Bay, Splott, Adamsdown, Tremorfa, Leckwith and Penarth Road, in the automatic. Tests at Llantrisant Road.
Hours
Lessons 7am to 9pm seven days at the same price. The office phone is answered Monday to Saturday 8 to 7; Sunday messages are answered Monday morning. Test centres run weekdays and some Saturdays.
Not sure which area you are in? Ring 029 2018 0612 with your postcode.
The test centres
Llanishen for the north and east, Llantrisant Road for the west and south.
Cardiff has two practical test centres and they use different roads: Llanishen's routes take in the A48, Thornhill and the Heath; Llantrisant Road's take in Western Avenue, Danescourt and the Culverhouse Cross roundabout. Your instructor teaches on the routes your centre uses, so by test day the Gabalfa interchange or the Ely link road is a road you have driven thirty times. Both centres have waits of several weeks; we check for earlier cancellations every morning.
What happens on test dayBook the introductory two hours. £60, from your door.
The controls on a quiet road, moving off and stopping, and enough driving to see how you take to it, with the instructor who covers your area. At the end you get a written plan and an honest estimate of the hours. Book with the form or ring the office, Monday to Saturday 8 to 7.