Luton to Leicester drive: Best stops, distance and time

The best road trip stops on the Luton to Leicester drive are Woburn Safari Park, Milton Keynes and the Althorp Estate. The distance from Luton to Leicester by car is 71 miles, with a 1h21m driving time.

Finding things to do between Luton and Leicester

The drive from Luton to Leicester takes you from Bedfordshire in South East England to one of the biggest cities in the East Midlands.

Luton doesn’t tend to feature on many tour itineraries, unless you’re flying out of London Luton Airport. However, there are a couple of decent attractions in this Bedfordshire town. Wardown Park has a lake as its centrepiece. The eclectic Wardown House Museum has a massive hat collection. And the Stockwood Discovery Centre flits from local life to an enormous hoard of carriages.

Northampton has plenty of attractive parks, but the highlight is arguably the Abington Park Museum. The museum is standard local history fare, but the estate surrounding the manor house is lovely.

Leicester is one of the most multicultural cities in England. It offers scavenger hunts and the National Space Centre. The latter is all about space exploration, and houses a Blue Streak Rocket, and Apollo Moon Lander and exhibitions about the UK’s contribution to the space race. The highlight, however, is the shows in the massive planetarium.

Also worthwhile is the King Richard III Visitor Centre, which tells the remarkable tale of the former king’s remains being found beneath a Leicester car park.

Luton to Leicester distance and drive time

By car, the distance from Luton to Leicester is 71 miles. This makes for a driving time of around one hour and 21 minutes. The quickest route is straight up the M1. The best stops between Luton and Leicester are Woburn Safari Park, Milton Keynes and the Althorp Estate.

Things to do between Luton and Leicester: Woburn Safari Park

Woburn Safari Park offers a more safari-like take on a zoo. Animals are allowed to roam relatively free wherever practical, and visitors drive through the enclosures. Watch out for the monkeys – they tend to like jumping on the cars and pulling on the windscreen wipers.

There’s a walk-through foot safari area with less threatening creatures, plus a ropes course and several children’s play areas.

Luton to Leicester road trip stops: Milton Keynes

Oft-maligned Milton Keynes is a new town gradually coming into its own. There are lots of fun attractions here, including the Snozone indoor ski centre and indoor skydiving at iFly.

Top of the list of Milton Keynes experiences, however, should be Bletchley Park. This was the secret codebreaking centre in World War II, where teams of mathematicians and scientists made key breakthroughs that turned the tide of the war. The stories are fascinating, and the on-site National Museum of Computing takes you through the history of computers.

Luton to Leicester road trip stops: Althorp Estate

A ten minute detour off the M1, the Althorp Estate is home to one of England’s finest and most lavishly decorated stately homes. The Spencer family still lives there and tours are seasonal.

However, most visitors are going for the Diana connection. Althorp was Princess Diana of Wales’ family home, and her grave is on the estate.

More Luton road trips

Luton to Coventry | Derby to Luton | Luton to Northampton.

More Leicester road trips

Leicester to Cambridge | Leicester to Coventry | Leicester to Milton Keynes | Northampton to Leicester | Leicester to Nottingham.