Karting gift vouchers

Buy direct if you know the track

An experience company buys a session from a track and resells it with a margin on top. That is a perfectly reasonable business, but it means the same session usually costs more through a reseller than through the track's own website.

So if the person you are buying for has a local track, or already races somewhere, buying that track's own voucher is almost always better value. It also means every penny goes to the operator, which matters more than it sounds for small independent tracks.

We have found 17 tracks in our directory that sell gift vouchers or gift cards directly.

When an experience voucher makes sense

There are three situations where paying the premium is the right call.

• You do not know which track they would use. A voucher redeemable at a list of venues nationwide solves a problem a single-track voucher cannot.
• They might move, or travel. A student, someone relocating, or a present posted to the other end of the country.
• You want it wrapped. Experience companies do presentation properly, with boxes, cards and instant e-vouchers if you have left it late.

Both of the companies below run karting sections covering tracks across the UK. We earn a commission if you buy through these links, which does not change what you pay, and it has not changed what this page says: buy direct where you can.

What to check before you buy

Whichever route you take, five things are worth confirming. Getting these wrong is how a present ends up unused.

• Age and height, both. Minimum ages across our directory run from 3 to 17, and nearly every track sets a height minimum too. A child who meets the age but not the height is turned away at the gate. Our guide to karting with children covers this properly.
• Which venues it covers. A national voucher is only useful if one of its venues is somewhere they will actually go.
• The expiry date. Usually twelve months. If you are buying in January for a birthday in November, that leaves very little room.
• Compulsory extras. Balaclavas, gloves and licence fees are often paid on the day and rarely included in a voucher, so budget a few pounds a head on top.
• Whether they need to book ahead. Most tracks do not take walk-ins, and some run karting only on certain days.

A cheaper idea, if the budget is tight

Session prices across our 137 listed tracks vary more than most people expect, and the cheapest are considerably cheaper than a typical experience voucher. The best value we have found is Midland Karting at £0.31 a minute on track. Buying a session direct at a good-value track near them will usually beat a voucher of the same cash value.

See all 137 tracks