Where can you have driving lessons in Newport?
No matter where you are in Newport, there's an instructor ready to help. Top areas include:
Beechwood, Bettws, Caerleon, Duffryn, Liswerry, Llanbeder, Maindee, Malpas, Pillgwenlly and Somerton.
Enter your postcode above to see lesson pricing in your local area of Newport.
View other guides: Driving Lessons in London, Driving Lessons in Birmingham, Driving Lessons in Manchester.
Learning to drive in Newport
Newport is a great place to learn to drive. It’s got everything from country roads, to urban streets, to a motorway right on its doorstep. You can’t not meet every challenge here!
Your lessons will begin in a quiet residential area, to get you used to life behind the wheel. This will normally be somewhere close to your house. You’ll hone clutch control, moving off and stopping, signalling, steering, and then you’ll be ready to hit the more advanced stuff.
When it comes to manoeuvres, our favourite spot is St Julians (although there are fantastic spots for manoeuvre practice all over Newport). Most of the roads around St Julians are inclined, which makes them great for hill starts. What's more, there are often plenty of parked cars around, so you’ll be nailing the parallel park in no time. If you can parallel park on an incline, you’ll have no problems should the manoeuvre come up in your test!
Newport also has the A4042, which provides good dual carriageway experience and can test out your skills on roundabouts. You can get used to slip roads, lane positioning, and driving at higher speeds. There’s also a complex three-lane roundabout where the A4042 meets the A4051, which will be a real test of your skills. Plus, the M4 running across the north of Newport, which you can learn on if you’re with your instructor in a dual control car. You’ll be passing your test in no time!
Taking your test in Newport
Newport’s test centre is aptly named the Newport Test Centre. The DVSA used to publish test routes, but alas, no longer. However, your instructor will help you get familiar with roads around the test centre, so you’ll have less to worry about come your test.
The Newport Test Centre is located on a trading estate, so there won’t be too much traffic about when you start your test. Instead, you’ll have long straight roads, and maybe the odd parked car or lorry to negotiate as you set off.
If you head south-east, you’re likely to encounter some country roads early on, as you head towards Pye Corner and Broadstreet Common. However, if you head north from the test centre, you’ll likely hit the A48 dual carriageway.
From the A48 you might dip off into Liswerry or Pillgwenlly, residential areas where you might be asked to complete your manoeuvre. However, it’s important to remember that examiners like to mix it up, so you could be asked to complete your manoeuvre at any time (just perhaps not on a dual carriageway)! Make sure you’ve practised on a wide variety of roads, so you’re ready for anything on your test.
Driving test centre locations
There’s only one test centre in Newport. For a full list of centres visit gov.uk.
- Newport (Gwent): Stephenson Street, off Corporation Rd, Liswerry, Newport, Gwent, NP19 4XH
Manual vs automatic
Before you start learning, you’ll have to decide which transmission is best for you. Newport has instructors who teach both manual and automatic.
Manual licences are more flexible, as they allow you to drive both manual and automatic cars, whereas an automatic licence restricts you to automatics. Manual driving lessons are also cheaper, and so are manual cars, but in an automatic there’s less to get your head around, so you could end up passing quicker.
You might want to think about when and where you’ll be driving in Newport before you make your decision. If you’ll be driving around during rush hour you might prefer an automatic so you don’t have to worry about changing gears in stop-start traffic. But, if you’re planning longer journeys, then you might prefer a manual, for a greater sense of control. The choice is down to you!