If you love getting away for a city break, but like me and the majority of people you work full time during the week, then you want to maximise the amount of time you get to spend in that city right?
At the same time you don’t want to break the bank getting taxis to and from the airport, beg your parents for a lift, or have to pay for expensive onsite airport parking. In February, I flew to Paris for the weekend from Edinburgh Airport (to visit Disneyland and be a big kid for the day!) and found a convenient new option that I will 100% be using again. I never realised but there is offsite airport parking as close as 5 minutes from the airport, with companies that charge your for securely parking your car and then provide frequent shuttle buses 24 hours a day that take you directly to the front door of the airport!
If you live in Edinburgh anywhere near the bus or tram route, then the number 100 bus is a brilliant (and cheap) option to get you to the airport day or night. The tram is also handy during the daytime, with the bus being slightly quicker. But, if like me and you live further outside of Edinburgh, (or any other city) and are not near a bus route that takes you directly to the airport, then driving to the airport is the most convenient option by far.
I used a website called ParkHero, which acts as a comparison website for different parking providers in the UK and Europe. They show information on all available parking companies, with details on the different options such as how far the parking is from the airport, shuttle service, security measures, if you can keep your car keys or can hand them over to a valet. I liked that you can even see photos of the parking itself, and that they don’t add on any additional fees to book through them vs direct with the parking company (think Skyscanner for flights).
How to book airport parking through parkher0
I put in my departure airport (Edinburgh) and the dates I would be needing parking from and until. If you work back roughly 2 hours from your flight time (or more if it is an international flight), and enter these times in. For your return time give yourself around 30 mins to get off the plane, out of arrivals and back to the parking. Don’t worry though, as there is a step in the booking process that asks for your flight times, so it can know whether your flight is delayed or not. They won’t charge you extra its just so they can more accurately estimate when the space will be free again.
ParkHero then showed me 3 available options. I think there would have been more but I booked mine quite last minute. I decided to book with Secureparks at Edinburgh airport, they had the best reviews and the best level of security.
There were just a few steps to fill out to get booked in, it took me roughly 10 minutes and I did it all my mobile. The only hiccup was when I went to select book now and pay, I receive an “Oops…something went wrong, your order was not completed” error message. But the good thing was there was an email address to contact with an event ID, and they came straight back to me. In the meantime I went back one step on the webpage and forward again and managed to make the payment without losing any of the information I already put in. I have notified them of this issue and they are fixing it.
COST OF AIRPORT PARKING FOR 2 days, 2 nights
I parked from Friday morning to Sunday midday, and it cost me £19.75, so roughly £10 a day. The cost depends mainly on the length of your trip, so its ideal for city breaks but if you are going away for a 2-week holiday then this probably isn’t the most economical option.
my airport parking experience with secureparks
The process was seamless start to finish. I arrived and the barrier registered my booking from my license plate, and even flashed up my name on the screen which was a nice touch. I found a parking space (it was pretty packed but I managed to find one) near one of the bus stops. As the car park is so huge, there are several bus stops to avoid you having to walk ages to get to one of them for your pick up. We waited at the bus stop for less than a minute until the transfer bus arrived. The bus only took 2 minutes to get to the airport and it dropped us right outside, the closest you could possibly get to the front door.
The way back we only waited 2 or 3 minutes for the transfer bus to arrive (the stop is at the same place as you get dropped off), 2 minutes’ drive to our car and then away we went 😊 It was nice being able to jump back into our call and just get home, rather than waiting on public transport.
Overall a great experience and ill be trying it out again for my next city break!
