Gatwick airport parking

[NSP]

Any recommendations for parking at Gatwick next July?

I don't want a meet and greet or any where you have to hand your cars keys over so looking for places where you park your car yourself.

Thanks in advance.

[swamp]

Gatwick Official Long Stay.

Buy it now as it will go up in price.

[HTP99]

swamp said:

Gatwick Official Long Stay.

Buy it now as it will go up in price.

This, If we can't get a lift (fortunately we don't live too far away), or the hours are crap so don't want to ask for a lift, we book the official long stay parking, rock up, park, get the frequent bus to the terminal, keep your keys on you.

[chip*]

Register with MyGatwick and book through it for 10% discount (passing on a tip I read on here awhile back which saved me a £10 for minimum effort!)

[x5tuu]

I have the Gatwick South Valet booked for october - it was cheaper than the longstay a couple of weeks ago and got an extra 10% off via NHS Discounts IIRC - worked out under £100 for 8 days which seems a reasonable deal to me.

[Truckosaurus]

Or just go for the valet parking option for little more money. Hope that someone has left a better car than yours that they'll do a Ferris Bueller with instead, and be halfway home by the time those people parked miles away in the long stayer have waited ages for the bus, which goes round the car park dropping everyone else off first and finally got back to their car only to find it has been dinged and scratched multiple times by some chavvy family in a Zafira parked next to you.

[bompey]

I have heard more than one person think their car was not as they handed it over to valet parking when they got it back, although this may have been one of the unofficial valet parking operators.
I personally do the official long term parking

[Truckosaurus]

At least the official valet has an actual office in the carpark where you can kick up a fuss if something is amiss, rather than some random bloke chucking your keys at you by the side of the road and doing a runner into the crowd.

[LuS1fer]

If you go through moneysavingexpert, you get a discount.

[COLONEL_SMITH]

Did Gatwick valet last year and Heathrow this. No issues with either apart from Heathrow costing double what Gatwick charged even though it was a week less parking.
At Gatwick the car didnt leave the short stay car park and was left about 20 yards from where we handed it over. They also photograph it when you enter to record the vehicle condition.
Saves loads of time as its a 2 min walk to the terminal.

[Randy Winkman]

swamp said:

Gatwick Official Long Stay.

Buy it now as it will go up in price.

I've parked there lots of times over the last few years including this year. It's always fine and I never have to wait long for a bus in either direction.

[Griffith4ever]

Gatwick long stay . Every time. Gave up with valet parking when it became non exclusive. Means when it's busy you end up waiting longer for your car than simply getting the quick long stay bus.

Saying that, doing the cheapest "use my car as a minicab" valet parking possible in Nov for one month at Heathrow simply due to duration / cost. Cant imagine a Yeti makes a decent minicab? :-) they'll prob use it (4x4) to drag all the other cars out of the muddy field they dump it in :-)

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

Try one of the park on my drive sites/apps. That will be the cheapest.

[Alickadoo]

Truckosaurus said:

Or just go for the valet parking option for little more money. Hope that someone has left a better car than yours that they'll do a Ferris Bueller with instead, and be halfway home by the time those people parked miles away in the long stayer have waited ages for the bus, which goes round the car park dropping everyone else off first and finally got back to their car only to find it has been dinged and scratched multiple times by some chavvy family in a Zafira parked next to you.

Not true.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

To be fair, APH serve Gatwick and they take a set of 360 degree pics of your car when you drop it off.

[Truckosaurus]

Alickadoo said:

Not true.

In what way? The couple of times I've used the long stayer there was a decent wait for the bus, which made many stops, and it is a busy carpark with the usual British small spaces (full of cars of holidaying families).

When you live within an hour of the airport, wasting an extra 30 minutes getting to your car is a big chunk of your journey.

(Similarly, I tried the PurpleParking at Heathrow and it took longer to get to their compound on the shuttle bus than it took to get from the compound to home).

Realistically, your choice pretty much comes down to your view on trusting someone with your keys.

(I've just booking the valet for a week in November, thanks to the hint above about registering to get a tenner off, which is costing £20 more than the long stay - I'm happy to pay £10 at each end of the trip to not faff around with the buses).

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

Is the train an option? The station is right in the airport.

[Shaoxter]

The official meet and greet is very good, your car is scanned at the entrance, you give your keys to someone and then walk to the terminal. Your car is just as likely/more likely to get dinged by some fatso getting out of their car at the long stay self park.

I would never trust the third party ones though.

[Alickadoo]

Shaoxter said:

The official meet and greet is very good, your car is scanned at the entrance, you give your keys to someone and then walk to the terminal. Your car is just as likely/more likely to get dinged by some fatso getting out of their car at the long stay self park.

I would never trust the third party ones though.

The OP said he doesn't want a meet & greet, he wants to park his car himself, so that does limit his options.

Mind you, he posted once over 24 hours and we haven't heard a word since.

I reckon he is holed up with that bloke from Wandsworth prison.

[NSP]

Thanks for all the responses - it sounds like the official long stay is the best option.

I wouldn't trust handling my keys over to anyone plus I'm not sure what my insurer would say about that either if anything were to happen. Hence I prefer somewhere where I can park the car myself and keep my keys.

The train is expensive, takes 3 hours and involves at least one change so not really an option.