Cheap Heathrow Airport Parking

Are you catching a flight from London's Heathrow Airport? Want to know how to save money? Here are some tips for finding a great deal on parking close to Heathrow Airport.

First of all the authorities like to discourage you from driving to the airport, so parking charges are expensive. Unfortunately the public transport alternatives are pretty poor...

If you need to catch an early flight you have to buy expensive train tickets. Colchester to Heathrow in the morning peak cost me nearly £60! That's more than a lot of people pay for their plane tickets!!! And what made it worse is that I could only buy a single ticket, so I had to buy another ticket when I got back to England. That £60 got me a place (standing room only) on a train into Liverpool Street station, and a long slow ride on the London Underground Piccadilly Line, then a long walk to Terminal 3.

You can take the Heathrow Express from London Paddington Station, but the problem is that Paddington is difficult to get to from a lot of the other mainline train terminals in central London. Even worse is the extortionate cost - mile for mile the Heathrow Express is probably the most expensive train journey in the world! Shameful.

Don't think of taking the taxi either - I looked and a taxi from Colchester to Heathrow would have cost at least £85. The coach is another option - National Express run regular coaches to Heathrow airport from all over the UK (although you often have to change somewhere like Stanstead Airport).

First of all check which terminal you're going to. Heathrow's Terminal 1, 2 and 3 are pretty much next to each other in the centre of the airport.

Terminals 4 and 5 are on the far side of the airfield and are some distance from the other terminals.

Most long haul international flights leave from Heathrow's Terminal 3. All British Airways flights leave from Terminal 5. If you don't know for certain which terminal you're going to be using then check with your airline. You can get a bus or the London Underground's Piccadilly line between terminals.

Remember to arrive in plenty of time for the check in and immigration procedures.

Each of Heathrow Airport's terminals have short term parking spaces available next to them. Expect to pay a lot of money for short term parking at Heathrow! Hopefully the flight you're waiting for won't be delayed or the charges will really rack up. The current prices are on the BAA website (BAA run Heathrow Airport). If you expect to stay for more than 5 hours then BAA recommend that you use a longer stay car park.

BAA also operate a number of long stay car parks in the Heathrow area. These car parks are connected to the main airport terminals by a free bus service. The free shuttle bus runs regularly throughout the day.

All BAA operated car parks have CCTV and regular security patrols to give you peace of mind while you're out of the country.

There are also plenty of other car parking facilities in the Heathrow area. To find the best one for you try a parking price comparison website.

If you've got a lot of luggage and/or kids to contend with then how about the valet parkingoption? Valet parking is available from each of Heathrow's five terminals. The valet option can be pre-booked or you can arrange it when you arrive at the airport. If you arrange valet parking, just drop your car off at the terminal and it will be parked at an approved storage facility while you go away. When you arrive back at Heathrow you can then collect your car from the terminal without the hassle of lugging your luggage off to some distant car park.

If you choose the valet parking option then you can also choose to get your car professionally washed and vacuumed before your return.

If you're looking to leave your car at Heathrow for a number of days then it's worth checking to see if there are any hotel deals in the local area. Many hotels near Heathrow airport give free parking to their guests. These deals are often really attractive - sometimes a night's stay at a hotel will be much cheaper than just paying for parking!

The other great thing is that if you have an early morning flight it's much nicer to just find a hotel to stay in on the night before your flight. You'll then be all refreshed and ready for a long flight without having to cope with the rush hour traffic on the M4 and West London and you don't have the misery of trying to get to Heathrow on the packed London Underground link from central London.

Most of the hotels in or around Heathrow actually offer a free shuttle bus service to and from the main terminals at the airport.