Gatwick airport parking

[JustDerv]

Hi,

Off to USA in July and flying from Gatwick (South terminal). Driving down the day before and staying at the Gatwick Travelodge, but I'm wondering what's the best option to leave the car. Options so far are:

1. Go to Travelodge, dump bags, drive to long term car park, shuttle to terminal, bus/taxi to Travelodge, bus to terminal next morning.

2. Go to Travelodge, park there overnight, drive to long term car park next day, shuttle to terminal.

3. Go to Travelodge, park there overnight, drive to terminal and use meet & greet service.

Now I'm favouring the third option but not sure if anyone has advice on the meet & greet service. I used one last year at Heathrow, so know how they operate, but wasn't happy with the state of the car when it was returned. They'd obviously been ragging it, and it had been driven about 20 miles over 35 mins or so (trip computer figures) on the morning they were supposed to drop it off - also it took them ages to answer the phone when we got back and then we had to wait a while for them to drop it off. This rather spoilt my view of meet & greet services and wondered if anyone has experience of any at Gatwick?

Just for information, we're flying US Airways at 09:40 so will need to be at the airport around 06:40 - an early start when you have two youngsters with you too

[Puggit]

We booked the South Terminal short stay for £85 for a week over Easter. Parked right near the bridge to the terminal.

No brainer really. Booked with Gatwick directly.

[sjg]

I use Maple Manor - http://www.gatwickparking.net/ . Meet person at airport terminal, hand car over, bags on to trolley, walk straight in. Coming back, give them a call when you land and car is waiting for you.

Have used several times now (tend to have heavy bags of dive gear or snowboards so buses from long-term are a faff) and been happy with them, mileage has always been right for the trip to their premises and back, etc. Depends on how paranoid you are about handing your car over though.

[.Mark]

Number 2.

Book cheapest long stay car park off the web and go with that. We live reasonably local so just drive from home whatever time, but it's never failed to work in 15 years or so, multiple trips a year some years.

[JustDerv]

Saw the car parking options direct with Gatwick, but as we're going for just over 2 weeks it's about £130 in long-term and a bit more in short-term. The meet & greet seems to start at around £80 for the off-airport outfits.

I also saw Maple Manor and wondered about them. If you were happy with the service that's good, I like the idea of the meet & greet, it was just that my experience at Heathrow last year was off-putting, especially as it was the first time I'd ever used a meet & greet service.

[JustDerv]

Just an update, gone with option 2 with a twist

Booked car parking online with Gatwick, and for my dates it's only 20 quid extra to park in the short-term car park, as opposed to the long-term car park. So that's all booked now.

[Puggit]