Dear Reader,
I recently travelled to Dublin to fly to Belgium, and had heard you can now book your carpark place online, which I thought was a very convenient and efficient way of dealing with the part I consider a nuissance!
I never really had to figure out how to do the Dublin thing, as I live in Galway, and untill recently I was able to fly with www.ryanair.com from Shannon to Charleroi, but since http://www.ryanair.com/ has axed most of their flights ( including Charleroi) I had no choice..You can check out this petition http://www.giveshannonwings.com/ (Please come back Ryanair – or someone else!).
I had it all figured out ( so I thought), I went to Carpark info Dublin Airport : http://www.dublinairport.com/to-and-from/car-parking/long-term.html and studied all the rates.
As I was going for a week, the long term car park was what I needed.
If I booked ahead, It would cost me 7.5 Euro (normally 9.50 Euro)a day in the red cark park, and 6.50 Euro(normally 7.50 Euro)a day in the blue cark park.
These car parks are operated by the DAA ( Dublin Airport Authority) and I’d recommend you prebook. So when I eventually got a chance to book my car parking space on line, I had left it too late, as you need to book at more than 12 hours ahead….. ah…….So, don’t leave it too late to prebook as once your journey is less than 12 hours ahead, you can’t prebook it anymore.. Another downside is that some of the carpark( particularly the cheapest one – the Blue cark park, is a long bus journey from the aiport, and when time is at stake( or you are travelling with small kids), you want to make sure you have included this extra time when going to the airport, as these days it seems like it’s Christmas traffic at Dublin aiport at 6 in the morning. It took me an hour just to get through security( and I had checked in online and had no bags to check in)
I friend of mine mentioned http://www.quickpark.ie/, which is not operated by the DAA. There is only one carpark, it’s only a 10 minute bus ride from the the carpark AND you can prebook, even if your journey is less than 12 hours ahead..so that’s what I did. I was quite impressed that not only could I book online, I also received my secret entrance/exit code sent directly to my mobile ( ok at an extra cost) but it was very much worth it.
I paid 7 euro per day. If I had not booked online the charge would have been 8.50 Euro, so I did save and I only had to remember the rownumber, not the colour of the carkpark:)
Happy travels( and parking)!
Katleen