Increasingly people are travelling independently, booking their own flights, transport to the resort and selecting their own accommodation. Prior to the internet travellers would only be able to visually, see their hotel or apartment by looking at pictures contained within a brochure put together by the large holiday companies. This has now all changed and owners of apartments and small hotels can connect to a world wide audience by building a web site at a relatively low cost and have a permanent presence.

As a consequence people such as my wife now spend many enjoyable hours searching out destinations, comparing accommodation prices, cost of flights and where best to fly from. But alas, I have yet to hear any thought being given to the cost airport parking and how safe the car will be while we are away.

During this process, I will be sent pictures of locations and accommodation with comment until finally a destination is selected and the adjacent costs advised. I can fully understand that parking carries no glamour, whatsoever, and is a bit like sanding down before painting the door, a necessary evil.

Given that after my house the car is by far the most expensive item I own, I think the same amount of research should go into making sure that my car will be safe from theft and be in the same condition that I left it.

You only have to go to your local supermarket or retail centre to witness the standard of parking and see people pushing trolleys around a car park to know where the little scratches and small dints come from on your car.Unfortunately, parking on the airport can be just as bad and instead of trolleys they are now armed with cases and excitable children.

To be fair to the airports such as Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester thousands of cars are coming and going every single day and it would be totally impractical to expect them to monitor all these movements and as a consequence you park at your own risk.

By and large I have therefore always parked off airport because at least these cars are parked by staff and whilst there is no guarantee that damage will not occur at least you have someone to be held accountable.
When looking at these car parks, I would only consider ones approved by the Park Mark scheme approved by the Police Officers association who inspect these car parks on an annual basis to make sure they meet their exacting standards for:

1.Security fencing

2.Entry and exit security and control

3.Lighting

4.Car park layout and signing

5.Health and security issues

Usually the prices for these off airport car parks will be less than the on airport price.

About the Author:
If travelling from one of the main UK airports you will have a choice of several car parks to book Heathrow Parking,Gatwick Airport
Parking and Manchester Airport
parking