I’ve mentioned before that we live in a rural area of Florida. How rural? I’ll let the recent photo of my backyard speak for itself. 
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p style=”text-align: center;”>You won’t spot these guys in NYC or San Francisco neighborhoods!
Not surprisingly, the nearest major airport (Tampa International) is 1.5 hours away, and we often drive to Orlando (2 hours aways) because it has way more direct flights. If the trip is only 3-4 nights, we usually just take our own vehicle and pay a premium to park at the airport. With two small kids, it’s just not worth it to save a few bucks by booking off-site or to deal with a shuttle.
For longer trips to Europe, we simply ask my mother-in-law or sister-in-law to pick us up. They never seem to mind and in fact, insist on it so that they can see the kids as soon as we land. Our upcoming trip is different. My in-laws are going separately from us, so it will be just my husband and me.
We are spending the night before our flight to LAX in Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport, and asked my brother-in-law to drop us off. Originally, he was also planning to pick us up when we land in MCO two weeks later. However, at the time, he had flexible hours where he had to visit patients in their own homes. He just got a full-time job at a medical clinic, which means we would have to wait in the airport for at least two hours before he could pick us up. Not ideal.
This is not a “quid pro quo” thing!
I decided to ask one of my husband’s cousins if she would be willing to pick us up. We are on good terms plus, I told her I would reimburse her for gas and give her a gift card. She was willing to do it, but the first thing she mentioned was: “Oh yes, we still haven’t thanked you for the IT work Doug did for us!” Grrr. That thought didn’t even occur to me. At the time they wanted to take us out to eat, and my husband absolutely refused to accept it on the account of them being family.
So, now we kind of looked like jerks. We refused to accept a relatively minor gift only to come back and ask for a huge favor instead. And driving to Orlando airport is no small task. For one, you have to get on I-4, aka the death trap. I’m scared to get on it after seeing quite a few accidents. We actually missed our flight to Aruba few years ago due to a pile-up on I-4.
Researching other options
My husband and I talked about it and decided we need to take our own vehicle instead. That way we won’t have to ask two people to spend 4 hours (or more) in traffic. If something happened to either one of them, I would feel responsible. Parking at the airport for 15 days would cost us around $235, which is a lot.
Reluctantly, I decided to check out off-airport locations. Prices ranged from $3-$10 per day but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. In many cases, the reviews weren’t great and you had to drive a good distance out of your way. I settled on a special from Marriott Orlando Airport Lakeside
You don’t have to book a room, Marriott simply offers extra parking spots via third-party. In this case, I went through SimpleAirportParking.com and used a coupon “save 10% off” to save 10% off (what are the chances?) The total came up to $96 and I can cancel the booking 24 hours ahead without penalty.
There is a free shuttle to/from MCO, and since we are spending the night inside the airport, it will work out nicely. All in all, I think $96 is fairly reasonable and beats asking folks to drop half a day on us.
My main concern
The money part doesn’t bother me. If I had to reimburse people for gas and give them a gift card (which I would), it’s really a wash. I’m mainly concerned about jet lag. Since I’m scared to drive in Orlando, my husband would have to take the wheel for at least first hour. I could then take over. But we are planning to spend the previous night in San Francisco, so hopefully, won’t be completely wiped out upon landing in MCO.
Plus, since I have hotel points in several programs, I could always book an extra night near the airport. I would have a hard time parting with cash, especially since we are planning to spend a small fortune during our South Pacific adventure. But I don’t feel bad about burning hotel points if they can make our life a little easier. Especially when the downside is falling asleep at the wheel.
Readers, how do you usually handle your airport parking situation?
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Author: Leana
Leana is the founder of Miles For Family. She enjoys beach vacations and visiting her family in Europe. Originally from Belarus, Leana resides in central Florida with her husband and two children.
Interesting question. I used to ask friends to give us the short 15 minute ride to the airport until I realized that they were not asking me for rides, either because they were not traveling or who knows. We tend to do crazy stuff like having my husband drop us off at the train station, he’ll drive back home and park the car in the garage and walk to the station to meet us. 7 blocks. I wait with daughter and luggage. Train ride costs around 6 for the 3 of us, a taxi around 40, Uber probably less. On the way back, same thing. I know, crazy but I see it like: here’s savings for a meal for 3 at a restaurant in our destination, or two cheap meals for 3. I’m always willing to give rides to the airport to friends and offer without being asked.
@Leticia Wow! I can’t imagine my husband agreeing to walk seven blocks. 🙂 But I can totally see your point, every $ you save adds up. Plus, it’s good exercise for him. Winning! When I was in college, I used to walk at least three miles each day. Now I have turned into a couch potato.
Fortunately, we’re 30 minutes to 3 airports so if no one offers to take us or pick us up then we’ll just take an uber. I hate bugging people for rides…but if my in-laws take us, then they have to drive our car because for some reason they both have to go and we all don’t fit in their cars.
@Stephanie It sure is nice to live close to 3 airports! There are perks to big cities, no question about that. My in-laws have a minivan, so quite often we end up with seven people in it.
I tried one of the discount off airport lots once and they wanted me to leave the keys with my car which was a deal breaker for me. We are fortunate that our closest airport has a $8 a day extended parking lot that is onsite and quick. When we lived near Chicago, I used to use parksleepfly to book a hotel and parking package at nearby hotels. The hotels never asked for my car keys, and the hotel stay could be before or after flying. The hotel stay made it easy for early morning departure or a late night arrival home. Have fun on your trip!
@AB I can understand why you didn’t want to leave the keys to your car. I wouldn’t either. I don’t believe Marriott has this requirement, though now I’m not 100% sure. We are taking our old minivan instead of my husband’s new-ish Mustang, just to be safe.
Yeah, if we had the option to pay $8 to park at the airport, we would. MCO is a bit steep when it comes to parking rates.
I tend to fly from urban area to urban area so most people are happy to pick up and drop off. But if we land or leave too early or late, I taxi it. Don’t want people missing sleep. I guess I’m lucky that way.
I tend to think life is a quid pro quo. It is. And it isn’t. I’m nice to you. You’re nice to be. It builds a sense of community when we help each other out.
I wouldn’t be comfortable asking someone to spend 4 hours driving to save me money unless I knew I could repay the favor one day, somehow. Prepaying with IT support isn’t a bad way to go! Haha! But sounds like you found a decent solution.
@Talchinsky Yeah, it totally depends on who you ask, as well as the time you have to be at the airport. If the flight leaves at 7 AM, there is no way I would ask someone to wake up at 3 AM to take us. I don’t care how much IT work my husband did for them! 🙂 We would just spend the night and pay for parking. When we fly from Europe back to US, we are usually quite exhausted, so having my MIL come and get us is a wonderful thing. But she doesn’t mind and we make sure to cover her expenses. It just depends. I confess, my in-laws help me more than I help them! But that will probably change soon.
If I can afford (ahem, MS and chase sign up bonuses) to take my family on a vacation I can afford to park. I’m not going to ask someone to make the 80 minute round trip drive (in my case) to the airport twice. That’s not factoring in the cost of wear and tear either.
@Projectx I think that’s totally fair! My concern was not so much the cost, but rather our condition when we land. But you are absolutely right, that’s a lot to ask, which is why we ultimately decided against it. I will say that seeing how relieved my BIL looked when I told him made me know I made the right call. People are very busy and stressed out the days.
We have driven from Fort Myers to Orlando, and I was struck by how rural parts of Florida are!
We are only about 30 minutes from our home airport, but we park and use the loyalty program at one of the lots for about $7/day. It’s a good deal. With my kids, our stuff, and their car seats, it works out for us to do that rather than have someone else do it.
There is an airport shuttle from a city about an hour away from my airport, but I’m sure there aren’t really options like that for you out there :/
@Kacie If you drove from Fort Myers to Orlando, you likely passed through my county! It’s amazing how different things are here compared to coastal areas of Florida. At one time, Orlando used to be a sleepy town. That changed with Disney World, of course.
I can see how paying $7 per day is easier than dealing with moving car seats.
We usually park our own car at the airport. If an airport was in town, I wouldn’t mind asking someone to drop me off. I never thought about the third-party lots. I’ll be researching that next time. That’s a big savings.
Amy, off-airport parking does involve nuisance, but if it’s a long trip, the savings can be substantial. In our case, we will save $140, and that’s worth minor inconvenience.