How to choose the cheapest Cardiff Airport Parking?

Used to just rocking up to the official Cardiff Airport parking on the day and paying as you enter? Perfectly understandable as you just want to relax and enjoy your holiday; however, by using Airport Parking Shop and a tiny bit of planning, you can save money and perhaps find an option better suited to you.

A comparison: Turning up at Car Park 1 is £42.00 for 12–24 hours and £27.00 for each additional day — that’s £204.00 for a week if you simply roll up. Our lowest price last week was £61.87 for a 7-day stay.

Tempted? Then, whether it is the nearest car park or the cheapest, we give you the answers below in just five bite-sized chunks.

1 – Understand Your Parking Type Options (and what’s usually cheapest)

Quick Insights

Park & Ride is usually the cheapest (you park further away and take a bus), while Short Stay/Multi-Storey, right by the terminal, is the most expensive.

A Deeper Dive

(but don’t worry you will be back to the surface in no time)

The four main types of parking are Short Stay, Long Stay, Meet & Greet and Valet Parking:

• Short Stay (or Multi-Storey) — usually very near to the terminal and just a few minutes’ walk to departures.
• Long Stay (or Park & Ride) — these two names exist because Long Stay is more often used for official airport car park, while Park & Ride is used by third-party providers. What they have in common is that they usually require a shuttle bus or a longish walk of 10+ minutes.
• Meet & Greet — you leave your car and keys near the terminal; it’s parked for you in a secure compound.
• Valet Parking — like Meet & Greet but with the added bonus that a driver will meet you right by the terminal drop-off point, saving you the trouble of even having to park in a designated bay.

If you’re travelling with the family, you may find the Meet & Greet service is best suited to you; if you’re not carrying huge amounts of luggage then a cheaper off-airport Park & Ride may be the best option for you.

Cardiff Airport Car Park Specifics

The official Cardiff Airport website doesn’t use Short Stay or Long Stay anymore but Car Park 1 and 2. Confusingly some of the third-party resellers still use Long Stay but it is safe to say that matches up to Car Park 2, which has a longer walk.

Walkable:

Car Park 1 — Walk ~2–3 min • Keep keys: Yes.

Car Park 2 — Walk ~5–10 min (sometimes sold with a short shuttle) • Keep keys: Yes.

Premium Parking — Walk ~2 min • Keep keys: Yes.

Express Park (Official Meet & Greet) — Handover next to the terminal • Walk ~2–3 min from handover • Keep keys: No.

Drop Off & Pick Up — Paid zone directly opposite the terminal (from £3 for up to 10 minutes) and a free zone (20 minutes) in Car Park 2.

Park & Ride:

Official — No official options as on-airport options are walkable.

Third party — There is one option, APH Cardiff Park & Ride (formerly Highwayman) which is a 5 minute bus ride, with a frequency of every 15 minutes.

Which parking type is cheapest?

Expect to pay more for convenience. Short Stay/Multi-Storey is usually the most expensive since you’re closest to the terminal and you keep your keys. Where Park & Ride is available, it’s typically the best value.

Even though you’ll drop your car very close to the airport and have a short walk, Meet & Greet can sometimes rival Long Stay/Park & Ride on price: your car is usually parked off-site where storage is cheaper — and you have to leave your keys and arrange drop-off and pick-up times.

Cardiff Airport Parking - Short Stay, Meet & Greet and Park & Ride Comparison

The table above shows that over the six months from the 1st April to 31st September 2025 the average price of a day in Short Stay booked two weeks in advance was £18.24 compared to Park & Ride which was £13.60. That is a saving of almost £5 a day.

Note: The above is for guidance on price differences not an estimate of your price. It includes quotes for 1 day's parking up to 14+ days and you will pay a much lower price if you book for more days. In addition, it includes all providers in that category - for example, Park & Ride - and some will be more expensive. You can see a list of the cheapest providers over the last week above or simply do a search to compare latest prices across all the leading comparison sites. We don’t own any car parks, we are only interested in getting you the cheapest price.

Using Airport Parking Shop

Tip: By default, Airport Parking Shop lists prices from low to high irrespective of the parking type, which you can see in the blue box. If you are sure what kind of parking type you want, simply hit the Filter Results option above the results and then select for just what you want under Parking Options on the left.

2 – Plan to Book in Advance

Quick Insight

Start looking at least two weeks in advance.

(The Quick Dive-Down Part)

The most expensive way to park is to turn up on the day and pay as you enter. Not only will it cost more but they might not have spaces, leaving you with a lot more stress than having to remember to book! Turning up at Car Park 1 is £42.00 for 12–24 hours and £27.00 for each additional day — that’s £204.00 for a week.

You can save substantially by booking in advance, with the amount you save depending on how far in advance you book: aim for at least two weeks ahead.

The average price of Short Stay booked two weeks in advance was £127.68, that is a saving of 37% (£76.32), compared to turning up at Car Park 1.

Tip: Prices go up due to availability (or lack of) so at busier times of the year, like school and national holidays, you may want to start looking at prices even earlier.

3 – Don’t Rely Just on Cardiff Official Car Parks

Cardiff, like most airports, has its own car parks - and, like most airports, it has third party operators providing parking options. You may have read about rogue parking operators at airports and understandably that can be off putting but the reality is that lots of trusted, established providers run car parks all across the UK.

Official Cardiff Airport car parks are Car Park 1, Car Park 2, Premium Parking and Express Park. The rest are third party.

Is official or third-party the cheapest?

Comparing like-for-like (e.g., meet & greet vs meet & greet; park & ride vs park & ride), official is more often than not pricier than third party. At Cardiff, there isn't an official park & ride option as Car Park 2 (Long Stay) doesn’t need a bus. Because of this, it isn’t exactly an apples vs apples comparison with the park & ride options. Park & ride is still overall cheaper but it isn’t as convenient as Car Park 2 (unless of course your absolute overriding priority is avoiding walking rather than time spent waiting for a bus).

Using Airport Parking Shop

Airport Parking Shop allows you to see official and third-party car parks together based around key functionality. For example, car parks that need a bus will be under Park & Ride; we don’t leave official ones under on-airport, making it difficult to filter and compare.

4 – Compare Parking Features to Find the Best Value

Once you’ve decided on a parking type, compare what they offer to get the right balance of price and convenience:

• Transfer time & frequency: walk minutes or shuttle interval
• Distance from terminal: handy if walking is preferred
• Keys: keep vs leave
• Booking flexibility: fully flexible vs pay-now/non-refundable
• Opening hours: look for 24/7 if you have late/early flights
• Security & reviews: Park Mark, recent ratings
• Total price, not headline: watch any airport forecourt fees

Cardiff features comparison

Using Airport Parking Shop

Tip: After doing a search the features above will be displayed in the tabs, or by hitting the More Info button.

5 – Compare Sites to Find the Cheapest and Save More

Quick insight

Not every site sells every car park, and the same space can be a different price elsewhere. Check more than one site — or save time by using Airport Parking Shop.

The Detail

(I ran out of deep dive riffs)

So, you are ready to save money – you’ve even planned out how many more drinks you can get at the pool bar. But then you google for Cardiff Airport parking, you see so many sites to choose from, and your head starts to hurt. Which one is best?

The world of airport parking is made up of lots of businesses:

• The official airport car parks usually run by the airport.
• National third-party car park brands who resell official spaces or operate Meet & Greet.
• Small regional operators.
• Meet & Greet providers who take your car to a secure compound that you won’t visit.

Use a comparison site to cut through the noise

This definitely helps but not every car park works with every comparison site and sometimes, different sites charge different prices for the same space. Ever been searching for car insurance and found a provider available on one comparison site and not another, or at a different price? Airport parking is no different with the added complication that some comparison sites are selling their own spaces too.

Search more than one

The key therefore is finding the cheapest price is to check as many different sites as possible. As with anything else, there is a cost benefit ratio so you might set yourself a target of the top 3 or 4. Or you might just give up!

All the comparison sites have a lowest price guarantee – isn’t that great?

Checking multiple sites for lowest prices is a time-consuming exercise so why not just rely on the cheapest price guarantee of the first one? Cheapest price guarantees are fantastic, but it is down to you to go find a lower price elsewhere, often within 24 hours, and then contact the original provider, send them the link, and wait for their refund. Something most of us don’t have time for.

How Airport Parking Shop Can Help

That is why Airport Parking Shop is here. We compare the car parks for you, and we even compare the comparison sites. We are independent, we don’t have any car parks of our own. Check the logos for our partners above and then look down the search results for airport parking and you can see we work with almost everyone (find one we don’t, let us know and we’ll get on it).

How we save time and money:

• See more options: both third-party car parks and comparison sites.
• Compare providers: see prices for the same space, all next to each other in one search.
• See like-for-like: compare Park & Ride with Park & Ride, Meet & Greet with Meet & Greet.
• Quickly narrow down: filter by parking type, customer reviews, providers and even distance to the terminal.
• Switch dates in a click to see the cheapest.
• Understand feature differences: check summary cards or tap through for full details.

What terminology is helpful to understand pricing?

Meet & Greet vs Valet Parking

Very similar, but Valet is typically a premium handover right by the terminal (at Cardiff this is the Express Park handover).

Park & Ride vs Long Stay

These terms are often used interchangeably with Park & Ride preferred by third-party operators and Long Stay by the official airport. At Cardiff, the walkable on-airport options are Car Park 1/2; third-party Park & Ride is limited but a quick shuttle option is available.

On-airport vs off-airport

Many comparison sites have an On-Airport filter and a separate one for Park & Ride. The on-airport category might seem self-explanatory, but the search results can sometimes include Long Stay that is a bus ride away — similar to Park & Ride. We think this can be confusing, so we don’t categorise like that. We put all bus-served options together under Park & Ride and all walkable ones under On-Airport so you can compare them like-for-like.

Short Stay

Short Stay doesn’t mean you have to stay for a short period of time. The price and closeness to the airport means it is usually used by friends or relatives sending someone off, but you can park for a week or two if you want. Just remember it will cost you a lot more.

Motorbike parking at Cardiff Airport

You'll be pleased to know that motorbike parking is available at Cardiff Airport. Head over to our dedicated blog for full details on motorbike parking at Cardiff Airport.

Cardiff City Guide

Cardiff is Europe's youngest capital city, achieving its status in 1955, and although it has developed into one of the most vibrant cities it has not lost its small town aspects. Over the last decade, the capital of Wales has undergone many cosmetic changes to its infrastructure, but is still very compact for a city. Though considerably quieter than London it attracts large numbers of visitors, who come for the shopping, nightlife, peaceful parks and the modern delights of the city centre and bay development.

With gothic castles and cathedrals, Victorian parks and arcades, the Welsh capital is an exciting place. The National Museum of Wales offers impressive exhibits of Welsh history and cultural development, and the famous Cardiff Bay and the ultra-modern Millennium Stadium add to its charm. After dark, the streets reverberate with theatres, pubs and clubs.