How to choose the cheapest Edinburgh Airport Parking?

Used to just rocking up to the official Edinburgh Airport site 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: Just turning up at Edinburgh Airport Official Long Stay is listed at £55 for the 1st day and £30 per day thereafter. Our lowest price last week was £30.92 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, situated next to 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 options:

• Short Stay (or multi-storey) — usually very near to the terminal and just a few minutes' walk to departures.
• Long Stay (or Park & Ride) — a bus ride or at least a 10-minute walk away (depending on the airport).
• Meet & Greet — you leave your car and keys in an agreed part of the airport, and it is taken to a secure car park off-site.
• Valet Parking — like Meet & Greet but with the added bonus that a driver will meet you at the terminal drop off point, saving you the trouble of even having to go to the agreed space.

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 car park may be the best option for you.

Edinburgh Airport Car Park Specifics

Short Stay — There are two car parks at Edinburgh that are within a couple minutes' walk of the terminal – Terminal Surface and Terminal Multi-Storey. Multi-Storey is a marginal 1- minute quicker walk, but Terminal Surface is open air so it could result in an unfortunate reminder of Edinburgh weather before you jet off for sunnier climes.

Meet & Greet — Presently, there are no Meet & Greet operators at Edinburgh airport but that could change quickly.

Park & Ride — There is a wide selection of options: PlaneParking, Edinburgh Airport Scotpark, Edinburgh Flying Scot, Edinburgh Low Cost Parking, Edinburgh Park and Fly Ltd, Edinburgh Park and Ride, Edinburgh Quality Parking, and Edinburgh Secure Airparks – Self Park.

EDI Long Stay — We have to separate this car park out as, although it is cheaper and further than Short Stay, there is no longer a bus; expect a 10–12-minute walk – and an even greater chance to bump into some less-than-ideal weather.

Mid Stay — Edinburgh has a Mid Stay option designed to sit between the price, distance and weather risks of Terminal Surface and Long Stay: a 5-minute walk vs 2 or 10+ minutes. It is either a godsend that exactly matches your distance vs price needs, or a head scratcher that keeps you up for countless nights as you evaluate the incremental minutes and money you saved compared to how many less drinks you can buy and how much earlier you have to leave your house.

Drop & Go — Drop & Go offers you the convenience of having someone park your car for you, saving you the trouble of looking for a space (you'll need to leave your keys). It is not Meet & Greet as you have to get yourself to the car park, and, at Edinburgh, these are Park & Ride car parks.

Which parking type is cheapest?

Expect to pay more for convenience. Short Stay is usually the most expensive option as your car stays in the closest car park to the airport and your keys stay in your pocket, allowing you a quick walk back to your car. Even though you will drop your car very close to the airport, Valet and Meet & Greet can still be cheaper than Long Stay (Park & Ride) - Meet & Greet providers take your car off airport to cheaper locations, so they can be very competitive. You also have to arrange dropping off and picking up times and leave your keys.

Edinburgh Airport Parking - Short Stay and Park & Ride Comparison

The table above shows that over the six months - the 1st April to 31st September 2025 - the average price of a day in Short Stay booked two weeks in advance was £16.58 compared to Park & Ride which was £13.28. That is a saving of more than £20 over a week.

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!

Each car park will have their own prices, but on the official Edinburgh Airport parking site Long Stay is listed at £55 for the 1st day and £30 per day thereafter – and Short Stay £70 for the 1st day and then £55 per day.

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

Edinburgh Airport - Advance Pricing Comparison

As you can see from the table above, the average price of one day’s Park & Ride parking fell from £19.08 to £12.38 when booked two weeks in advance, compared to one day ahead.

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 Edinburgh Official Carparks

Quick Insight

While third-party car parks are usually cheaper than Official airport carparks, Edinburgh has and official option that is comparable in price.

A Deeper Dive

(It is only snorkelling)

Edinburgh, like most airports, has its own car parks which cover Short Stay, Long Stay, and Meet & Greet, among others. 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 – APH, NCP, Purple Parking, FHR and so many others - run car parks all across the UK.

Edinburgh official car parks - At Edinburgh the official car parks are EDI Multi-Storey, Terminal Surface, Mid Stay Parking and PlaneParking. The rest, as you have no doubt guessed, are third-party.

Why no third-party Short Stay? – By virtue of short stay needing to offer a short walk and therefore be near the terminal and on the airport grounds, it is usually the preserve of the official airport parking – with third party operators focused on Park & Ride and Meet & Greet.

Is official or third-party the cheapest?

Comparing like-for-like, for example, Meet & Greet or Park & Ride (Long Stay), official operators are often more expensive than third-party; however, this is not always the case and at Edinburgh Airport, Plane Parking, the official low-cost carpark, can be extremely competitively priced, compared to third-party options.

Tip: it might be considered that the official car park has better facilities or convenience, but not necessarily; remember to check features like distance to terminal and shuttle bus schedules.

Using Airport Parking Shop

Airport Parking Shop allows you to see official and third-party car parks together based around key functionality. For example, carparks 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

There is very likely to be more than one provider of your chosen parking option: Edinburgh Airport has at least 5 Park & Ride operators. Therefore, once you have decided on a parking type, you can then compare what they offer to see which one offers the right balance of price and convenience for you:

• Transfer time & frequency: walk or shuttle time and how often for the shuttle.
• Distance from terminal: check how many miles away your Meet & Greet is taking your vehicle.
• Keys: leave keys is often cheaper; keep keys is a convenience premium.
• Booking flexibility: fully flexible vs pay-now/non-refundable.
• Opening hours: 24/7 collection for late/early flights.
• Accessibility: step-free routes, Blue Badge bays.
• Security & reviews: independent accreditation, recent ratings.
• Total price, not headline: watch out-of-hours, late-return, or oversized-vehicle fees.

For example, Low Cost Parking has a 6-minute transfer time, while Secure Airparks boasts a 2-minute transfer time.

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 airport parking site works with every carpark and sometimes they can sell the same space at different prices. It helps to check more than one site and use a meta provider like 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 Edinburgh 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 chains – for example NCP or Purple Parking - who have branded, large capacity, car parks where you can park yourself and keep your keys.
• Small independent ones who may be regional.
• Meet & Greet providers who take your car to a secure compound that you won't visit.

The smaller ones may wholly rely on comparison sites to sell spaces for them, while the larger ones may have their own web shops. The larger ones usually sell their own spaces and often ones from other car parks – they may even rebrand these spaces as their own. The result is a lot of choice and understandable throbbing in your head.

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 independent carparks 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 airport.
• Switch dates in a click: easily change date and arrival times to compare prices and see the cheapest.
• Understand feature differences: see summary cards of key features in the results or click to find more information.

What terminology is helpful to understand pricing?

Meet & Greet vs Valet Parking

Meet & Greet and Valet Parking are similar beasts, but Valet Parking offers a more premium service. With Meet & Greet it is usually your job to park in a designated space and take your keys to a desk and hand them over, while with Valet Parking someone meets you outside the terminal, speeding up the process.

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. In general, both involve a bus ride but sometimes you have to walk from Long Stay. This is the case at Edinburgh.

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 usually include Long Stay, which is often a bus ride away - similar to Park & Ride. The reason is that Long Stay is usually owned by the airport, so think of On Airport as anything owned by the airport. Unfortunately, when you filter Park & Ride you won't get the Long Stay to compare it to. We don't do this, putting Long Stay in with Park & Ride to allow that comparison.

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.

Edinburgh Airport Car Parks

Edinburgh Airport Scotpark

This off-airport car park is only a few minutes from the terminal, and shuttle buses run every 10 minutes. The car park has been awarded the Park Mark, guaranteeing excellent security while you are away. The transfer buses are suitable for wheelchairs.

Postcode: EH28 8LS

Other off-site car parks include Edinburgh Flying Scot, Edinburgh Low Cost Parking, Edinburgh Park and Fly Ltd, Edinburgh Park and Ride, Edinburgh Quality Parking, and Edinburgh Secure Airparks – Self Park.

Motorbike parking at Edinburgh Airport

Edinburgh Airporter Meet and Greet

For a trouble-free start to your trip you might like to consider this Meet and Greet service. Just go straight to the terminal where you will be met with one of the airport chauffeurs who will park your car in the secure airport car park. On your return there is no need for you to phone the operator as the staff will track your flight and have your car ready and waiting for you.

Airport postcode: EH12 9DN

Other Meet and Greet services include Edinburgh Meet and Greet, Edinburgh Official Airporter Meet and Greet, Edinburgh Park and Fly Meet and Greet and Edinburgh Plane Parking Meet and Greet.

Edinburgh Long Stay

This is an on-site car park and has been awarded the Park Mark for security. The courtesy coach only takes two minutes and runs every 10 minutes. At busy times of year a minimum stay charge applies.

Airport postcode: EH12 9DN

Edinburgh Airport Terminal Parking

If you want to be able to walk from your car to the terminal, then Edinburgh Airport Terminal Parking is your best option. There are three car parks to choose from: multi-storey, open-air or fastTRACK bays. Although pre-booking will get you the best deal, it is possible just to turn up and park. The fastTRACK price includes two tickets for fast-track security.

Airport postcode: EH12 9DN

Edinburgh Park and Fly – Executive Parking (Meet and Greet + Mini Valet)

If you are looking for that little extra touch, this Meet and Greet service with Mini Valet could be worth booking. The parking charge includes hand washing of your car, cleaning of sills, cleaning and dressing of wheels, vacuuming of car interior including mats, and dashboard cleaning and dressing.

The operator will meet you at the short-term car park but will only pay for the first 15 minutes of parking on both arrival and departure.

Airport postcode: EH12 9DN

Edinburgh Mystery Parking

This rather curiously named car park "does what it says on the tin". You make your booking and are then given details of where to park. The booking is non-refundable. The car parks in question are off-site, but courtesy buses run every five to 10 minutes and take just three minutes to get to the airport. This is a self-park operation, but if you want to have your car cleaned in your absence, you will have to leave your keys with the attendant.

Postcode: not available until after booking

Edinburgh City Guide

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. The city is basically split into two main districts - the Old Town and the New Town, with Princes Street Gardens separating them. The surrounding areas offer an array of places to visit.

Medieval buildings share the pavements with striking modern structures, century old craftsmanship combined with cutting edge fashion and the people of the world mingle in the city's original pubs and contemporary restaurants to create a truly dynamic capital city. The Scottish capital's long and rich history is brought to life by its famous cliff-top castle. Home to the Scottish Parliament, the city bursts with festivity during Hogmanay in the winter and the legendary Edinburgh Festival in the summer.

Other services at Edinburgh Airport

Need to find out more about Edinburgh Airport? Visit Edinburgh Airport Guide to get special hotel and car hire deals, travel updates, departures and arrivals information and much more.