Pre-booking parking to skip the stress

Trying to find somewhere to park can be a nightmare, whether that’s not being able to find the space you need, someone parking where you need to be, or there just not being room near your destination.

Finding parking is only part of the equation. Planning a day trip somewhere can be stressful for a lot of different reasons. Taking care of your parking in advance can go a long way to giving you the headspace to focus on the rest of your journey.

Pre-booking is an easy way to get that little bit more organised before you set off, and can help take some of the stress out of your trip in a couple of different ways.

Know where to park

Pre-booking gives you a destination to aim for, no more circling looking for parking, you know where you’re supposed to be.

This gives you a location to put in a sat nav and helps take a lot of the guesswork out of your journey. This can even help with planning activities. For example, if your parking is near an attraction or by a restaurant, you might work that location into your itinerary for your trip.

Or if you’re going on a longer road trip, basing your stops on where you can pre-book your parking can really help structure your route and potentially find new and unusual places to stop that you might otherwise overlook.

A route for a road trip through a forest

When you arrive

Sometimes it helps to know when you’re going to get somewhere and how long a trip is going to take. This is important, especially if you’re heading to a meeting or a specific event.

When you pre-book, you set the time you want your parking to start from. When you know how long a journey is going to take, you can use this to set an arrival time. This helps nail down when you want to set off and lets you account for things like rush hour, school runs and roadworks.

You can work around potential delays and plan your drive to make it as efficient and stress-free as you can.

When you’re leaving

It can be awkward trying to figure out when you want to leave an event. Pre-booking lets you set that point without worrying. It can help with trip planning too. Having a set time to be on the road by can narrow down what you’re doing and what you’ll see on a trip, which can be a massive help with organising your day.

It also helps you plan your return trip for a time that makes sense to you and either lets you make sure you get on the road before traffic gets bad (like at rush hour) or set off later when the roads should be quieter.

Budget for a trip

There’s nothing worse than struggling to find somewhere to park and then getting stung with an expensive parking space that you have to use.

Pre-booking lets you know how much your parking is going to cost ahead of time, which is perfect if you’re trying to travel on a budget. Whether that’s working out where is going to be the cheapest place to park for a meeting or helping you save money in the long run on your commute, a bit of research can help you find affordable parking really easily.