Parking in airports can be a challenging task. Actually, it’s not the parking that’s the issue – it’s finding the car when you come back to the lot that’s the problem. I find Dulles Airport parking to be one of the biggest culprits of this conundrum because it has so many lots, and everything looks the same.
So, this begs the question of how do you remember where you parked? It’s late, you’re coming back from a long flight and the last thing you can remember is where you left your vehicle, and what shuttle bus stop you got off at.
For me, I’m old fashioned. When I park my car, I always snap a picture with my cell phone of the nearest parking sign, landmark or other identifying picture.
When I get off my flight, I look at the picture album on my phone and…voila!…now I know where I parked! Now, I may not know exactly where that is, but I can at least tell the bus driver, and he can point me in the right direction. It’s a simply trick, but it saves loosing a scrap piece of paper trying to write down where you were at, or relying on some sort of app on your phone that may or not be entirely accurate.
In a few weeks, I’ll be posting on my secret parking strategy at Washington’s Ronald Reagan airport, and how you can get free parking there. 🙂 Stay tuned!
When we were at IND a month or so ago, they had QR codes at each bus stop in the economy parking lot that you could snap and it would email you your location.
Because I’m too lazy, I just decided to remember it and it worked (at least this time) 😀
I always put an appt at my landing time in my calendar with the parking spot. Since I always have my phone (and mostly charged), it hasn’t failed me yet.
I’ve tried the photo, but since I take a lot of pics during my travels, it usually gets buried.
Cool idea! I like the reminder. The downside is that if the flight gets delayed, you’ll have to adjust the reminder time, etc.
Your DCA strategy can be used similarly for IAD.