If you have an early morning flight from Bristol Airport, you might be wondering how to make the experience as stress-free as possible.
For our trip to Salou and Port Aventura with Jet2 Holidays our flights to Reus were leaving at 6:45 in the morning. Given the choice of leaving our house at 2am in the morning and travelling 90 minutes down the M4 to Bristol or staying overnight at the Hampton by Hilton and taking the 5 minute walk to the terminal at 5:00 am we chose the latter.
We fly out of Bristol several times a year and their multi-storey car park is a great choice if you are looking for convenience and location. We never park at the budget offsite car parks and have experienced all of Bristol Airport’s official on-site parking options ranging from their silver and long stay car park to their short stay and meet and greet service, but it’s their multi-storey car park that is always our favourite to park our car, let me tell you why.
Benefits of Parking at Multi Storey Car Park at Bristol Airport
The multi-storey car park at Bristol airport is our choice because of its convenient location just a short stroll from the terminal, so if you want to avoid the hassle of bus transfers or long walks to the airport terminal like us when travelling with kids this is a good option.
Compared to the other official car parks, Bristol airport’s multi-storey car park offers a range of benefits that are particularly appealing to families. The car park has covered spaces and what I particularly like is that the spaces here are wider than the outside car parks so again its really helpful when travelling as a family and have a lot of luggage to unload.
Whenever we book airport parking at Bristol airport, we always find that the best deals are by booking online in advance direct with the airport and also signing up to their rewards program for additional discounts and benefits. With the car park reservation made when we arrived at the car park the number plate recognition and space availability indicators made finding a space in the car park seamless and quick.
It’s the convenience that we really like about this car park, which is especially helpful if you have young children or have a lot of luggage to carry like us! Once we parked our car we were at the Jet2 Holidays check-in desk in no time.
Make use of twilight check-in if your airline offers this service.
Another reason we chose to stay overnight was the fact that Jet2 Holidays are now offering their twilight check-in service at the airport so we could check-in our luggage the night before. This was excellent and hassle-free and meant that we could skip any long check-in lines in the morning and go straight through security.
Stay overnight at Hampton by Hilton at Bristol Airport if you have an early morning flight
Stay overnight at Hampton by Hilton at Bristol Airport if you have an early morning flightOnce all of our holiday luggage was safely checked-in we made the short walk from the airport to the Hampton by Hilton where we were staying overnight. One of the key benefits of staying here for us is that the hotel is directly at the airport, located right next to the multi-storey car park.
We used our Hilton Honors points to pay for two rooms which at 30,000 points per room we thought was good value given that the room rates were approaching £190 a night per room for the dates we travelled during the half term week.
The rooms here are a decent size and perfectly acceptable for an overnight stay, with comfortable beds in both of our rooms so we had a good sleep before getting up early for our flight.
Breakfast is included in your room rate at the Hampton, served from 4am to 10am. There was a decent selection of breakfast items in this self service buffet ranging from pastries, fruit, cereals and much to the kids delight waffle machines.
As it was 4 am we skipped breakfast but its also good to know that from 5am hot breakfast items also are available on their breakfast offering.
Take advantage of the time-saving benefits offered by Fast Track Security
When travelling from Bristol Airport especially at peak times like when we were using the airport, we highly recommend using the Fast Track Security service. This costs £6 per person when booked online in advance and allowed us to use a dedicated fast track section of security. Once you arrive at the airport, simply follow the signs to the Fast Track Security channel. You’ll be guided to a dedicated channel where you can enjoy a priority service.
One of the main benefits of using Fast Track Security is the time-saving aspect, the wait times here to get through security were a lot less than the normal security lanes allowing us to get to the departure lounge in no time. This meant we had more time to do some last minute shopping before our flight and make the most of our time at the Escape executive lounge.
Escape the crowds and relax in the Executive Lounge
We used our Priority Passes, a benefit of having the AMEX Platinum card for complimentary access to the executive lounge, located close to the departure gates – if you don’t have a Priority Pass you can also pre-book this in advance on the Bristol Airport website.
The lounge has undergone a recent rebrand to Escape Lounges and we were really impressed by this new lounge compared to the old Aspire lounge. What we really like about having lounge access is that it offers a quiet and comfortable retreat from the busy main terminal with a with a range of facilities and amenities that made our pre-flight time relaxing and enjoyable.
Along with lots of comfortable seating and tables having dedicated toilet facilities just for customers of the lounge is also a bonus. The staff here were really friendly and welcoming and the breakfast options here were pretty good and just what we needed before our flight with Jet2 Holidays to the Costa Dorada.
Overall
If you have an early morning flight from Bristol Airport it’s well worth staying over at the Hampton by Hilton and if you are flying with Jet2 Holidays their twilight check-in service is a real game changer for a stress free start to your holiday.
We highly recommend using the Multi-Storey car park at Bristol Airport and their Fast Track Security service especially if there are lots of flights leaving a similar time to yours. With the time-saving benefits and hassle-free process, it’s definitely worth it.
When we landed back at Bristol and got through security within minutes we were back in our car at the multi-storey car park ready to make our journey home after a fabulous holiday with Jet2 Holidays to the Costa Dorada.
Ready to book?
For the best rates and availability for the multi storey car park and fast track can be found booking direct at the official website for Bristol Airport. Sign up for their free rewards programme for additional discounts on parking.