Before I go on any holiday I tend to go through a ritualistic set of behaviours. Up to 1 week prior to setting off I realise I haven’t set up any form of travel insurance, I panic about the fact that I might have forgotten the email address I used to buy the tickets, I fret about finding the very best foreign exchange dealer and I wonder and worry about promising Santa Claws (the family cat also affectionately known as "St Nic") to the neighbours (including a 5 year old little girl). And let’s not mention the passport and remaining to do list at work. All in all I’m pretty sure the last thing on my mind is preparation for the day of travel. Or in fact what to do about that old issue of packing 3 suitcases for 2 and a bit people. T-minus 24 hrs (i.e. the time we actually get to the whole travelling part of the trip) I’m pretty much exhausted and brain dead. It’s no wonder that by the time I even get to the airport car park I’m ready to just turn around go home and go to bed.

I think you can see where this is going. Travelling is hard work but holidaying?! With a young family it can be extremely stressful and potentially quite a danger to the family dynamic. If anything holidays should probably come with a health warning. This is especially true about parking – you say to yourself every year that you won’t do it to yourself but you always find yourself fighting to find a space last minute and spending a small fortune on the pleasure of staying at the airport’s finest tarmac checkers board.

Last year it was the last straw – there had to be a better way. I was already at the end of my tether and was seriously considering just staying at home. Maybe paint the room yellow and dream I was on a beach. Fortunately my sanity returned and I decided the best form of defence against this was a strong attack – I decided to do my research and pre-book my airport parking.

So here is the interesting thing – prebooked from any site (including the airport’s own websites) offered up to 40% savings on airport car parking. Also the more days booked the better the deal on the parking. They give you the exact position and most even gave you a layout to plan your escape from the car to the shuttle bus. Sounds pretty good I thought – and to be honest when saving 40% on around 14 days you can probably expect to see around £40 savings! But then I delved a little deeper and found the real value came in "Meet and Greet" services.

"Meet and Greet" – otherwise known as valet car parking, is a service that allows you to drop off everyone (luggage and all) off at the terminal building whilst you hand your keys to a chauffer who will park your car on your behalf in a secured premises. Sounds expensive but as it turned out in some cases there were "meet and greet" car parking services that were cheaper than using standard on site car parks! I wanted to make sure this wasn’t exclusive to my local so I checked out a few different airports – it seems that yes you can get cheap "meet and greet" services at most airports. For example you can get Gatwick Meet and Greet services for £3 less than prebooking parking on site! The website I used was Park and Go - just check out this page on Gatwick South Airport Parking.

And what do you do after 2 weeks of play? You come back, give them a call as you collect your baggage, pop through customs and find the valet guide waiting! Excellent!