Stansted long stay parking: the cheapest on-airport car park

Pre-booked rates at the Stansted Long Stay car park start from around £64.99 for 8 days, the lowest of the airport's own car parks. The figure is dynamic: Stansted prices its car parks by date and demand, so the rate climbs as your travel date approaches and as spaces fill.

Long Stay is pre-book only: there is no drive-up gate rate. If you turn up without a booking you cannot use it, and park instead in the Orange, Blue or Green zones of the Short Stay car park, which costs more. The minimum stay is 5 days (subject to availability), so for a shorter trip Mid Stay or Short Stay is the better fit. Larger and overheight vehicles are accommodated, unlike the height-limited Meet & Greet.

Once your dates are fixed, book; a standard booking cancels free up to 72 hours before arrival. The car park is Park Mark accredited, with number-plate recognition at the barriers rather than tickets. Prices are lowest booked ahead, so check the live quote for your dates on the official Long Stay page. To weigh Long Stay against the off-airport JetParks and the independent operators, the cheap Stansted parking page does the comparison.

Long Stay is a ride from the terminal, not a walk. A free shuttle bus runs every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day. The airport quotes the transfer time inconsistently, between about 7 and 15 minutes on different pages, so the safe plan is to allow 15 minutes for the ride plus the wait at the stop.

Build that into your check-in timing at both ends of the trip. The 24-hour service means an early-morning or late-night flight is covered, which is the main practical advantage of an on-airport car park over some off-airport ones with limited overnight transfers. One honest caveat from traveller reviews: the every-15-minutes frequency can slip at busy times, with longer waits reported for the return bus in particular, so leave a buffer rather than counting on a bus the moment you reach the stop.

Long Stay competes with two other budget options, so the choice turns on price against transfer.

• Versus Mid Stay: Mid Stay is closer in, with a shuttle that runs a shorter, more frequent hop, and it doubles as the free drop-off area. It costs a little more than Long Stay. For a longer trip where price leads, Long Stay; for a shorter trip or a free drop-off, Mid Stay.
• Versus JetParks: JetParks is the airport's off-airport park and ride, often cheaper again, with a shuttle every 15 minutes. The trade is a slightly longer transfer for a lower price. On the cheapest dates JetParks undercuts Long Stay; on others they are close.

Independent operators on the roads around the airport can be cheaper still for a week or more, at the cost of a slower shuttle and a car park further out. The parking hub compares all of them, and the cheap parking page focuses on the lowest total cost.

The Long Stay car park postcode for sat-nav is CM24 1SF. Use that, not the terminal postcode (CM24 1RW), or you will be sent to the wrong place. Stansted is off the M11: use junction 8a from the London direction or junction 8 from the Cambridge side, then follow the signs for Long Stay parking.

The full set of car-park postcodes and the road approach are on the postcode and directions page, and the M11 route is covered on the driving to Stansted page.

Blue Badge bays are provided in Long Stay Zone L. A Blue Badge does not make the parking free at Stansted: the normal car-park charge applies, so book in advance as any driver would. For accessible parking across all the car parks and the routes from each, see the Blue Badge parking page.

The decision comes down to two questions.

Is the stay more than a couple of days? If yes, Long Stay is almost always the cheapest of the airport's own car parks, so it is the default for a holiday. For a stay of only an hour or two, Short Stay on its hourly tariff is better, and for a drop-off you should not park at all.

Is the 15-minute shuttle acceptable? If yes, Long Stay wins on price. If you would rather not wait for a bus, Meet & Greet hands the car over at the terminal and Mid Stay offers a shorter hop, both for more money. If the absolute lowest price matters most, compare Long Stay against JetParks and the independent operators on the cheap parking page before booking. The full cross-product picture is on the parking hub, and recurring questions are answered on the parking FAQs page.