If you are comparing the on-airport parking options at London Gatwick, Long Stay is usually the option people weigh against Mid Stay, Short Stay and the premium products. This article sets out only what the airport itself publishes about the Long Stay product: what it is, how you get from the car park to the terminal, and how the published price basis works. Where the official pages do not answer a question, this article says so and points you to the page to check.
What is Gatwick Long Stay?
Long Stay is an official London Gatwick car park product, published by the airport on its own parking pages. The airport describes the car parks as safe and secure: all official Long Stay car parks are “well-lit, security fenced and regularly patrolled by London Gatwick security staff”, and the airport states that they hold ParkMark Safer Parking approval. Both of those points come from the airport's own Long Stay Parking page.
Long Stay is not a single car park. The airport publishes separate Long Stay car parks for each terminal, and it refers to them by terminal: North Terminal Long Stay and South Terminal Long Stay. The directions published for the North Terminal Long Stay car park take drivers from the M23 at Junction 9, following signs for London Gatwick, then signs for the North Terminal, then the third exit towards the Long Stay car park at the next roundabout, past a petrol station on the right, third exit again at the next small roundabout, then about a mile to the next roundabout and right into the North Terminal Long Stay car park.
One practical detail the airport flags for the North Terminal site is that there is no accurate postcode for the North Terminal Long Stay car park. If you rely on a satnav, that is worth knowing before you set off; the airport's own directions are the ones to follow. The South Terminal Long Stay car park is a separate site with its own directions on the same page.
Blue Badge spaces in Long Stay
The airport publishes specific Blue Badge provision for the Long Stay car parks: 32 Blue Badge bays in the Long Stay North Terminal car park, and 95 spaces in the Long Stay South Terminal car park. The airport states that Blue Badge bays are exclusively reserved for Blue Badge holders. If you need a Blue Badge bay, the published figures are the ones to plan around, and availability on the day is not something this article can confirm.
Bay sizes
On the airport's parking FAQ page, the published bay dimensions for Long Stay, Mid Stay and Short Stay are given as standard size: 2.4 metres wide and 4.8 metres long. The same page states that Premium Short Stay car parks offer extra-wide bays. So if width is the deciding factor for you, the published comparison is Long Stay against Premium Short Stay, not Long Stay against Mid Stay or Short Stay.
How do you get to the terminal from Long Stay?
This is the point on which the evidence bundle is thinnest, and it is important to be honest about that. The airport's Long Stay page, as captured in the bundle, gives driving directions to the car park and describes the car park itself, but it does not spell out the transfer mechanism — whether that is a shuttle bus, how often it runs, how long it takes, or whether it is included in the price. The bundle does not contain those details.
What the bundle does establish is that Long Stay is an on-airport product with a separate car park for each terminal, reached by following airport signage rather than by parking at the terminal building itself. That is the structural difference between Long Stay and the Short Stay products, which are positioned at the terminals. But the specific transfer arrangements for Long Stay are not stated in the evidence available here.
If the transfer is the deciding factor in your comparison, check the airport's own Long Stay Parking page and the Parking FAQs page for the current transfer information before you book. Do not assume a shuttle frequency or journey time from this article, because none is published in the source material used here.
How is Gatwick Long Stay priced?
The published price basis for Long Stay rests on pre-booking, and the airport is explicit about the direction of travel: if you wish to park for longer than two hours, the airport recommends pre-booking your Long Stay parking as far in advance as possible in order to enjoy the best rates. That wording comes from the airport's Parking FAQs page.
Two rules from that page matter for anyone comparing Long Stay with the other on-airport options:
- The free two-hour window. If you are picking up or dropping off someone at the airport, you can park in the North or South Terminal Long Stay car park for up to 2 hours for free. After 2 hours you will pay the Roll-up rate if you have not pre-booked.
- Payment at the barrier if you have not pre-booked. The airport states that its Short Stay and Long Stay car parks have payment machines at the exit barrier which accept card payments only. Mid Stay and Robotic Parking are described as pre-book only.
So the Long Stay price basis has two published components: a pre-booked rate, which the airport says is best secured as far in advance as possible, and a Roll-up rate, which applies if you have not pre-booked and stay beyond the free window. The bundle does not contain any actual figures for either rate, and it does not contain a price table. Any specific price you see quoted elsewhere should be checked against the airport's own booking flow, because this article cannot state a price that is not in the source material.
Length of stay
One point that is easy to misread: the Parking FAQs page says there is no minimum or maximum length of stay in the Short Stay car parks. That statement is about Short Stay, not Long Stay. The bundle does not publish an equivalent minimum or maximum for Long Stay, so this article does not claim one. If you need a long duration, verify the position on the airport's Long Stay page before booking.
The same caution applies to the free two-hour window. It is published for the North or South Terminal Long Stay car park for picking up or dropping off, but the bundle does not say whether that window is available to all users or whether it is tied to the drop-off and pick-up use case described. Read the airport's wording on the page before relying on it.
How Long Stay compares with the other on-airport options
On the evidence in this bundle, the comparison that can be drawn is limited but useful:
| Point of comparison | Long Stay | Other on-airport products (as published) |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-booking | Recommended for stays over 2 hours; Roll-up rate applies if not pre-booked | Mid Stay and Robotic Parking are pre-book only |
| Payment if not pre-booked | Payment machines at the exit barrier, card payments only | Short Stay also has payment machines at the exit barrier, card payments only |
| Bay size | Standard size: 2.4 metres wide and 4.8 metres long | Mid Stay and Short Stay also standard size; Premium Short Stay offers extra-wide bays |
| Blue Badge bays | 32 at North Terminal Long Stay; 95 at South Terminal Long Stay | Not stated in this bundle |
| Location relative to terminal | Separate car park per terminal, reached by following airport signs | Short Stay and Premium Short Stay are terminal-positioned products |
That table is deliberately narrow. It reflects only what the two source pages state. It does not rank the products, and it does not claim that Long Stay is cheaper or more expensive than any other option, because the bundle contains no prices.
For a wider product-by-product view, see our comparison pages and the products section, which set out the different on-airport products alongside each other. Those pages are the right place to line up Long Stay against Mid Stay, Short Stay, Premium Short Stay and Robotic Parking.
What this article does not tell you
To keep the record straight, here is what the evidence bundle does not cover, and where to check it:
- Prices. No rate, fee or price band for Long Stay appears in the bundle. Check the airport's booking flow from the Long Stay Parking page.
- Transfer details. No shuttle frequency, journey time or transfer method is published in the bundle. Check the Long Stay page and the Parking FAQs.
- Opening times. The Parking FAQs excerpt in the bundle begins a section on car park opening times but does not include the answer. Check the FAQ page directly.
- Long Stay minimum or maximum stay. The bundle publishes this only for Short Stay. Check the Long Stay page.
- South Terminal directions. The bundle includes North Terminal directions in full and refers to South Terminal directions on the same page, but does not reproduce them. Check the Long Stay page.
Everything above is drawn from the airport's own published pages, checked on 6 October 2026. Parking products and their terms change, so treat the airport's pages as the live source and this article as a structured reading of them.
Checked 2026-10-06. This source check uses Long Stay Parking and Parking FAQs. It is not a live availability check, booking or personal test.
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