It is twenty-four hours since we arrived home from the most relaxing, and luxurious holiday we’ve ever had, and I’m feeling pretty good. It’s a nine hour flight from Jamaica’s Montego Bay airport to London Gatwick. Jamaican time is five hours behind the UK, putting me right now at cocktail-o-clock, when actually I’m working at my desk, and contemplating the afternoon school run. And I can honestly say, I’m not jet-lagged.
That might have something to do with the bright light therapy clock I took with me, and recently reviewed for Space In Your Case, but I think a lot of my relaxed state is down to the relatively painless process of getting to our destination, and back again. Travelling is stressful, at the best of times, and with Type 1 diabetes thrown into the mix, getting away gets complicated, so anything that makes travel day easier is welcome news in our house.
We’re only a couple of hours from most of the London airports, so we usually choose to drive – a taxi each way is more expensive, and train travel costs almost as much, with the added hassle of dragging luggage (and small people) across London. But then there’s parking, and that funny bus from the long-stay, and the “will we make it on time, and is this even the right terminal?” stress that comes with it. This time though, we found the perfect solution – APH meet and greet parking service.
APH take the stress out of family air travel
APH meet and greet is exactly what it sounds like. We drove to Gatwick, made a quick phone call to the APH operator when we were half an hour away, and then pulled into the short-stay car park three hours before our flight was due to leave. Waiting for us there was a smartly-dressed APH representative, who completed plenty of checks on our car, before asking us to sign it over to him. He even reminded to make sure we had our hand baggage and passports before he left. Then he disappeared with our car and our parking ticket, leaving us to walk the few-hundred metres to our check in desk. Easy!
What I love about APH is their professionalism. Everything was booked online, so we had no idea what to expect, but the friendly efficiency of their representative immediately reassured us that our car was indeed going to be driven to a safe and secure car park where it will be treated like royalty that is promised on the website. On our return, we simply made a quick call once we’d retrieved our luggage, and by the time we were back in short-stay, our fully-insured valet was there to meet us with our car. It had been driven just 14 miles since we left it, presumably to its own luxury holiday home, and was in exactly the same condition as we left it. Two hours later we were back home, with no thoughts of transfers, train tickets, or keeping tags on all our bags as we travelled onwards.
We will certainly use the service again; travelling with children, lots of luggage, and a need to focus on making sure vital medical supplies don’t get lost en route means that I’m in a state of anxiety until we’re on the plane. APH meet and greet removes so much of the hassle, that I can concentrate on the things I need to, and get on with moving into holiday mode much quicker.
Our APH airport meet and greet parking service was free of charge for the purposes of this review. APH operate most UK airports, and can offer airport parking with a bus shuttle to the airport, and hotel stays the night before your flight, should you need it. With over thirty-five years of experience, they’ve been voted best airport parking company five years running, and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. APH also have a blog full of handy travel information and news, and they regularly post information and special offers on Facebook.