Top Parking Spots While Waiting at Birmingham Airport

It has to be the most asked question that we get when doing Birmingham Airport transfers, “Yes, where exactly do you park when waiting for clients on a pickup?”

The Premium Set-Down area right in front of the Birmingham Airport terminal is £5 for 15 minutes. Overstay that and you could be faced with an eye-watering £50 for an hour!

So here at Cathedral Travel we park up and wait close by until we get a message reply from the client that they have their bags, Then we swing into the zone to pickup. The system works well; you can find out more about BHX private hire pickup options in this blog entry.

The roads directly outside of the airport have all got double yellow lines, so apart from a few closed car park entrances around the NEC, you won’t find a convenient waiting space there. There’s also a small white Toyota camera van that lurks around corners catching those who dropoff or wait.

Here’s our three favourite spots to wait at BHX.

1) The Motocycle Museum

Situated on the other side of the M42 roundabout, the Motorcycle Museum is just a few minutes away. There’s lots of parking, shade under the trees in the summer and even a coffee shop and toilet inside.

Our Mercedes VClass parked up at the Motorcycle Museum

It doesn’t take long to get to the pickup, but if there is a large conference on you can get stuck in traffic trying to get out.

Pros

• Closeness to Airport

• Lots of space to park including shade from trees

• Cafe and toilets in museum

Cons

• Patchy Mobile data reception

• The entrance barrier could go down at night

2) Starley Way

It’s the first road on the adjacent industrial estate that you can park on and is frequented by many private hire vehicles.

Parked up close to BHX waiting for clients.

It is a busy road through even at night and the large articulated lorries that service the companies on the road tend to use it as a quarter mile drag strip. We have even seen a group of waiting drivers around a foldable picnic table having lunch on the pavement!

Pros

• Closeness to Airport without going over M42 roundabout

• Fast mobile data

Cons

• A busy road, HGVs take it very fast sometimes

• It can be full of lorries parked for the night

3) The Train Station Short Stay Car Park

It is convenient, but there are signs saying that parking is limited to 20 minutes. It is only a matter of time before either cameras go up or it gets patrolled on a regular basis.

The Birmingham International short stay car park is free for 20 minutes

We tend to park here at night as we think it is safer, however let us tell you about an incident that happened at 3am one morning.

The VClass was parked on the short stay car park. It was dark and it was the only vehicle around. A BMW cruised slowly down Station Link Road, around the roundabout, back past the car park only to do the same route again. It looked very suspicious. It then entered the car park and pulled up alongside the VClass. We were naturally a bit worried what would happen next.

A man got out, approached the Merc and gestured to roll our window down, which we did reluctantly by about 5mm.

“Do you know where the airport is?” he said.

We were relieved to say the least!

Pros

• Closeness to Airport, some clients prefer to take the monorail to be picked up here.

• Security, there’s normally lights on even at 3am

• Toilets on ground floor of the train terminal

Cons

• Officially only 20 minutes waiting allowed, although no ANPR, barrier or warden.

• It can get very busy

3) Starbucks Drive-Thru NEC Car Park E

No list of waiting areas is complete without a Starbucks!

The Starbucks Drive-Thru at the NEC Car Park E

This one is located in Car Park E of the NEC and takes a bit of driving around roundabouts to get there. Opening times are 0630 to 1900 most days and although branded as a ‘Drive Thru’ (Their spelling not ours) there are plenty of car parking spaces. It has been there a year, but you would think it opened yesterday as it feels very clean and new. Good mobile phone data reception too.

Possibly the biggest plus is that it is surrounded by electric car charging points, some of them look as if they could power a small city.!

Pros

• Grab a coffee! They only take cards, no cash

• Good to sit down and wait out of the vehicle

• Toilets in the cafe

• Fast EV charging points

Cons

• A bit further from the dropoff/pickup zone than the others - you have to go right around the M42 roundabout.

• Difficult to find. Although there is a big sign, it is hidden from the road.