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Height restrictions at Gatwick car park when bringing skis on the roof

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
We're flying from Gatwick South terminal at half term to Salzburg (yay!). Our car is 1.77m high, and it seems the height restrictions for any parking that doesn't involve a bus are 2m. With four children and luggage for us all for the week, space inside the car is somewhat limited, so normally skis would go on the roof. But they're not going to fit under 2m (or are they?) even if they were just in a ski bag as the roof bars alone add 5cm.

Also, with four children including one with a somewhat stressful form of autism, luggage, and at least five sets of skis.. the last thing we want to do is deal with at 7am (or after a long day) are bus journeys from a distant car park that does support over 2m.

Does anyone know of a way round it? I was hoping for valet parking, but you still have to drive under somewhere with a height restriction to begin with I assume? Otherwise we'd just take the skis off before handing over the keys!

Cheers!!
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
How about dropping the skis, bags and all/most passengers at the drop-off point at the terminal, and then parking while the others arrange 1-2 trolleys and load everything up? On return, do the same in reverse. The short stay car park is directly by the drop point, so simple enough to get back together.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@sparklies, which terminal? One of them certainly has the meet and greet with no barriers....it's where the shuttle buses pick up
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Are you looking at the short stay (multi-storey) car parks? I don't think the long stay car park at the South terminal has any height restriction.

(And that long-stay car park is fairly close to the terminal)
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
The long stay does mention buses.. having gone through that before with the children and without skis, I'm not sure we can face it again!!

It's the South Terminal. Unfortunately Streetview is not present for the upper forecourt area, which is the drop off for valet parking. However, maybe we don't need valet parking if we can get to the drop off area! No idea what happens at pickup though.
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@sparklies, ask the valet parking people. They will know for sure
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
I wouldn't have thought your skis would take you over the 2m mark. A car with a roof box is just 2m depending on how precise the barrier is. Unless you have all 5 pairs in one huge bag you'll probably have loads of room, if it is close you could just pop them off for any barriers but I doubt you'll need to.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@sparklies, you sure it's 1.77m? Our SUV (not tiny, not the largest) is 1.709... 70cms higher would be van like to me...
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@sparklies, the Gatwick's works kept secret is - North and South are just short "magic carpet" walk away from each other (EDIT: sorry, magic carpet + the monorail shuttle thingy. Anyway it takes minutes)

Short Stay North Car Park 6 has height restriction of 2.1m which should be about right for you

Whenever we fly from Gatwick I always check prices for both and choose the cheapest.
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@under a new name, yep, it's listed as 1776mm. It's pretty big - I call it The Tank for a reason! Pain in the backside in multistoreys for width as well, but never had a height problem without the roofbox.

@holidayloverxx, that is indeed probably the most obvious solution, that hadn't even occurred to me! I'd been searching fruitlessly online and thought I'd ask here, without considering the most logical thing to do!! rolling eyes

@RobH2017, it's tricky to say. We haven't bought the ski bag yet, so I'm not sure how we'll be stacking stuff. Roofbars take us up to 1826mm, and I'd prefer a few cm clearance. So in reality we have about 15cm. Allowing for the height of the bag, which might be padded, it's probably too tight with the bindings as well. And that's assuming we have the skis not stacked, which may not be practical in terms of taking on the plane in bags.

@Oleski, thanks, that is good to know! I have no problems waiting for monorails. Although the sooner we can dump all the baggage, the better, as we've got chronically unhelpful children and we struggled without skis last time we flew! This is why we drove last time Very Happy but we're trying somewhere new and non-France this year.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
@sparklies, I assume you've already bought flights but I'm at a bit of a loss to understand why you would drive to France but not Austria, especially with a car load. The valet parking is usually the best thing to try - it takes out all the hassle.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
A couple of friends have used a rear mounted bicycle rack to carry skis all the way to french alps.

You may have that possibility for the Gatwick hop, depends if you have access to a bike rack.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@sparklies, out of curiosity what are you running?
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Quote:

you sure it's 1.77m? Our SUV (not tiny, not the largest) is 1.709... 70cms higher would be van like to me...


It's 7cms difference not 70, @under a new name wink
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
@Gordyjh, it's true, it's a similar distance. However, we went over the Easter holidays last time, so it was easier to fit the extra day on either side (Good Friday helped). Plus we went for two weeks, so it didn't seem quite as intense. With half term, and only going for a week, we haven't got the Friday as the children are in school. And while we could drive through the night, having caught the night train to Tignes before and the next few days ruined by desperately trying to catch up on sleep, I want to preserve my sleep before we arrive in resort!

@ski3, I first read that as somebody with a bike having a rack on the back and hardcore rode their bikes with skis on the back all the way to and up the mountains. Not sure that would be a valid option Laughing We do have a rear-mounted bike carrier as it happens.. trying to work out how practical it might be.

@Oleski, We have a Volvo XC90 (2016) We're hiring a big old passenger van the other end, so that should be fine. I hope!
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Very Happy @sparklies, my grammar I think, could go either way there. Although another friend's brother did cycle to Australia, apart from the sea bits that is Very Happy

The examples of vehicle are Merc ML and VW minibus types. Skis in bags were just strapped across the rack horizontal as both vehicles are fairly wide, so nothing sticking out.

Usually about four bags.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@ski3, bet he didn't do it with skis strapped to the back though!! Ah, it's my bad reading.

Seems like our car is wide enough, but it'll probably be a last resort if it turns out we can't get into the drop-off area!
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