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Where can I park my car in Philadelphia?

Free place to park around Philadelphia?

  • I'm taking a 2 week road trip from New York to and from Florida with some stops along the way back. My car is a 1996 Grand Am that seems to be running fine now, but I've had a lot of problems over the past 2 years. I'm going to a bar mitzvah and I don't want to take the chance of the car breaking down along the way to Florida. It occurred to me to rent a car, but for 2 weeks anywhere near where I live costs between $450-$500, and at those rates I'll take my chances with my own car. I found that I can rent a car from Thrifty in Philadelphia for only $282.52 (including taxes and fees). To me this is reasonable, plus I might be saving about $100 in gas because of the better gas mileage. My current plan is to take a bus and subway from where I live in Queens to the Port Authority in Manhattan, then take a Greyhound bus to Philadelphia, then take the rail line to the airport, and then take a shuttle bus from the airport to the rental car facility. I can do all this for about $26 round trip, except it will probably take me about 6 hours each way and I'll be dragging my luggage around a lot. It would be a lot easier for me if I could drive to the car rental facility and park somewhere safe nearby - even if it was a few miles away and I took a bus or train from where I parked. When I looked online it seemed like any type of airport or off site parking would cost over $100 for 2 weeks, and at that price I'll just stick to my current plan for getting to Philadelphia. Does anyone have any suggestions about possible options for driving to or near Philadelphia and parking my car somewhere for free for 2 weeks? Or is this just impossible?

  • Answer:

    I would not be comfortable leaving a car sitting unattended for two weeks. Most places that don't charge for parking - like malls, for example - might flag a car sitting for two weeks and consider it to be abandoned (meaning, it will be towed away). I would suggest that you look into one of two things. Check the Amtrak station in Wilmington, Delaware. There is some inexpensive daily parking there, and you could ride SEPTA back up to Philadelphia, then again back to the airport and car rental location. Another alternative would be to ask Thrify. I assume you did this already, but if not, it's worth a shot. If neither of those pan out, then all I could suggest is to ask friends in the Philly area if you could leave it at their house, but I assume that would have been your first choice if it was available as an option.

Alan S at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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You can fly to Florida for less than $100 anymore. Check with Southwest, Spirit, Continental, etc. You're trying to drive a questionable car over 1,000 miles...there's no way this will cost less than what you think it will.

jdm

Try flying on a low cost airline from MacArthur airport on Long Island. Smaller airports often offer cheaper rates. You didn't mention which city in FL you are going to, but if it happens to be Miami, it is considerably cheaper to fly into Fort Lauderdale about 45 min away.

Albert

I'm not sure I'd be comfortable leaving a car unattended for two weeks on a city street, but one thought does come to mind. The Mt. Laurel Greyhound terminal has a parking lot where you can leave a car for free. This is a stop in southern New Jersey used by some of the New York to Philly Greyhound buses. I forget what the time limit on that lot is, but 2 weeks might be OK. Call Greyhound and ask them if you want to go this route. Unfortunately, NJ public transportation is terrible. There aren't too many options other than Greyhound itself for getting between there in Philly. But if you go this route, I guess you could go one stop on the Greyhound to Philly.

Randy P

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