Some Questions - Flying from Manchester

[2littleboys]

We have booked to fly with Virgin from Manchester next year and I have a couple of questions which I am sure you lovely Dibbers will can help with:

1. Twilight check in - we will probably drive down and stay the night before we fly so I noticed Virgin do twilight check in from 4pm - 8pm. If we do this is there a parking area to do the bag drop?

2. Is there any hotels within walking distance to the terminal that also provide parking - if not what hotels would you recommend?

Thanks in advance

[joolsleeds]

Hi, you can do short stay parking at the airport, but be warned, it’s fairly pricy!

There are a few hotels on the airport, that other dibbers will recommend.

Personally, I recommend the Premier Inn Ranger Lane (north or south) as it’s usually a bit cheaper, and is only a 5 min drive from the airport and you can get a great meal at the Romper pub just 5 min walk away.

HTH

[kenzo]

Not sure about the bag drop as we have never done it before

Normally i book hotel and parking through holiday extras, however the options they were giving me were all leaving my keys which i personally am not comfortable with.

I would never stay in the Britania hotels again, however they do have onsite car parking if that is a deal breaker for you. We stay as above in the premier inn, either north or south, (check them both as one tends to be cheaper than the other) and this year i have booked multi storey T2 car parking through holiday extras (sign up and they will send you an email with additional discount on it). Holiday extras wanted £128 for the premier inn and car parking, I have booked the premier inn South for £41.00 including breakfast and car parking came in at £48, so a small saving but better than nothing
Also a good tip is to prebook early, book with a cancellation fee and sporadically keep checking incase you find a cheaper deal

[mickeyspal]

Radisson blu is attached by a walkway from the terminal bit it's also expensive , there's the Clayton which you could walk from if you do the twilight check in ,but I wouldn't walk it with cases, they provide a shuttle though so you could maybe use the shuttle to take the cases and leave your car there and walk back , the use your teturn shuttle ticket when you arrive back home

[Guest]

We like the Hilton. It’s not connected to the terminal but there is a shuttle.

[Trebor1]

Crowne plaza we like. It's got parking and shuttle to T2 (5 mins drive) where virgin fly from. It's a nice hotel and cheaper than Rad Blu.

We're going to do twilight check in. Will just jump on shuttle from the hotel and back again.

[Miss_Tangled]

We’ve just booked the Radisson today, got a reasonable price plus cash back. We’ll do Twilight check in the night before then a short walk across the skywalk in the morning should help with two little ones in tow!

[pezilla]

How do you do twilight check in ? We fly in September and weve never done virgin before

[Cabbie]

Originally Posted by pezilla

How do you do twilight check in ? We fly in September and weve never done virgin before

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The process is exactly the same as checking in on the day of the flight. You go to the VS desk, present your passports, hand over your luggage and away you go. One thing to remember is that as this is the first line of security all passengers must be present, you cannot drop the luggage on behalf of the rest of your party.

-Steve

[4holibobs]

I’m interested in the twilight check in... can you just rock up to it or do you have to pre book it? Do you put your clothes from that day and pjs etc in hand luggage then? We usually only take rucksacks so won’t be much room (unless we change our mind and take pull alongs too).

We have booked into the Raddison Blu, we like the convenience of the location to the terminal. The only downside for us is the choice of food in the restaurant (not much and very expensive) and just pizzas offered in the bar area (at least this was the case when we visited in September last year).