I’m a bit of an app addict, so when I was asked if I’d like to review the Confused.com Parking App I was happy to give it a try. I always have a stress about parking when I am out in the car and so anything that might help has got to be a good idea :) The Parking App is free and I was sent an android handset to try it out on.

Simplicity is the key for me when it comes to apps, they’ve got to be instinctive to use and do what they say on the tin. This app certainly does that and it has proved really useful whilst out and about over the holiday season. Not being a local in the North East, I have mainly been using the first car park I can find up until now but this app has shown me some new and cheap car park gems in the area which is always a bonus. It will prove even more useful when travelling around the UK later this year :)

I used the app from home prior to going out in the car, you simply enter your destination in the search function and it brings up either a map or list of car parks nearest to your destination. You can sort by distance or cost depending on whether you’re planning on saving money or whether you’ll be laden down with shopping bags and don’t want far to walk ;)

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The map view looks a little confusing at this zoom level but when you zoom into your destination, it’s a great way of seeing where the car park is in location to your destination :)

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By clicking on each car park you can then see all the details such as prices (these were last updated in April 2012 for this particular car park but they were correct when I checked. It also tells you other useful information such as whether you can pay by card, whether there are disabled spaces, CCTV, baby changing facilities, public toilets, park and ride and the number of spaces. If I was being picky then I’d have liked to have also seen whether there were parent and child spaces in each car park too, as with two toddlers, a large 4×4 and a buggy to unload I really need as much space as possible. When searching, you can also add filters to specifically search for each of the above, so for instance if you were looking for a park and ride car park then you’d add this filter and it would bring up only those results.

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Another great feature of the app, is the ability to set up a parking timer to remind you what time you parked. If you don’t want to spend more than a certain amount on parking or you need to return at a certain time then you can set the timer to remind you. It will also tell you how much your parking has cost you and how much it will cost to stay longer. When out with the toddlers, it’s easy to lose track of time so I find this function particularly useful :)

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The Confused.com Parking App is FREE and it is definitely one to store on your phone, if like me you hate driving around looking for car parks :) I have to admit, I’ve now downloaded it to my iPhone as I do prefer it on there rather than the android but I guess I’m an apple girl :)

Platform: iPhone, Android and Windows devices

Price: Free

Visit the website for more information or to download the App HERE