Short-Term Parking

$24 a day gets you in the terminal garages, not some remote “short stay” lot

Short-Term Parking at DTW really means the decks attached directly to McNamara and Evans, at a posted daily rate of $24.00. These are the structures you see right next to the terminals, and most people treat them as their go-to option for 1–4 day trips, not just quick pick-ups. The name says short stay, but there’s no special cutoff; you just pay the daily cap.

The walk from your car to the terminal doors runs about 5 minutes, all indoors via bridges from the McNamara garage and the Big Blue Deck at Evans. That’s the draw: you skip any shuttle and head straight to Delta at McNamara or the other airlines at Evans with luggage in tow. In winter, locals on r/Detroit say they’d rather pay garage prices than stand outside at 5 a.m. waiting on a Green Lot bus.

Pricing as of now is $24.00 per day, and regulars point out on FlyerTalk that this rate creeps up more often than the Green Lots. That’s why they always double-check the official DTW parking page before leaving home, even if they still plan to just pull a ticket at the gate. For a 2–3 day trip, several frequent flyers say they park in the deck and call it good rather than shaving a few dollars with off-airport shuttles.

On Monday mornings, one FlyerTalk poster described the garages as “nuts,” with several loops around multiple levels needed to score a space near the elevators. Many locals reserve these garages for winter departures or genuinely short trips, then switch to Green Lot 1 or an off-airport lot once they’re looking at 5+ days. One practical move: if you’re flying at peak times, budget an extra 10–15 minutes just to hunt a spot before that 5-minute walk in.