Short Term Lot

Five-minute walk from car to Main Terminal check-in

The Short Term Lot at EYW sits just west of the Main Terminal, with the entrance on the right side of Faraldo Circle. It’s the closest surface parking to the building, and most people quote a two to five minute walk from locking the car to reaching the check-in counters. If you care more about being close than shaving a few dollars, this is the spot.

Rates run $22.00 per day with a posted weekly max of $120.00 under the current 2026 tariff. The key detail: the first 30 minutes are free, which locals quietly treat as a paid cell-phone lot upgrade. Park, walk into baggage claim, meet your person, and walk them out instead of circling Faraldo Circle for 20 minutes.

This lot is short-stay focused, so it makes sense for quick drop-offs, long lunches in the terminal, or same-day trips in and out of Key West. Reddit and TripAdvisor regulars say that for anything overnight, they switch to the garage once the math tips past a few hours at the Short Term daily rate. One reviewer even called out “sticker shock” when a casual stop stretched past the free half-hour.

One advantage over the garage: there’s no posted vehicle height limit here, while the garage caps out at 10' 8". Locals driving lifted trucks or tall vans use Short Term specifically because they physically can’t get into the structured parking. It’s all open-air, standard striping, and you walk straight across toward the Main Terminal doors.

Watch out for the point where hourly charges roll into the $22 daily cap; that’s where people feel the “overpriced for a small airport” sting for short visits. Practical move: do one loop around the terminal, and if your pickup isn’t at the curb, pull into Short Term, use the free first 30 minutes, and walk the five minutes inside.