Detroit Metro Airport Parking Guide: 12 Lots, $10 vs $32, and Which Terminal You Should Actually Park At

Detroit Metro DTW is not really about “two terminals.” It is about those two terminals being fed by 12 catalogued parking options and 12 lounges, plus a bunch of mixed-carrier itineraries that start on one side and land on the other.

If you make your parking decision without picking a terminal first, you pay for it in walks, shuttles, and late-night cross-airport runs.

You have McNamara on one side (Delta-heavy, lounge-dense) and Evans on the other (mixed carriers, thinner but important lounges). Wrapped around them are:

• Garages as close as a 3 minute walk
• A mid-priced deck at a 12 minute walk
• Economy lots at $10.00/day and DTW’s cheapest daily parking in Green Lot 2

Treat DTW as two airports that share a name. Decide which one you are really using, then pick the lot that fits.

Actually, let me amend that: if you travel as a group across carriers, you pick an anchor terminal first, not “somewhere in the middle.”

Best Parking at DTW by Terminal (McNamara vs Evans)

Here is the cheat sheet I wish my travelers had before they ever followed a “Parking” sign.

DTW parking cheat sheet by lot

Lot / product	Typical terminal focus	Posted rate (day / hour)	Walk vs shuttle	What it is best for
McNamara Long-Term Parking	McNamara	$32.00/day, $4.00–$32.00/hr	3 min walk	Delta / SkyTeam trips, lounge users, high-simplicity business travel
McNamara Parking Garage	McNamara	See posted rate on DTW data	3 min walk	Same as long-term when you want pure “park, walk, fly”
Big Blue Deck Long Term Parking	Evans	$15.00/day, $3.00/hr	12 min walk	Evans-side carriers, Star Alliance, non-Delta families
Short-Term Parking	Both (close-in)	$24.00/day, $4.00/hr	5 min walk	Same-day runs, “might abort” trips, fast pickups
Green Lot 1	Slight Evans lean	$10.00/day, $2.00/hr	15 min walk	Budget on-airport, ok-with-walking, larger vehicles
Green Lot 2	Both (via shuttle)	DTW’s cheapest daily parking in the data	Shuttle-served	Long trips where price beats speed
Remote Parking	Both (via shuttle)	$10.00/day, $2.00/hr	Shuttle-served	Budget-focused, schedule-flexible travelers
EV Charging Stations	Mixed	See EV/day and EV/hr pricing in data	Depends on specific bay	EV drivers on multi-day stays
Official Off-Site Shuttles	Both (via shuttle)	See “The/day” and “The/hr” entries in data	Off-airport shuttle	Weekly or long-stay travelers chasing lowest total cost

The rest of the catalog fills in variations on those themes, but that grid covers the decisions that actually matter for most people.

If you skim nothing else, use this sequence: pick terminal, decide walk vs shuttle, then decide if you are paying $32, $24, $15, or $10 per day.

McNamara side: Delta, lounges, and “car as part of the terminal”

McNamara is the Delta and SkyTeam hub. It also hosts most of DTW’s 12 lounges:

• Delta Sky Club near A18
• Delta Sky Club near Gate A38
• Delta Sky Club near Gate A68
• Delta Sky Club in Concourse C
• USO Lounge DTW for active duty military and dependents
• Gameway (gaming lounge), pay-per-use and Priority Pass, 08:00 to 21:00

Access skews toward Delta Sky Club memberships, Delta One and SkyTeam premium cabins, and bank cards like Amex Platinum or Centurion tied to a Delta boarding pass.

So if you:

• Mostly fly Delta or other SkyTeam carriers, or
• Hold lounge access that only “lights up” on a Delta itinerary,

then your default is to park on the McNamara side.

The clean options are:

• McNamara Long-Term Parking at $32.00/day, $4.00–$32.00/hr, with a 3 minute walk
• McNamara Parking Garage, also a 3 minute walk, with rates listed in the airport data

A 3 minute walk in the data basically makes your car part of the terminal. For Delta-heavy itineraries, that is an easy call. When I am building policies for McNamara-based trips, I treat those garages as “pay to remove one variable.”

If your outbound is Delta and the return might be another carrier, McNamara still makes sense as long as Delta is the anchor leg. You can solve the straggler trip with a shuttle or a quick rideshare back at the end.

Evans side: Big Blue, Star Alliance, and “everyone else”

Evans catches the non-Delta world: Star Alliance lines like Lufthansa, plus other carriers and low-costs.

The lounge picture is leaner but important:

• Lufthansa Business Lounge, 06:00 to 12:00, for Lufthansa and Star Alliance business class, Star Alliance Gold on same-day Star flights, and some Priority Pass entries
• Lufthansa Senator Lounge (shared space) for higher Lufthansa elites and qualifying intercontinental itineraries
• USO Lounge landside

If your status, upgrades, or schedule risk live with an Evans carrier, your parking needs to live there too.

That is where Big Blue Deck Long Term Parking is the obvious anchor:

• $15.00/day
• $3.00/hr
• 12 min walk in the airport data

Big Blue is to Evans what McNamara Long-Term is to McNamara, just at half the day rate and a longer walk. For Star Alliance flyers or families on non-Delta airlines, I start with Big Blue, then ask if anyone’s constraints are tight enough to justify a closer or more expensive option.

Mixed carriers and families: pick an anchor, not a compromise

Here is where people burn the most time and patience at DTW.

Common patterns:

• One traveler on Delta out of McNamara, another on a Star carrier out of Evans.
• Parents on Delta, kids or relatives on a low-cost at Evans.
• Outbound on Delta, return on a different carrier for price reasons.

The instinct is to:

• Sort by price, pick Green Lot 1 or Remote Parking at $10.00/day, $2.00/hr, then
• Let shuttles handle the terminal split.

That sounds neutral. It is not. What you really do is guarantee that everyone is far from their gate, and you are dependent on shuttle timing every time something changes.

My rule for mixed-carrier groups:

Pick one “anchor terminal” based on the riskiest or least flexible trip in the group, and park on that side. Do not try to split the difference.

Examples that work:

• If one traveler is on a tight-connection Delta itinerary with lounge access and the other is on a lower-stakes Evans carrier, park at McNamara Long-Term or McNamara Garage. The Evans flyer takes the shuttle leg.
• If someone has an early-morning Lufthansa business segment out of Evans and the Delta traveler has a simple domestic hop, park in Big Blue Deck Long Term Parking. Give the complex, international trip the shorter walk.

Trying to be “fair” by using a remote lot means no one is close, and when a delay, rebooking, or cancellation hits, the group that is already stressed gets stuck with the longest path back to the car.

Walks and shuttles: what those minutes really mean

In corporate travel, I treat time the same way I treat fare buckets. It is a cost, even if nobody line-items it.

DTW’s own data gives you clear walk times:

• 3 minutes from McNamara Long-Term Parking and McNamara Parking Garage
• 5 minutes from Short-Term Parking
• 12 minutes from Big Blue Deck Long Term Parking
• 15 minutes from Green Lot 1

That is your baseline. On a pleasant day, a 12 to 15 minute walk with a roller bag is manageable. In February wind, ice, or with kids in tow, that same walk feels two sizes bigger:

• More slip and fall risk.
• More buffer you need to build into departure time.
• More friction if someone has to bail mid-trip and head home.

Shuttle-dependent lots like Remote Parking and Green Lot 2 tack on variability instead of fixed minutes. Miss a shuttle and you add a noticeable chunk of time to both ends. You also give up “I am leaving now” flexibility, because you are gated by someone else’s schedule.

I was wrong about this for years. I used to tell people “just leave earlier.” When you roll it up across a big travel program, that extra buffer is overtime, extra per-diem, and more hotel nights when trips go long. Even for personal trips, it is stress you paid for to save a few dollars in the lot.

So, use the walk numbers and the shuttle factor as hard inputs, not as trivia you ignore.

Quick scenarios: which DTW lot should you actually use?

Here is how I break it down for real-world trips.

1. “I want pure simplicity: park, walk, fly.”

• Flying Delta or SkyTeam out of McNamara: use McNamara Long-Term Parking or McNamara Parking Garage. You are paying around $32/day for a 3 minute walk and minimal variables.
• Flying an Evans carrier: use Big Blue Deck Long Term Parking at $15.00/day, 12 minute walk. Cheaper, slightly longer walk, still simple.

This is my default for business trips, tight connections, or anyone who cannot afford shuttle drama.

2. “I need balance: not the cheapest, not the priciest.”

• Green Lot 1 at $10.00/day, $2.00/hr, 15 minute walk, is the on-airport “middle” choice. It works well for personal trips and budget-conscious travel that still wants total control over departure time.
• It is also friendlier for taller or larger vehicles that do not belong in a garage.

Key point: match Green Lot 1 to your real terminal. Do not stick a Delta trip in a “neutral” lot and then eat two extra transfers every time something changes.

3. “I want the cheapest long-term option and I can absorb extra time.”

• Remote Parking at $10.00/day, $2.00/hr, shuttle-served to both terminals.
• Green Lot 2, identified in the airport data as DTW’s cheapest daily parking, also shuttle-served.

These make sense when:

• The trip is long enough that the daily savings add up, and
• Your schedule is loose enough to treat shuttle waits as an acceptable cost.

For weekly commuters or long vacations, the dollars saved per day are real. Just bake shuttle variability into your plan.

4. “Same-day run, high chance I might bail on the trip.”

Use Short-Term Parking:

• $24.00/day, $4.00/hr
• 5 minute walk

If the trip cancels or you decide to abort, you pay a single day’s cap and walk 5 minutes back to the car. For medical trips, interviews, or anything with a meaningful “might not fly” probability, that beats cheap remote parking plus two wasted hours.

When you should skip DTW parking entirely

Sometimes the best DTW parking strategy is no parking.

Ground transport options from the airport data:

• Cheapest into downtown Detroit: SMART Bus Route 125 Fort Street at $2.00–$2.50, around 60–75 minutes to downtown.
• Rideshare: Detroit Metro Airport Rideshare (Uber, Lyft) running roughly $30–$55, 25–35 minutes to downtown.
• Taxi: Metro Cab around $45–$60 for 25–35 minutes.
• Regional services like AirRide Ann Arbor-Detroit Metro Airport or AirRide-style Regional Airport Shuttle (private operators) at about $15–$30 to Ann Arbor or nearby cities.

Run the math, even for one traveler:

• Two days in McNamara Long-Term at $32.00/day is $64 plus gas and wear.
• SMART 125 is under $6 roundtrip.
• Even a $40 each-way rideshare is roughly $80 total and removes parking and walk risk entirely.

For short solo trips, or if your home base has expensive or limited parking, taking the bus or a rideshare can be the cleaner move.

DTW parking decision checklist

So here is the decision I actually give people when they text me from the freeway asking “where do I park at DTW?”:

1. Choose your anchor terminal. Decide if McNamara (Delta / SkyTeam, most lounges) or Evans (Star / other carriers) is more important, based on the riskiest or least flexible itinerary in your group.
2. Pick walk vs shuttle. If reliability and low stress matter, buy a walking-distance lot (3 to 15 minutes). If you can absorb schedule variability,