It’s Christmas, don’t fight over parking: GTA malls offer pleasant experience

If you are trying to have a holly, jolly Christmas season, chances are you will feel less jovial once you get to a mall and drive around in circles looking for a parking spot. But, wait, hang on to your happy self – the parking experience is about to get much better.

Several malls in the GTA are offering ways to make your parking experience during the holidays more sane. So next time you head to the mall, you can pack more fun in your shopping.

Real-time parking

Yorkdale Mall: Before heading to the mall, people can check online to see which parking lots have the best availability. Once they get there, drivers are notified of available spaces on electronic boards placed at each parking lot entrance.

They also have a parking support line (416-256-PARK) available until News Year’s Eve, as well as in-person and virtual parking concierges to direct shoppers to parking lots that have spots available. The concierge program launched on Black Friday and will continue every weekend leading up to Christmas.

Sherway Gardens: Digital signs at each of the parking lot entrances and elsewhere around the mall show which lots have the most available parking. A red and green sensor also tells you which parking spots are available in the lots.

Square One: An interactive map shows which parking lots have spaces available and you can get directions to the lot from your location.

Valet parking

Sherway Gardens: The cost is $10 and is the drop-off spot is location at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Yorkdale Mall: The service costs $15 and the mall has three drop-off locations. Shoppers can even store their bags until the vehicle is ready to be picked up.

Square One: It costs $10 and there are two drop-off locations – one is above ground while the other one is underground. The underground one is climate-controlled. After you are done shopping, you can arrange to pick up your car at either valet location. You can also place an order for a gift card from your valet, so you don’t have to wait in the long line.

Family parking

Vaughan Mills: The mall has 46 parking spots reserved for families with children. So you don’t have to arrange for a babysitter, just bring your kids with you.

Leave the car at home

Eaton Centre: Transit leads the way here – you don’t even have to worry about parking with two subway stops at your disposal. Even if you are taking the GO train from outside of the city, you can either walk to the mall or take TTC.

Space is king

Logic stipulates that the more parking spaces a mall has, the better your chances are of locating a parking spot at that mall. Yorkdale has 8,000 parking spots while Sherway Gardens has 6,000 and Scarborough Town Centre has more than 6,000.