Nca Parking

Is the dart line near your hotel in Arlington? If so, that is your best option. If you drive, there are many parking garages with a low daily rate within walking distance to the convention center. Once you get downtown just search for public parking on the waze app (or whatever gps app you use). The convention center does have parking - I think it was $26/day last year but I could be wrong, and traffic is pretty bad getting in and out unless you go first thing or last thing in the day. If you have the ability to go the day before you compete to get a "lay of the land" for parking and how the convention center is set up then I highly recommend it! Good luck!

Depending on what time you get there, there is a parking garage under the convention center. That's your easiest place - especially with a baby. Depending on time of day, though, it can be full and there's often a long line to get in, so give yourself plenty of extra time.

My second favorite parking lot is the lot behind Eddie Deen's. It backs up to the train tracks that run right behind the doors going into the meeting rooms in C Hall lower level. Sometimes you can knock and someone will let you in there instead of having to go through the tunnel and around to the doors. The Eddie Deen's lot used to never fill up, but other people finally found it and the last time I tried to park there it was already full. I had to drive around and around until I find a lot with open parking in downtown. That was several blocks away.

Final option that we did at our last NCA was to drive to Mockingbird Station. Park there and take the DART to the convention center. You could also ride the TRE in from Arlington, but it doesn't always run late enough depending on how late you compete or have awards.

Thank you so much!! We have to be there at 11 am on Saturday.

I looked online at the convention centers website and it says we can prepay for parking and when I put in the date the only thing that comes up is the parking garage. Is it a large garage...I just didn’t know how it would work if we prepaid.

I looked into the Amtrak thing and it would take us a twenty minute drive to get to the closest station and then it’s a 40 minute ride. I used Waze from our hotel to the convention center and it’s 19 miles and said 25 minutes. I just don’t know if the Amtrak would be worth it...I’m going to have to weigh it out.

Are there any other tips or tricks just about NCA in general? How long is the line to get wristbands? We didn’t buy them ahead of time.

Wrist bands usually aren't too bad because they have several ticket booths set up inside, so you don't have to go to the box office.

If you need to be there by 11, I'd plan to get there no later than 9 to find parking, find where you're supposed to be and buy your tickets. I've never bought parking in advance, so I'm not sure if they save a spot for you or what - it might be worth a call.

It will probably take you longer than 25 minutes to get there because traffic will be bad. It might be 25-30 to your exit, but from there it could be a while.

Getting there at 11, is a bad time for parking because most everyone has arrived and pretty much no one has left yet, so plan around that as well.

Amtrak isn't the same thing as TRE or DART, fwiw. Not sure if the location/schedule you checked was the same.

We live in Arlington and attended NCA every year from 2006-2016.

Edited to add: Just checked the TRE schedule and it looks like they're running later on the weekend now, but no Sunday times, so that won't work.

Kallie724 said:

We are going to NCA for the first time and are staying in Arlington. I was wondering where is a good place to park and about how much is it per day?

Our team hotel is closer to the convention center but it was a lot more expensive so we opted to stay a little further out. We can’t uber because we will have our one year old with us so we need a car seat.

Any help and tips and tricks for NCA will be appreciated!

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Get there early! Parking is usually between $10-$20 dollars, getting more expensive as you get closer to the convention center!