How to Survive A 6 hr Layover
Lucy Burns
Guest Blogger
Okay, so you travel, you know the score. Best plan is always to keep your layover time to a minimum. Long enough to minimise the chances of you missing your connection, short enough to minimise the chances of you bankrupting yourself in the duty free shops. (If you’ve got more than 6 hours available to you, you might want to look at other options: leave the airport, see the sights or find somewhere to sleep – in the airport or in a hostel.)
Ingredients:
6 hours
A shopping list
An appetite
Wifi access
Fully charged mobile device
A need for relaxation
A plan
- Get the big stuff done first. Recheck your bags if you need to, go through security, find your gate. Once all that’s done, you can start your enjoyment
- Take a sweep of the area and work out your options. Which restaurant looks most appealing? Which shops must you visit? Is there a mini spa?
- Think about your timings. I would recommend shopping, followed by a meal followed by some form of relaxation.
Those items that you’ve been meaning to buy but keep putting off should be bought at the airport. Designer sunglasses, expensive face creams, perfumes and electronics are all worth buying duty free. Some airports even have vending machines for these things.
Find some good quality food and enjoy your favourite cocktail with it. Relax, peruse the menu, enjoy each mouthful and have dessert if you want it.
Essentially this is an opportunity for you to have some uninterrupted qualiity time with yourself. That book you’ve been wanting to read, that letter or email you wanted to write, that delicious meal you know you deserve to have: all these things are available to you now so relax and make the most of it.
A high school literature teacher with a love for travel, Lucy Burns works at a British School in Central America and uses her holidays to travel extensively in the region. She fills her spare time with Ultimate Frisbee and beach based behaviour. Her previous life saw her working in a range of roles from restaurant manager to holiday tour guide as well as some adventures in events organising. On occasion she can be found DJing in pubs and at weddings – if someone just played Buffalo Stance by Nenah Cherry, it was probably her.