10 ways to kill time at the airport

Jun 3, 2010 6:22:04 AM

Ali Lemer
Lonely Planet Author

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Your bags have been checked, your boarding pass issued… and now you’ve got hours to wait before getting on your plane. What can you do with an airport layover?

Plenty, as it turns out. Here are some of our suggestions:

Exercise

Feeling your muscles atrophy from all those flight delays? Hit the gym! Many airport hotels have fitness centres in them with day passes available for the public; some are even open 24 hours. Don’t have a spare set of workout clothes? Get on your feet and take a brisk walk around the terminal, mall-walking-style - but avoid running if you don’t want to risk getting tackled by security.

Spoil yourself

Airport day spas and massage shops have become ubiquitous at international airports. Have a fear of flying? Melt away your jitters with a muscle-tingling back or foot massage, or treat yourself to a facial treatment and a mani-pedi. Just don’t get so relaxed that you forget your boarding time.

Lounge around

Once reserved for the hotshots in First Class, deluxe lounges can now be your home away from home - for a few hours, anyway - for a small fee. At minimum they usually have comfy seating, newspapers and magazines, a food buffet and free wi-fi (a real boon in those benighted airports that still charge for wi-fi access).

Some higher-end ones, such as the Plaza Premium Lounge in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, feature showers, free draught beer, movies and even a putting green. Fore!

People-watch

If there’s anything airports are rarely short of, it’s people. Take an interest in your fellow travellers: play detective and see how much you can figure out about them through your powers of observation (or play fashion police and judge their bad taste in clothing instead). If you enjoyed the film Love, Actually, reenact the opening scene by watching the emotional reunions at the international arrivals gate. Bring your own tissues.

Window-shop

Some airports these days almost seem like glorified shopping malls that just happen to have planes landing, and prices are high since there’s nowhere else to go. But you can have plenty of free fun playing with the travel gadgets and massage chairs at Brookstone, sampling moisturiser and testing fragrances at L’Occitane, browsing books in WH Smith and goggling at the price tags in Prada. Have some extra currency to get rid of? Spend it on some locally made souvenirs or sweets to bring home.

Get back to nature

If you’re flying through Southeast Asia, you can find a lovely green respite from the normal concrete-and-glass airport experience. Kuala Lumpur International Airport has transplanted a section of Malaysian rainforest inside the airport for visitors to explore, and Singapore’s Changi Airport has half a dozen different gardens throughout the complex, including an orchid garden with koi pond and a tropical habitat filled with butterflies, carnivorous plants and a waterfall grotto.

Take a day-trip

If you’ve got an extra long layover between flights, consider skipping the airport experience altogether and play tourist for a half a day. Many city airports have direct train service downtown, such as Chicago, Sydney and Hong Kong - where you can even check your bags and get a boarding pass at the station. Singapore’s Changi Airport offers free two-hour tours of town to passengers who have a layover of at least five hours.

Chow down

If you can’t bear the thought of tucking into a tray of single-serving generica on your flight, treat yourself to a good meal before you board. But forget a plastic-tray meal at the food court: airports these days have started featuring nice restaurants, often with celebrity-chef pedigrees. It can also be a good way to sample a bit of regional cuisine: if you’re a meat-lover transferring through Memphis, for example, try one of their four in-terminal BBQ restaurants.

Enjoy some quiet time

Most airports have chapels and ‘quiet rooms’ that are good for a little bit of solitary introspection, whether you want to pray, meditate or just contemplate your belly button in silence for a while. For those who feel like they need some pastoral guidance, London’s Heathrow Airport even has Anglican and Catholic chaplains and Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh ‘faith representatives’ on call.

Play

Singapore’s superstar Changi Airport pulls out all the stops in providing boredom-killers for its passengers. Besides a children’s playground, arts and crafts workshop, three screening rooms with free movies and an entertainment area with free video games and music-listening pods, they’ve recently installed a four-storey-high slide so you can relive your playground salad days, as well as a half-size version for anyone afraid of heights.

And of course if you have one of those new-fangled iPads handy, you’ll be able to while away your layover reading e-books, playing i-games or surfing the w-web on the airport wi-fi. (You could even check out our new 1000 Ultimate Experiences iPad app for some - well, a thousand - travel ideas.)

What are some of your favourite ways to kill time in an airport? Tell us in the comments!

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Comments

5 June 2010 1:06PM rjkellie Report this comment
I can't believe you forgot playing with toilet paper! There's "How far can you unroll a roll of toilet paper before the security stops you" and "Stick the end of a roll to someone's back with some chewing gum as you hold the door open for them, then keep holding it open and see how far they get before the a) paper runs out, or b)paper roll breaks. tOILET PAPER ROLL RACES (takes more than one person)
5 June 2010 7:03PM markrcp Report this comment
Article also known as: Things to do at Singapore/Kuala Lumpur Airports.
But excellent ideas!
All that's left is to become a woman and find an airport nearby with a rain forest.
Better just to screw with the TSA at security -- they're such assholes anyways.
6 June 2010 3:39AM jasonjohn Report this comment
Take your camera along.Play with it, try to capture everything and everything around you that captures your fancy .....perfect your exposure and / or composition....check out the results .....Or simply try to capture images on a predetermined theme.....tt'll grow on you...just be caereful not no miss your connecting flight !!!
9 June 2010 7:00AM remelila Report this comment
Markrcp: Sad but true, Singapore Airport just has cooler stuff than just about any other airport. The rest of the world has a lot of catching up to do.
Jasonjohn: Another good idea! I actually brought my new camera on my current trip but alas packed my instruction book in my checked luggage.
Rjkellie: someone invented those roll-back/stop toilet paper holders in public bathrooms just to stop nefarious people like you, I'm guessing. ;)
22 June 2010 10:15PM louiseinsenegal Report this comment
Article very biased towards the upper end of the airport rankings. So far in 2010 I've spent time in the airports at Yaounde, Ouagadougou, Dakar, Freetown, Monrovia, Nairobi, Bamako, Accra and Cotonou - and all I can advise is to take a good book (although there is - unadvertised so I suspect unintended - free wifi at Cotonou airport and reasonable shopping at Nairobi airport).
22 June 2010 11:03PM peterthetraveller Report this comment
Study the language that is spoken in the country you're going to! There is lot's of free online learning tools. For Spanish I can recommand (no sure if I'm allow to leave a link though, if not and you wanna know email me):
http://www.delengua.es/spanish-courses-spain/free-spanish-resources/free-learning-material.html
Good for beginners as for advanced Spanish speakers.
11 July 2010 12:00AM penedawn Report this comment
What about the origami aeroplane? How to keep the the terminal queues busy after you have launched you plane off into the air. Sketching is a good one, people tend to talk to you as well. Unlike other persuits people act on their curiousity and speak to you, giving advice and asking questions. Anxiety release or panic away on MP3 can help you chill out, or the original plane spotting and pic taking as mentioned.
21 July 2010 6:42AM scottish_irish_las Report this comment
some great idea's thanks :)
22 July 2010 5:14AM suzilan Report this comment
Gunung Stong State Park located at Dabong, Kelantan, Malaysia; is the best places if you like rain forest nature.
26 August 2010 10:20PM nitinslash Report this comment
Really I found nice tips during delay of plane on airport. I got lot of enjoyment tips how to pass our time on airport.
29 September 2010 9:17PM bionicgrasshopper Report this comment
Don't forget at KLIA airport there is an indoor rainforest, but probably wouldn't be more than a 15 minute use of time ..... but still how many airports have a mini rainforest in them?
10 December 2010 1:48PM joolz2 Report this comment
bionicgrasshopper, the rainforest at KLIA is mentioned in the article under "Get back to nature". As a previous poster said though, as doesn't really take more than 15 minutes to look round, if that.
Some airports have booths where you can rent a movie and curl up in a comfy chair to watch it - if you can stay awake after a long flight! Others have movies, but you can't choose what you watch, it's just what happens to be playing.
10 December 2010 6:32PM trav3322 Report this comment
I like to wander and look at everything and I like to people watch. One time I sat in front of a huge window at Toronto International and watched a hugely dramatic thunderstorm.
11 December 2010 4:02AM bcot Report this comment
My number one thing to do is get out of the airport. If you have a layover of more than 5 hours, it's completely doable to do a day trip or some sightseeing. Following is my timetable for a layover in Amsterdam, along with a link to to a cool layover guide. http://blackchickontour.com/2009/09/21/6-hours-in-amsterdam-whoohoo/
11 December 2010 7:14AM finn_nl Report this comment
The restaurant thing is true! There's one at Vancouver Intl that's so good we arrived there early specifically to go eat there again :P
11 December 2010 9:57AM plazarus Report this comment
I like the camera idea. In everyday life we never seem to find enough time... so use this airport time to do the things you always complain you don't have time for... learn the camera, write the diary, plan the finances, write a poem, read a book, write some postcards or a letter you always put off, draw a picture or just take the time to relax and reflect. I fly a lot and lounges are nice..but in the end they are just a chair and some free booze.... it's rare you get really good food. It's more fun to hang out in the bar outside!
11 December 2010 10:50AM razzle321 Report this comment
Good ideas, but here's a secret...grab a hotel shuttle of your choice and do it all at the hotel instead of the airport! Hotels love it when you come for a full meal than you can relax in their library, business center or cushy lobby.
12 December 2010 10:29PM tomstar86 Report this comment
Nap! Incheon Airport in Korea has incredibly comfortable giant cushions that you can crash on if you need to catch a few zzzs.
Dubai Airport has free showers on offer, too, in case you need to freshen up!
I always end up arriving freakishly early at airports, so I just tend to wander around with my iPod plugged in. Trying aftershaves in duty free sections. Setting the backgrounds of the iPads in Gatwick Airport to that of a South Korean boyband, too.
17 November 2011 11:41PM final_transit Report this comment
Excellent post. Airports are good places to get acquainted with a foreign language that you are learning. I like to talk to people and I've met some interesting characters during layovers in Moscow, Miami and London.
Here are some things to do during a <a href="http://priyank.com/travel/2011/11/17/layover-miami-tips-free-things-to-do/>layover in Miami</a>
2 April 2012 2:50AM victorialea Report this comment
I don't want to be sitting next to the person on the plane who has just worked out! I have been in some places where photography in the airport is prohibited. So look out for signs, before you begin shooting. Be sure to actually visit the departure gate for your next flight before considering leaving the airport or even the secured area. Be aware that if you have many hours between flights, the departure gate may change. If you are traveling from one country to another (the US excluded), you will be expected to remain in the designated transit area. If you want to leave the airport, you will need to go through customs and immigration. In some cases a Visa is required to officially enter the country, which includes any area of the airport not designated for transit passengers. Some of the smallest airports while not luxurious in any sense have interesting amenities. I had a wonderful foot massage at Siem Reap, Cambodia in December.