Are you waiting for your flight and the only thing you can do is yawning from boredom? Read our Ultimate Guide for Solo Travellers and you will definitely know What to do at The Airport.
Airports. Places where all of us have to go at some point and spend hours and hours before heading to our dream destinations.
What to do when your flight departs in a few hours or was delayed and your destiny is to spend a quantity of time between thousands of traveling groups laughing out loud and being in your way wherever you are? How to survive being stuck at the airport totally alone and how can you benefit from this solo time gap?
We Solo Travel knows and We Solo Travel will tell you how to spend the time while waiting for your flight.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Drink a Beer
Beer is the best friend when waiting for a flight. It is a liquid bread and besides that it helps you to get rid of any stress you might have, it’s actually pretty healthy too.
It contains several vitamins and minerals (Niacin, B Vitamins, Flavonoids, Cholin, Panthenic Acid) which can give you the necessary portion of energy and nutrition before your long journey.
If you don’t fancy beer and don’t have deeper pockets, happily go for some other drinks.
The only thing is that u shouldn’t get too drunk. You can get a bit tipsy. It’s actually nice because you will probably fall asleep really soon after boarding.
But never get wasted. It might be dangerous. You could miss your flight or get another one. Which might be an exciting adventure as well while you could explore even more as you had planned. But in case you are traveling to a hot Asian country and take a flight to Finland instead, this mishmash can end catastrophic.
Luckily, there is always a responsible flight crew so this might be just a Hollywood drama scenario but never say never. It has already happened to some of us, hasn’t it?
2. Write a Blog
Yeah, this should be perhaps a number one tip of the ultimate “how to spend your time while waiting for a flight” guide. But well. Beer is healthy. It deserves to be the number one. Do you have some spare hours?
Take out your mobile, tablet or just a piece of paper and write a blog post. If you don’t have any blog or a website just write your travel diary or a journal. Just release your emotions and describe what you feel, see, what you have experienced or what are your expectations from the upcoming holiday.
Use the leverage of having some fresh memories which can be transformed into an amazing travel journal.
What do you think, where and when did I start to write this post? While I was waiting at the airport and while I was drinking a beer!
Waiting in an airport cafe allowed me to catch all the ideas and thought storms running through my head. Few months ago I had bought a cheaper tablet for this purposes. And you should do the same to be ready anywhere and anytime too.
You can also use any notes app in your smartphone or download any journal application – there are plenty of them (like Day one or Penzu). Are you one of the romantic souls and online apps and devices can cause you an allergy?
Buy a good old paper note with a beautiful design and hand write your adventures there. You can beautify your stories with adding some stunning sketches from your travel and airport adventures.
3. Message Your Closest
Now it’s the time to inform your closest family and friends that you are still alive and you are successfully achieving your travelling goals!
Especially when travelling across exotic countries you might suffer from no Internet connection or even worse, no telephone signal. Airports usually have WiFi so you can finally log in into your email and social media accounts and reply to week old messages from people who have been worried about you.
Text them and disprove their crazy ideas of you being eaten by cannibals or being sold for 6 camels.
Moreover, sufficient care about relationships is very important for those who spend half of their life on journeys. Remember, once you will come back to your home there won’t be no more time and patience for building broken relationships again.
Communicate with your closest. The face to face contact is the best but as a full time wanderer or traveler you will be forced to find another ways of keeping contact with your dearest.
Exploring new places and getting know new people is an amazing experience but don’t forget to those who influenced your past and shared the very first experiences with you.
4. Plan the Trip
Long gaps spent at airports could be nicely and efficiently devoted to planning your recent or next trips. Being spontaneous and leaving everything to luck is quite thrilling, but if there is a big journey ahead some stuff should be sorted out before you arrive to the destination.
It’s time to book the very first accommodation or to contact your Airbnb / Couchsurfing host. You can also check the way to your hostel, browse the places you want to visit later and find some local socializing activities.
This can be done after your arrival to the hostel or apartment too, but won’t it be a waste of time? When you are already at your destination, shouldn’t you start with exploring it as soon as possible?
If you prepare some journey draft before – during the long boring gap at the airport, you save your time later and spend every second of your wandering efficiently.
It’s always better to be prepared ahead than getting stuck on the way from the airport to your apartment. You could waste hours of blind rambling.
5. Stay Clean and Sexy
Several long flights and stops between countries with different climates could be pretty exhausting. Feeling like a wet piece of cloth? Are you sweating in your trousers and three layers of upper clothes because you departed northern Europe and there is hot like in hell in your final destination? It’s time for some hygiene at the airport.
Those who have to wait for their next flight in London Heathrow, New Delhi, Haneda, Abu Dhabi, Auckland, Sydney or Amsterdam airport are the lucky ones. These luxury airport buildings offer showers.
In case you’re not going through the shower airports you still have the opportunity to take some fresh wash in the basins. Brush your teeth, wash your face, brush your hair, change your underwear and possibly other parts of clothes.
Change your toxic socks so you can put off your shoes without any shame. No-one will judge you. If there are real travellers they will understand it cause everyone does the same. And it’s so important to feel fresh, clean and sexy. Not just for the selfies you will take.
6. Create a Crazy Airport Photo Gallery
Many things can happen at airports. Breaking up couples, crying children, cute seniors, fashion bombs or disasters.
Take out your camera or smartphone and get ready for some amazing random shots of everyday airport life and situations. Get some inspiration from these Instagram accounts and become a new social photographer: Airportstyles, Airportselfie.
There are plenty of other things to do at the airport – reading or buying a book which We Solo Travel highly recommends: sleeping, relaxing or thinking about your life – again highly recommended; or you can just spend some money in duty free shops which is not the best idea but not even the worst one.
For sure, have some snack if you are hungry. You can get some nice food at the airports too, it is far more expensive than your home made sandwich would be, but what can you do… Also you can create a blog or social media account about delicious Airport snacks! because food reviews rule the world!
The most of all, have a safe journey and enjoy your next destination.
Updated: 27th November 2019