Has your flight been delayed, canceled or have six hours of transit time? All we travelers have been there at some point with nothing exciting to do to kill time at airports. So what do you do to let the time pass? There’s only so much of books you can read and music you can listen to, if it is a very long transit time. So what can you really do? Take your frustration on the airport customer service agent? No, don’t waste your energy on that but make the most of your time by doing the following.
Exciting Ways To Pass Time At Airports
Exercise
OK some of you may start laughing when I say that and just ignore this helpful hint but take a minute to read it. I am not a person you would see at the gym frequently, but walking around the airport and burning some calories you packed eating the donuts is not a bad way to kill time. Don’t over do and start doing stomach crunches and push ups at the check-in gate, because you might be escorted out of the airport by security :)
Drink
The 5 Tuns Pub in Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport | (c) Photo By travelswithbeer
Hold on before you get too excited. I am not talking about a bottle of wine before your flight. But you can enjoy a drink and a bowl of peanuts at the airport sports bar or the pub while watching a sports game. You can even meet some cool people while enjoying your drink before departure. Cheers!
Read
No excuses here, the airport is the perfect place to catch on your reading. Let it be the newspaper, the latest New York Times bestseller or my five recommended books to read while you travel. When you read, you get lost in that. It will make you forget about the five hours you are in transit.
Sleep
A traveler catches up on sleep at an airport | (c) Photo By Alamy
Most of you might say “I will take a nap on the plane”. Well don’t be too sure about that, because you never know if you will be beside a cranky baby or an annoying passenger. From my flying experience, I think I probably have slept 25% on the flight. So if you are like me, then get your iPod out, put on the earphones and take a little nap before boarding. When you are on the plane wide awake, you can watch hours and hours of TV sitcoms and those movies that you missed.
Play Games
I don’t mean bringing Twister to the airport but if you have little children who are traveling with you, games are the best thing to keep them entertained and excited about the trip. Games as “guess that person’s destination” or bet on which plane will land first. If you are too young for these games, I guess you can bury your face in hours of Angry Birds on your iPhone.
These are just simple ways to pass time, if you are stuck at the airport. Try it next time but don’t blame me if you enjoy it too much and miss the flight :)
My name is Salika Jay, and I'd like to welcome you to my travel blog! Ever since I was a kid, I loved traveling the world. I started this blog to share my journeys around the world and everything travel.
Quite a few airports have WiFi and lot of travelers have smartphones or handheld devices so web access sure is a way to kill time. Creating a puzzle to the next person sounds interesting :) I hear some airports don’t allow you to take photographs. So better to check first. Thanks for the great input Deen!
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Since of lately you can tweet your way through the hours on your phone and now some airports offer free facebook log-in too. Oh how about Sudoku or any other puzzles, if you don’t a puzzle create one and leave it to the next person who will be occupying your seat.
Try your luck with Street Photography (in this case Airport photography)
Deen recently posted..Galle Fort- Sri Lanka
Thanks for your comment and input Cathy! I love art so I would sure be asking information booth for this next time I’m stuck at an airport :)
Shamis recently posted..World’s Best Underwater Experiences
Many airports also have interesting art displays and exhibits in the terminals. Ask at an information booth where you can find them. It can be a very enjoyable way to pass the time.