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The Wonder Luster

For Those Of Us Whose Dreams Won't Die Between 17 and 65.

Life is wondrous! Feed your lust for life with the tools & inspiration to help make it a great one.

How To Best Utilize Airport Layovers

Travel | August 20, 2018

Being stuck in a loud and unfamiliar airport due to cancellation or delay blows. Here are some tips how you can utilize airport layovers to get through it!

Taking a connecting flight – versus a direct – is a cheaper, and sometimes the only, option when traveling. Typically, savvy fliers know to pick flights that have enough of a layover for a small delay. Regardless, I hate to tell you friends, but you will eventually encounter a significant travel delay, even if flying direct.

I’m not going to tell you that these experiences aren’t terribly inconvenient and often anxiety inducing. This is especially true if you are missing an important destination, tour, or even cruise departure. But, there’s also nothing you can do, so the best thing to get thru this craptastic part of your trip is to utilize airport layovers with a few of these tips and tricks.

Get Your Zen On

According to seatmaestro, there are 9 international airports with some pretty fly meditation and yoga rooms. If you’re feeling particularly wound up or panicky, these rooms are a perfect go-to place for reconnecting with your happy place, not to mention letting all that bad chi go. Better yet, it appears that most – if not all – are free to use.

If your airport doesn’t have one of these rooms, find an out of the way corner where you can do some yoga poses or meditate. Wooooosaaaaaah!

Nap It Up

A few of the larger international airports are starting to roll out napping rooms or pods to accommodate exhausted or stranded travelers. Unfortunately, most airports are highly resistant to these space-age looking devices because they take up a lot of real estate and they stop travelers from spending money, namely on shopping, eating, or even using the airport-affiliated hotel(s).

That all being said, one of my favorite ways to utilize airport layovers is to pop on my travel pillow, put in my ear buds, and doze away at the terminal. Bonus points if you can grab a bench where you can stretch out.

See The Sights

If you happen to be stranded at a location that has any sort of nightlife, tourist attractions, shopping, or great restaurants, it may be worth your while to leave the airport and explore. This is especially true if your flight was totally cancelled and you had to rebook for a much later one. While a two hour delay is no reason to leave the airport, if you won’t be departing until the next day, this is a good option.

Case in point, my friend got stranded in Reno recently due to a massive snowstorm in Minnesota, her home state and final destination. Even after changing airlines, she had some 30 hours to burn. Instead of dying of boredom in a terminal at Reno-Tahoe, she went online and found a 4 star room at one of the local casinos for $40. She checked out the pool, bowling alley, and even played the slots. The small amount of money she spent was nothing compared to the rest and reduced stress she got by getting the hell out of the terminal for a day.

Get Crafty, Read a Book, or Utilize Wi-Fi

Boredom is absolutely a killer when stuck in an airport (or on an air plane itself). In the wise and timeless words of DMX:

Y’all gon’ make me lose my mind
Up in here, up in here
Y’all gon’ make me go all out
Up in here, up in here
Y’all gon’ make me act a FOOL
Up in here, up in here
Y’all gon’ make me lose my cool
Up in here, up in here

Party+Up (1)

I’m convinced that Mr. Simmons was in fact referring to air travel when he wrote Party Up (Up in Here). Every time someone loses their shit at an airport or you hear of streakers, screamers, or farters making chaos on a plane, I bet you a whole dollar that they didn’t have any boredom busters with them. (Ok, to be fair, those may not have been any use to the farters. I’ll admit that.) My personal favorite is some kind of needle work project, but Sudoku, a book, or even a work project where you use airport wifi, are all great ways to utilize airport layovers and keep from going completely nutter butter.

The TSA has become pretty lax when it comes to allowing pointy craft utensils on the flight, but check out their website before bringing your favorite embroidery scissors.

Tell us how you utilize airport layovers! Do you have a particularly funny or just plain awful experience you’d like to share?

Life is wondrous! Feed your lust for life with the tools & inspiration to help make it a great one.

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Being stuck in a loud and unfamiliar airport due to cancellation or delay blows. Here are some tips how you can utilize airport layovers to get through it!

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Kyoto. ✨obsessed✨ we already want to go back Kyoto. ✨obsessed✨  we already want to go back 😍 #travelblogger #familytravel #familytravelblogger #travelwithkids  #japan #kyoto #japantravel
Traveling with kids is no easy feat, but it’s ab Traveling with kids is no easy feat, but it’s absolutely rewarding. I was told once that you don’t take vacations after kids, you simply parent in a new place- and while that’s true, it’s the kind of parenting we find the most rewarding because it’s helping both kids and adults grow, stretch and experience new things together.

Some days, it’s just easier to survive parenthood by staying home and getting through it- but if you yearn to see the world, and you feel you can’t because it’s not the right time to travel with kids at whatever age, I encourage you to reconsider when it would be “perfect” and do it anyway.

Husband and I dreamed of seeing Japan since we were kids, and what a gift it is that we could live our dream with a family in tow.  Will they remember it? No. But we sure will, and that matters too. 🩷✈️🌎 

#familytime #familytravel #familytraveltips #familyadventures #travelwithkids #travelwithme #travelhack #travelhacking #traveling
Planning an international flight with your baby or Planning an international flight with your baby or toddler? Get a bassinet! Usually (not always) it won’t cost you extra, and you’ll be able to safely let your baby snooze while you enjoy a beverage on your next long haul flight.  Since bassinets have to clip into the bulkhead, there’s only about 4 seats, and one area (two bassinets total) that can accommodate a bassinet per flight- so call your airline early and add it to your reservation!  This was a lifesaver for our @delta flight from Tokyo this spring, but not all airlines offer it (though most international, long haul flights) will!  Happy travels! ✈️🩷🌎. 

#familytravel #familytrip #travelwithkids #travelwithbaby #travelblogger #instatravel #familyadventures #travelhacking #travelhacks #familytraveltips #traveltips
You took your babies to Japan??! Yep! We did. Life You took your babies to Japan??! Yep! We did. Life is short. Pandemics happen! We waited for nearly 3 years for Japan to open back up and now we have 2 under 2! 

There is no perfect time to travel. There are advantages to each development stage- so if you have the ability to go, go. Perfectionism be damned! We took a 1.5 and a .5 year old- and while we had some jet lag, we had a great trip.  Slow down, lower your expectations and just enjoy the world school you get to experience through the eyes of a little one!  Plus, if they can fit in your lap it’s cheaper to travel!! 🤑 

We saved $10 a paycheck for several years and used reward points for our hotel. Traveled right before busy Sakura season and had less crowds and less cost! Happy travels ✈️🌎🩷
Getting married wasn’t the best of my life, it g Getting married wasn’t the best of my life, it gave me the best days of my life.  Happy two years of being contractually tied to me, dear husband. I adore you and can’t wait to plan our next adventures! ✈️🌎🩷

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