When You Have To Sleep At The Airport

By Author: Steve Robinson
Total Articles: 468
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If you are determined to find cheap travel options, such as cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, discount travel packages, or cheap vacation packages, then sometimes that can entail having to spend a night at the airport.

Sometimes weather is the culprit and reason why you are delayed and are stuck at the airport. Sleeping in a high traffic place such as an airport can be awkward and stressful.

The following are suggestions from Smarter Travel on how to sleep in public without putting yourself or your belongings at risk:

• By using your bag as a pillow someone is less likely to steal it while you sleep. Place the zipper side of your bag on your sleeping surface or lace the bag straps around you.

• Tune out the distractions and noise around you through sensory deprivation. Use an eye mask, earplugs, headphones, and a neck pillow. To avoid being targeted by thieves, ideally only do this when you are traveling who someone who can keep an eye on you while you rest.

• Sleep in shifts when traveling with someone else. This way one of you can watch your bags while the other ...
... catches some Z’s.

• If you need to spend the night in an airport, look for a group of other travelers that has already settled in for the night. There is usually greater safety in numbers. Such travelers can usually be found beyond security checkpoints in international terminals or near food courts.

• Airports often keep cots to be used by stranded passengers. While they are usually reserved for mass flight cancellations, you might get lucky by smiling broadly when requesting one from airport personnel.

• Sleep in a Pod if one is available. Sleep pods make airport snoozing comfortable and private. These capsules convert from comfortable chairs to lie-flat beds. Although they are current available in only select airports, they can be found in Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Delhi, Moscow, Munich, and Tokyo as well as stateside in Atlanta, Dallas, and Philadelphia.

• Consider getting a massage. Airport spas have sprung up in many domestic and international terminals. Massage induced sleep can help you get the rest you need.

• Airport lounges often offer comfortable lie flat seats as well as privacy, quiet, and relative security unavailable in the more public areas of an airport. Single day passes are as cheap as $20 for independent Airspace Lounges and $29 to $50 for airline affiliated lounges.

• Keep track of time via an alarm so that you do not miss your connection. Get creative if you are not carrying an electronic device. Some travelers have gone so far as sleeping next to their departure gates with notes taped to them asking fellow travelers to wake them at a specific time.

• Stay clean after sleeping by freshening up with antiseptic wipes or watered down paper towels. Some airport lounges offer showers where travelers can freshen up. Airport hotels have started opening their gyms at a nominal per use cost that usually provide access to hot showers, towels, and toiletries.

• Keep a change of clothes in your carry-on bag so that you can feel refreshed in the morning after changing.
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