Have a layover? Bring on the micro-holiday
Make the most of a long wait en route with these tips
Waiting hours for your connecting flight is one of travel’s grinding inevitabilities. Wandering the duty-free shops, stocking up on magazines and eating airport food is all the more gnawing when you’re in a glittering capital like London, Paris or Dubai.
But there’s a way to beat this painful certainty. With a little planning, you can flee the airport for the joys of the city you’ve just landed in — and will be leaving in a few hours.
Here’s what you need:
A fast, cheap, highly reliable train system to and from the airport.
The foresight to check your bags through to your final destination before you fly.
A spirit of adventure and a functioning watch (so you get back in time to check in and make your flight).
London Micro-Holiday London is the perfect place to start your new life as an airport microholiday taker.
The Heathrow Express takes just15 to 20 minutes to get from Heathrow Airport to Paddington Station near Hyde Park in London. Trains leave every 15 minutes and the cost of a return ticket is £35 ($71.00), or £53 ($107.50) first-class. Children 15 and under travel free.
If you do need to check your bags at Heathrow, you can. Go to Excess Baggage Company to learn costs and restrictions. And speaking of restrictions, some tickets don’t let you leave your connecting airport, so read the fine print.
Once you disembark at Paddington Station, you can use that as your base to explore the neighbourhood. It’s 10-minute walk to Hyde Park. Get yourself a picnic at Marks & Spencer Simply Food before you leave the station.
The choice of sandwich fillings is unlike anything we have in Canada. If it’s raining you might have a pub lunch at the Swan overlooking Hyde Park.
If you have time, visit the Serpentine Galleries, two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens.
Another 10-minute walk from Paddington Station takes you to the picturesque Regent’s Canal in Little Venice. You can take a boat along the canal or follow the towpath on foot. There are plenty of cafés and pubs.
There’s also a Boris Bike docking station nearby Paddington Station, on Winsland St. It costs £2 ($4) for 24-hour bike access.
Since Paddington Station is one of London’s 270 underground stations, you can easily connect to all the others. But bear in mind, you might not want to go too far since “The Tube” can be delayed in ways the Heathrow Express rarely is.
So if you have a few extra hours, just take the District or Circle Line to Westminster or St. James Station and the treasures of the National Gallery, the House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the Cabinet War Rooms are all yours.
No airport lounge in the world can match them!