If you find yourself getting stuck at the airport in one of those long wait periods because your flight is delayed, then you need to find ways to be able to entertain yourself.
There is only so much time you can spend walking around the shops and looking at the shelves, especially when airports are super overpriced. If you are the sort of person who likes to get to the airport extra early than a delayed flight can cause even more of a headache.
Airports can be super fun, but usually this is only the case if you’re super rich. Most people, however, are not super rich and they only ever use airport facilities if they have to. So how do you entertain yourself if your flight is going to be significantly delayed? Well, there are so many things you can do and we’ve put them down for you in a list.
- Strike up a conversation with a stranger. It’s a nice idea to sit on your phone and play solitaire, but if you strike up a conversation with a stranger, you could make a new friend. Most friendships start as a conversation complaining about the wait time, so if you’re with strangers in a public space such as at the airport, engaging in conversation could be the next best thing you do. If you’re nervous about sitting down and talking to strangers then just have a look around and pre-screen potential chat buddies. This involves looking on social media for hashtags to do with flight delays at your specific airport, and you’ll be able to find someone to go and sit and complain to.
- Find a solo game to play. We already talked about playing solitaire, but if you’re starting to run out of phone batteries, then you need to think about what you could do to entertain yourself elsewhere. You could make origami out of travel brochures or magazine inserts, or even candy wrappers if you’ve got the skills.Miniature Swans will help to get the kids fascinated into silence. If you know how to do origami, it’s a great way to entertain yourself while you keep your hands busy and your mind busy too.
- People watch. If you’re with a group of friends and you have to wait this out, then why not come up with a miniature scavenger list of people watching? For example, finding celebrity look-alikes among the crowd or counting how many people you can find who are wearing a red shirt. Even if you’re by yourself, this is a fun game to play because you can do it all in your head and nobody would be the wiser. It’s a great way to be creative and you could also make accurate comparisons with actual celebrities. You never know, you could run into a real one.
- Get some sleep. As you’re through security, you’ve likely only got your carry on bag with you, which means that you can curl up somewhere and get some sleep. With tighter security measures a lot of airports will kick you out after midnight, but if you do have a late night flight then there are usually sleep pods that you can book into to go and get a couple of hours of rest. Or you can curl up at your gate on some chairs or even on the floor if necessary. As long as you set yourself an alarm to remember to wake up on time for your actual boarding, you’ll be fine.
- Do a workout. Did you know that some airport lounges have a gym facility? If you have the privilege of going to an airport lounge, you could go for a workout while you wait for your flight. The other thing you can consider is that yoga is something that you can do anywhere. Even if the floor isn’t particularly nice, you can do certain stretches while you’re sitting in a chair. You don’t have to get up and start doing downward dog if you don’t want to, and you don’t have to roll out a mat either, but just doing some simple stretches in the corner while you wait for your flight or at least wait for information. This will allow you to keep your body moving and keep your blood flow.
- Take a look at the artwork. Did you know that there are certain terminals across the world that have their own art galleries? Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and Singapore Airport both have an art gallery within them. There are also many airports that curate shows on their concourses and feature local artists, so check online to see what sites each airport offers on your way.
- Play Duolingo. A great way to pass the time is to pop your headphones in and play Duolingo while you wait. Not only will you be able to pick up a few phrases for the country that you’re visiting, but it’s a good way to exercise your mind while you have to wait, and it saves you from going crazy.
- Read a book. There are so many options for free downloads on Kindle, and there are also the sneaky methods of reading magazines and books at the airport snack shop. You could also read the books that you’ve actually brought with you in your luggage. You know, the ones that you didn’t intend to read but you brought them with good intentions and you knew that you’d never crack the spines! Bringing paperbacks with you means that you can stack more. And if you do have the money to buy more in airport books, go for it.
- Do some puzzles. A lot of people like to leave newspapers in their seats when they leave an area, so you could always pick a few of these up, including magazines, and fill the puzzles out. You can work on the crossword puzzle on your own, or you could go and ask actual strangers to help you with clues if you feel like they’re approachable.
