5 Ways to Kill Time During Boring Transport Delays
At some point in their travels, most people will experience delays or cancellations (for help with cancellations, visit site). Delays can be frustrating, especially when you only have a short amount of time to spend in your destination, and you can feel cooped up when you’re forced to spend long periods of time in an airport. If you’re travelling solo, it can be particularly tedious. So, how can you kill time during delays?
Duty-free
Depending on the type of airport you’re stuck in, there should be some kind of duty free shopping for you to explore whilst you wait. Big airports like JFK in New York or Heathrow in London have a huge variety of shops – in fact, it can feel like you’ve hit Oxford Street with the number of bargains you can come across. Whilst you might not have much money to spare, browsing the shops can be a great way to stretch your legs and keep your mind off the delay. Just make sure you keep an eye on the flight information board – you don’t want to miss your flight because you’re preoccupied in a changing room!
Read
There’s no better way to distract yourself from reality than by entering someone else’s stream of consciousness. If you haven’t packed plenty of books to keep you occupied, you’ll be able to find a book shop in the airport with little difficulty. Whilst your delay is annoying, it’s nice to have an excuse to do some focussed, undisturbed reading. You’ll find that you feel a sense of calamity and peace amongst the chaos of the airport, especially if you can find a secluded corner somewhere. There’s little more joyous than reading.
Make friends
When travel goes wrong, you often get a sense of the other people who have been wronged. People love complaining, and sometimes this can be something that unifies a group. If you’re traveling solo and looking to make friends, take the opportunity during the delay to speak to others on your flight. You might make a buddy to see the sights with when you get there.
Life admin
When you’re travelling, it can sometimes feel like a chore to keep everyone updated back home. Your friends and family will be worried about you, and will want to know what you’re up to. So, use the delay to catch up on a bit of life admin. Call your mum, do that social media post and update the group WhatsApp. See this as an opportunity to connect with those who care about you and make sure that you’re up to date on any other tasks you might have forgotten.
Sleep
Who doesn’t love sleep? One of the best ways to kill time during a delay is to catch up on some much-needed rest, especially if you’re dealing with jet lag.
Darren Find a cosy corner, get your travel pillow and try to get some shut-eye – if you can. Just make sure that you ask someone to wake you up when the plane finally arrives.
