The first time I travelled to Europe I spent months planning my trip, organising 5 weeks off work, booked my tickets from Sydney to Paris via Singapore then BOOM! French transport worker's strike. Mass cancellations, travel chaos.
My flights had to be completely rebooked at the last minute. Usually total duration on such a journey is about 22h30m but in the end I had a 9 hour layover in Singapore, 2 hours in Bangkok, 5 hours in Helsinki contributing to a staggering 40 hours in transit.
Talk about baptism of fire!
The worst thing was actually the thought of such a nightmarish return journey at the end of ny holiday.
Thankfully that experience has never repeated itself, although it came close new year 2012 when a sudden change in travel dates resulted in a 12 hour layover in Singapore. Except if you have to suffer a long delay in transit, Singapore Changi Airport is probably the best place to do it.
Let's start with the basics. There is a hotel after passport control, within the airport, calked the Transit Hotel. You can rent rooms by the hour or the day. Which is a convenient place to safely and securely store your luggage while you...
Go for a swim in the outdoor rooftop swimming pool, or have an ice cold drink at the bar. Seriously, nothing say relaxing more than a swim to break up an intercontinental long haul flight. Believe me!
Go shopping in the huge shopping mall within the airport.
Grab a bite to eat in the food court.
Go explore Singapore on the free city tour. You don't have to go through passport control again when you get back, don't get charged airport tax; it's very well organised and it's absolutely free!
If I have time, I usually like to stop for a couple of days in Tojyo when flying London to Sydney. Hong Kong or Bangkok aren't bad if you're shooting through.
But at the end of the day Singapore is king if you want sorta kinda half a stopover. Magic.
Bon voyage!
No comments:
Post a Comment