The age old question. "I have a long layover in ______ city, can I leave the airport?" The answer is likely yes, however is it actually smart to leave the airport? Jenn and Meggan discuss the pros and cons.
Support the Travel Mug Podcast by buying us a coffee! You’ll make our day & you’ll get access to fun stuff like bloopers and extra content.
We are travel enthusiasts who do not claim to be professionals! Instead we are two Halifax, NS natives with travel blogs who somehow found one another on the internet and now, we have a podcast!!
Join us every two weeks as we talk about our favourite destinations, travel tips, travel fails and all things travel!
We have a big passion for travelling and talking about travel so we hope you will listen and join the conversation.
Hey everyone, and welcome back to Travel Tip Tuesday with the Travel Mug Podcast. So today, Meggan, I wanna talk to you about something that comes up so often in like travel Facebook groups that I'm a part of. So someone will post, I have a long layover in blank city, can I leave the airport? And I always scroll through the comments because I love scrolling through the comments.
Meggan:
Right.
Jenn:
I see people share mostly good advice, but sometimes, it's not good advice. So can you leave the airport during a layover? Technically, yes, you can domestically or internationally. Internationally, you have to take into account like is there any entry requirements? Like do you need a visa to enter this?
Meggan:
Sure.
Jenn:
Those are things that you do have to, to think about. But a better question is, is it a smart idea to leave the airport? And again, it really depends on A, where you are and B, how long the layover is. So I think what most people fail to take into account is they say, oh, I have a six hour layover. Well, the time that you land to the time that your plane takes off, obviously you have to deplane and then also board again. So that's gonna be probably about an hour to an hour and a half. Um,
Meggan:
Right.
Jenn:
So that's eating into your time. So, and, and most airports aren't in like, Downtown of whatever city. So you have to take into account to get to something that you wanna see. Cuz usually right outside the airport is not that exciting for most people.
Meggan:
Right, right.
Jenn:
And if, if you leave the airport, you have to come back in and you have to go through security again. And there's just so many things that you have to do and if something happens and you miss your connection, all other legs of your flight are canceled, including your return flight. Because it is your fault., You will have to rebook yourself on your own dime, on your own money. Travel insurance is not going to cover you for this, so. Is it a good idea? Maybe yes, maybe no. Depending on how much time you got. Meggan, have you ever left the, the airport during a, a long layover? Have you been tempted to do it?
Meggan:
I have never done it. I've never had that long of a layover, so I've never traveled, let's say Australia or somewhere in Asia, far enough that in between, there's a long layover. Would I do it? I mean, I'm not gonna rule it out. Let's say if the layover was like 24 hours in Los Angeles, for an example.
Jenn:
Yeah,
Meggan:
maybe. But it does scare me the idea of missing what's next because of something external that you couldn't plan for. Yes. So that is always in the back of my mind and I, I said to Peter, I'm like, have you ever done this in your life? And he's. No, and I don't know if we would it. You would be so tempting cuz airports are terrible. Also missing your flight is terrible. It's a great question.
Jenn:
It's a great question though. We haven't done it either. I, I know people who have, one of my best friends had a 12 hour layover in Amsterdam, I'm pretty sure. And so like they had lots of time, you know, they were able to go and spend, you know, a couple of hours kind of wandering through Amsterdam and then head back to the airport. I, I, I would probably do it if I had a 12 hour plus layover depending on where it was. But like, Oh my gosh. Like even a 6 to 8 hour layover like that just gives me so much anxiety, like thinking about it.
Meggan:
Oh, I know. And I think a lot of people have used Iceland as a layover. Yeah. And gone out and gone to like the blue lagoon, but the blue lagoons also right next to the airport. Pretty much.
Jenn:
Yeah.
Meggan:
So there is the time and a place. I think you just have to be really as sure as you can me. Understanding though that certain things could be out of your control.
Jenn:
Yeah, I think Iceland's a great example because they actually promote the, your Iceland stopover when you're flying from North America to Europe. So you can actually take like a two day layover and actually get to explore Iceland as well. And, and they still offer this, we did this in 2015 for our honeymoon, so yeah, that, that sounds very nice. The, the like six to eight hour layover. Like I, I mean, I'm gonna be honest, like you really ain't got time for that. You really
Meggan:
not in our opinion. No.
Jenn:
No. I mean, listen, if you have done this, if you have left the airport during a layover, we'd love to hear from you. Hear your experience. Let us know on social media at Trauma Mug Podcast or on Instagram and Facebook. And also don't forget, for the month of April, we're having a contest for some free merch. So all you have to is leave us a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify. Screenshot it and DM it to us either on Instagram or Facebook and we'll enter you in and we will do the draw at the end of April. So that's all we have for this week. We'll chat with you again soon. Bye everyone.