Sleeping at Airports - experiences

A nice website about Sleeping at Airports. Each Airport has his own review.

http://www.sleepinginairports.com

Each Airports has a "Sleeper Score".

About London Stansted:

"it looks like a refugee camp with the amount of
people sleeping" (toby)


(Contributed by ?) - "My night at London Stansted was great. I arrived at 1 o' clock in the night and there were a lot of boys and girls sleeping. I met another italian boy and a spanish man going to Sweden and we talked all night long. The atmosphere was very quiet, the floor clean and all the people can sleep without any problem..I can say I love my night at London Stansted!!!"


However, my question: Has anyone experience with sleeping at Airports and specially at London Stansted Airport?

RyanAdmin wrote:However, my question: Has anyone experience with sleeping at Airports and specially at London Stansted Airport?

Jep, I do. Have done the night at Stansted four times up to now. But I think it will stay with four times, as I am not so keen on sleeping on the cold floor of a british airport.

I like airports like Glasgow Prestwick or Stockholm Skavsta better. There are comfy benches or good chairs you can put together and the atmosphere is calmer and less passengers sleeping around.

But who knows, maybe I'll want a 6.30am flight from Stansted some time again...

Hey everybody!

Hotel Frankfurt Hahn

I once (when my first Ryanairflight was cancelled) had to spend the night at the Beautifull Frankfurt Hahn Airport. The lobby of this hotel had 20 check-in desks or so and had plenty of toilets. The room was a bit crowded and the beds felt like concrete floor. The room service came by at 3 in the night just to clean the floor. Fortunately they let most of us sleep and swept only the floor which wasn't occupied by guests. Unfortunately two guests where swollowed bij one of those big cleaning machines. But we couldn't care less because that would open up 2 seats for the morning flight. Our wake up call was at five in the morning. The first announcement. Some idiot parked his car in front of the lobby. But hey, who needs a wake up call when you haven't slept all night? What was the only advantage of this hotel? It was free!
Next day I got a flight to Montpellier.....leaving nothing but that great hotel;)

Grad, you were lucky to have experienced a night in Hahn.

If anyone wants to do that these days, be prepared to get kicked out of your "room" at 1.30am! The terminal closes for nearly three hours! German airports are not english airports...

Wow, this site is good but I did some mistakes as I was acting like professionalist and 100% prepared to sleep on the airport floor... hopefull everything went good.

I've spent actually 2 nights at Hahn airport while traveling to Tenerife. That was not so bood night because of late arraival of my filght from Gdansk... places like under the stairs, the best one anyway, was busy... there was no any free place to sleep so me and my 2 friends had decided to sleep between 2 toilet doors.... in front of the main enterance I guess. We've spent there about 2 hours and went upstairs on to the first floor because of cold... 1st floor still very busy.. in almost every corner. We set up our sleeping bags opposite shop glass-wall. Near restaurant. Everything would be good if washing mashines not work... but they've been working all night almost every 1,5h. Light definetly was too strong and air was very dry. It was middle of June and fortunately noone has kicked us out in the night and airport had not been closed even for a while. While I was comming back I had to sleep one night again.. and the situation was even worst.. first floor had been closed!! so there was no free cosy place to sleep.. so I decided to sleep near check-in points as my flight was one of the first in the morning. All of the seats were projected with "arm holders" (don't know if I call it right, hope everyone understood and were very deep.. something like plastic box.


Another airport where I've been slepping is Barcelona - Girona. It was exellent!! I arrived during the daylight and found good chairs with no arm holders, perfectly good for sleep of course if you'll find a free one, because in the evening none was free. Cosy atmosphere, not too much noises. I think it was because airport was not like hangar or big hall like in Hahn but normal building.


And the last airport is Tenerife.... :P I've been sleeping there 2 nights.. haha. It sounds strange but what could you do if you have no money for the hotel and had lost credit card it was very funny because we were only 2 persons who slept on the airport... we chose place under the stairs.. some one from office opposite woke us up and just asked "everything's ok?" we said "Yes!" of course. So if you want to have a good sleeping place under stairs Tenerife South "airport hotel" is open all the time


So it's all about my experiences of sleeping in the airports. I have a question! I have to spend one night this Thursday at London Luton Airport.. any comments about this airport?? Any advices?? Is there any bathroom, showers???

Look forward to hearing from You FR people

Hi Daleano

Well London Luton is awful for overnight sleeping. Often you have flights coming in all night and passengers streeming out of Arrivals every half an hour. This also means that the sliding doors at the entrances are open a lot of times. Especially in winter this means that the airport gets very cold due to the draf! So I would strongly advise you to pack warm stuff if you want to sleep well!

A small tip. Security opens early at around 3.45 am, so I would then go straight in and proceed for Gates 1-8, where all Ryanair flights leave. On your way there you will have to pass through a sort of lounge style area with comfortable chairs and benches. The best place to sleep for another two hours! Those leather chairs are nearly like your sofa at home! Just great!

Hope you have a great night!

My first experience I've had was at Dublin airport. I was working there for a one
year long, so fortunately with Airside pass I could find many better places
than normal passengers could do. Anyway, I think that our company lockers was
best option

I've also spent one night in Stansted floor in june'07. I arrived about 11pm
and as few guys fall asleep in front of check-ins. I also plugged my laptop
into check-in's power, runes up winamp and with headphones fallen asleep as I
was in heaven. Few minutes later I was awaken by two police guys with guns
turned to the floor, and me by the way. Imagine yourself how I was feel
ekhm.... surprised, when I opened my eyes and saw them. All I could say in that
very moment was old Irish "what's the story boys?" They woke me up
because of my battery was charging into wrong place. You know, airport
regulations

Bristol has
hosted me in april'08. Almost every seat was occupied, so I used the one in
front of toilet entrance - near check-ins. There also was some questions about
our laptop battery plugged into airport power, but fortunately this time I was
speaking with some stuff instead of armed policeman The place is little bit
cold, but fortunately there was Subway opened almost all night, so we could buy
something warmer. Our sleep time finished at 4.30 when we came into departures
hall after security. It was impossible to sleep there, as the place looks like
a big, crowdie and noisy conference hall. God thanks we've arrived by first
flight

I've also slept at Hahn airport, even something like a two times. We arrived at
11.30pm and after short introduction started to occupied leathery sofas or
smthng at the mezzanine floor. Unfortunately 30 minutes later some woman said
this area will be close and we moved downstairs and seated into that chairs. It
was very cold there as the airport is like a great hangar and it would be very
hard to make it warm. And it was also beginning of december'08, so it was
extremely cold and snowy time then. After two hours I've decided to look harder
for better place to sleep, and found other way to get to the upper floor. You
can get there by stairs or lift in the very end of the terminal building and
the entrance may looks like a stuff area, but it's not. The floor is very hard
there, and the light is to heavy, so the very morning BGY departure and
possibility of sleeping into plane chair helped me and my bones mostly I
came back there day later at 8am and had to stay almost 12 hours. Firstly I
wanted to visit some area nearby, but the weather was horrible this day. So
first of all I came into upper floor and layed me tired bones into leathery
chairs I've mentioned before. It was comfortable, but 40 minutes later some fat
Helga was opening her fast food there, and "gently", but also very
definitely with her deep low voice said, that this is customers place and finally
- not sleeping area at all. So we finished with downstairs again, but later on
spent few hours at some restaurant at the upper floor.

The last but no least "hotel" I've visited was Bergamo. It was connected somehow with HHN,
as I came with very first flight there, and left even earlier next day. Wow, I
was surprised, even if I knew some stories, that this airport is so called
close at night. But I couldn't believe when I saw 200 ppl seating in small area
and stuff haven't care if everyone have place to seat, or if this area is even
warm... We found some quiet place at stairs leading into first floor restaurant, but we was turned
back after about 40 minutes, as security guy was walking all over terminal all
the time. About 2am few ppl started to go behind our "exclusive"
location to have a seat into nearby restaurant's chairs. Fortunately that area
has been cleaned up already, so security even when saw those people, said nothing.
I've also read, that man may sleep at nearby Orio shopping center, but I
couldn't try it.

When i flew to Girona [GRO]...last January, I arrived almost at 9.00 pm.
I had not booked a bed, so I was forced to sleep in the airport [...it was the first time for me] because I had to take another flight the day after.
Well...in Girona it's possible to sleep without problems on the chairs inside the airport without limitation and also on the floor [...the best is sleep with a sleeping bag].
It's adviced to have the wake up until the 5.00/5.30 am [...security's may ask you to switch in sit position, after this time].
It's adviced to take a stripe of chairs in front of the check in desks...far away from the entrances, because it's the warmest area into the airport.

In my case I have met three funny persons [...two spanish guys and one Kazakh man] and I have spent most of the night with them, talking, taking photos and...drink a bottle of wine together.

These are 3 images of Girona sits in the night...







In January I had also slept into Orio al Serio airport [BGY], because I had to take a flight to Rome Ciampino in the early morning [6.30 am]...and really it's very uncomfortable to sleep there, because most of the airport is closed by security's...and just a little part of the entire airport [in the arrivals area] is available for sleep.
The few available metal chairs have armrests, therefore it's impossible to lie down comfortably on these sits; cleaning machine also works in the BGY closing time, between 2.00 and 3.00 am.
It's allowed to sleep on the floor...the best way is providing a sleeping bag.

This is an image of Orio al Serio sits in the night...



At the end I've slept just for 10/15 minutes in one of that ugly chair.

BTW...just 5 minutes after the take off of my flight, I have beautifully slept for 40 minutes in the cabin.

Hi all,
Does anyone have any experience of sleeping at Marseille (MRS) airport? Is it possible and OK to do as I have a very early morning flight back to STN that day?

OK, I've came back from my longer away mission more than one week ago, so I should write down my opinion, especially that I've spent two nights at airports
One of them was at Frankfurt-Hahn. Nothing has changed. But I really was surprised, that there was a huge party made by french youngsters. A lot of alcohol, a lot of noisy behaviour, and one guy in SpiderMan suit. REALLY!! This guy was walking all around like that and even went through the security area. Believe me, ppl was hm.... let's gently say - surprised A LOT!! "I have empty pockets, no chemicals, no metal items, so what?"

The other was Reus / Barcelona-Reus. The airport is in reconstruction time of it's life, but arrivals and departures seems to be clean and finished. I couldn't go anywhere else as there was no transport at all, so spend my time between midnight and 10.30 am there. Well, on arrivals area are comfortable, wide and soft in some kind of meaning seats for two people. So it really wasn't necessary to use my sleeping bag. The best thing I've ever seen at any airport was, that when every kiosk has been closed, and almost every worker went home, the others almost switched the lights off. It was climatic half-dark there, so there was really perfect condition to sleep there :-) If toilets wouldn't be so smelly, the airport could get 10 per 10 hostel points from me

Cool!
Thank you for have shared your experience!

Back in september 2006, I was forced to sleep in the airport of CDG.... TERMINAL 3!!!!! Not the nicest of places to sleep in, only got about 10mins of sleep, but once I got on the plane home (considering I was only going for a day trip to a local theme park, not disney) I slept in the seat easily. Though it was lazyJet canceling our flight due to a small a/c crashing off the end of the runway at LTN. though FR were landing ok. Bastards!

Another two "hostels" have been checked
Brussels Charleroi has a small and very simple terminal building. No hidden places, just a long passage and departure/check-in desks hall. Shortly after our arrival most of passage's seats were occupied, but even if not, it was impossible to sleep on two seats because of "arm holders". So we've decided to place our sleeping bags and blankets on the check-in desks hall. Even cleaning team don't interrupted our sleep and we've been awaken by the travelling alarm clock setted up on 4 a.m. (I mean some staff waking everybody up because of check-in morning shift was starting at 4) :-)
Really good place to sleep at night

Madrid. After half hour of walking round and round to find a FR's desks we've came to some pit nearby of Food gallery. It was empty and I was affraid of this because I feel more comfortable and secure if somebody see my while sleeping. Anyway we've packed out our stuff and 20 minutes after were accompanied by some couple and one woman as well. About 20 more people came during the night and no problem was reported. No police, security or cleaning team was interrupting our rest hours. I think the staff used to people like us, because there was plenty of people choosing their stay during the night - a lot nearby Easy Jet's check-ins The only bad thing was, that without a reason I couldn't fully fallen asleep. Thanks god my MAD-CRL flight repared that :-)
Another good airport to sleep only if you have something to sleep on. There is seats at all so you may get dirty little bit.

Somewhere I read that Charleroi was one of the worst airports for the sleeping, and it appears from your message that it isn't there so badly. I spend one night in CRL (ARR 2030 (from Warsaw),DEP 0630 (to Girona)), but I chose the hotel.

Probable the same polish forum I've also read that info one day before my flight. It might be like that in old terminal building, but this should be confirmed/rejected by frequently CRL users

I arrive in the evening at Reus Airport and need to stay there overnight. Does it close overnight or no? I have read different stories people saying it close others are saying u can stay there? Anyone has more infos?

It would appear that you can stay in the airport overnight.

I am back from the trip via Reus Airport. This is confirm that you can actually spend the night at the Reus Airport, no one will ask you to leave the airport building after mid night . The chairs may not be most comfortable but you can spend few hours there instead of paying for a hotel if you only fews hours of stop over time.

Hi,

Didn't practice 'sleeping in airports' that much but
I know :
* in PSA Pisa you can't until 04.00 AM
* you can in STN LONDON STANSTED( it's even crowded and enjoyable !! )
Now experience of reus but try the website
http://www.sleepinginairports.net/
great reviews !!
Have fun in REUS !
Leave an answer in this topic for us when back so we read your experiences
and take them with us for when we are going ( if cheap priced ! )
MAKI

thanks for your reply and yea I know the page and I've checked it (its my first source) I will tell you how it ended up when im back =-)

Spent a night at Orio al Serio Airport in Bergamo last year and it was a hard night, it was very crowded and worst was the security closed the departure area so we all had to stay in the lobby which was kinda small for that amount of people was a nice experience though, I'd do that anytime again ;D

The Bergamo's nights are a large story every time all time
I've spend a night in Reus in february'09. No problems at all. Terminal lights was off, only three pax inside, very nice :-)
The rumours about closing down the terminal building may appear because of:
- the terminal was expanded and previously - before the FR base - it might be closing during the night
- I've spend a night there during the winter season. Same story with Torp airport's terminal building which was open all night and at the beginning of april it will be closing again.
Anyway, I will be in Reus in the end of april. I departure at about 8pm but I try to ask some staff how does this story look like? If it will be close you may even go to Reus - I know that it's not so far and easy to reach by foot :-)