Can you leave the airport/get through customs for this amount of time?
Anyone have experience with this? Just looking to have a drink with the locals..
Can you leave the airport/get through customs for this amount of time?
Anyone have experience with this? Just looking to have a drink with the locals..
Do you know which city?
If it is London Heathrow, for example, then not worth the hassle. Hour to get out the airport, and an hour to get to Central London. You would only have an hour or so there before you had to think about going back to the airport.
Rome, Paris, Amsterdam are all similar.
I think this can be tricky. Clearing customs might take some time and then getting back to airport. Especially not worth it if the airport is well outside the city.
I disagree. Shortly before the London Olympics I had a six or seven hour layover at London Heathrow and was able to walk around and see some sights (Buckingham Palace, Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, etc), grab a bite to eat, and still had enough time to spend an hour or two at the British Museum. It was a bit hurried, but better than sitting at the airport for six hours.
Recalcitrant Scot wrote:
Do you know which city?
If it is London Heathrow, for example, then not worth the hassle. Hour to get out the airport, and an hour to get to Central London. You would only have an hour or so there before you had to think about going back to the airport.
Rome, Paris, Amsterdam are all similar.
Done It wrote:
I disagree. Shortly before the London Olympics I had a six or seven hour layover at London Heathrow and was able to walk around and see some sights (Buckingham Palace, Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, etc), grab a bite to eat, and still had enough time to spend an hour or two at the British Museum. It was a bit hurried, but better than sitting at the airport for six hours.
Recalcitrant Scot wrote:
Do you know which city?
If it is London Heathrow, for example, then not worth the hassle. Hour to get out the airport, and an hour to get to Central London. You would only have an hour or so there before you had to think about going back to the airport.
Rome, Paris, Amsterdam are all similar.
Agree, been there, done that.
Yeah, fair enough. I accept that it is achievable and possibly worthwhile to tick off a few big ticket attractions.
Maybe it is because I lived in London for ten years but I would rather eat at Gordon Ramsey's place in T5 then have a few beers in an airport pub than stress it ion London roads or public transport.
Splitting Hairs wrote:
Recalcitrant Scot wrote:Do you know which city?
If it is London Heathrow, for example, then not worth the hassle. Hour to get out the airport, and an hour to get to Central London. You would only have an hour or so there before you had to think about going back to the airport.
Rome, Paris, Amsterdam are all similar.
As long as you're fine spending the £££ then it beats sitting at the airport for six hours.
The most expensive way isn't always the quickest. Heathrow express is cheaper than a cab but much quicker. Same is true of trains at Schipol.
Splitting Hairs wrote:
Recalcitrant Scot wrote:Do you know which city?
If it is London Heathrow, for example, then not worth the hassle. Hour to get out the airport, and an hour to get to Central London. You would only have an hour or so there before you had to think about going back to the airport.
Rome, Paris, Amsterdam are all similar.
As long as you're fine spending the £££ then it beats sitting at the airport for six hours.
The most expensive way isn't always the quickest. Heathrow express is cheaper than a cab but much quicker. Same is true of trains at Schipol.
Paris in the morning and it's actually only 3.5 hours... weekday. how's traffic/escaping the airport?
trance dance turn in shawowski wrote:
Paris in the morning and it's actually only 3.5 hours... weekday. how's traffic/escaping the airport?
Nah, no chance. Almost an hour by train to central Paris or slightly less by taxi. Find a bar in the airport.
Don't know about major European cities, but I have done the long layover thing in NYC once, only time I've been there. I think it was about 7 hours and I had plenty of time to catch the train from JFK to Penn Station, get a quick bite to eat and walk around and see some of the sites like Times Square, Empire State Building, etc, and go to the Top of the Rock. I think it was a Sunday, late morning to afternoon.
Have done the long layover sightseeing in several cities, including some with airports way outside the city center. (Tokyo-Narita, I'm looking at you) It's always worth it to see a new place if you can make it work vs twiddling thumbs at the airport. Just do your HW, be conservative in your estimates or transit time, immigration queue time, etc. And you'll be fine.
This question makes no sense unless you specify which city you mean.