Photo: Illustration by Quick Honey (), the restaurant/martini bar that's become a movie-industry favorite, are worth braving the Los Angeles freeways for, even when we're not flying.(), now in 62 North American airports, travelers can buy new books and return them within six months for a 50 percent refund.(3) A smart alternative to handing over our precious multitools to airport security: the ReturnKey kiosks that are now in nine U.S. airports and let you mail items home for $6.95 plus postage.(), which includes a citrus-scented oxygen treatment, chair massage, and manicure for US$60.() keep us entertained while we're at the gate or in transit (rates start at $12 per day at 26 airports in the U.S. and Canada). At Singapore's Changi Airport, free films play on a 100-inch movie screen 24 hours a day.(6) Watery rejuvenation awaits at the Kempinski Hotel Airport Munich's lap pool, between Terminals 1 and 2. The $18 day rate includes lockers and towels.(7) Every airport should have a supermarket like the one at Amsterdam's Schiphol, open 6 a.m. to midnight, with fresh produce, a deli, and a wine shop.
(8) We love the rainforest arboretum inside Kuala Lumpur International Airport and the Japanese, Chinese, and Hawaiian culture gardens at Honolulu International.(9) Carolina Porch Rockers, made locally in North Carolina by the Portico Chair Company, line the tree-filled atrium at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport.(10) A partly wooded 12-mile biking/hiking trail circles Baltimore-Washington International airport, connecting to the East Coast Greenway.(11) At the Shipyard Brewing Company's Brew Port in Maine's Portland International Jetport, a Shipyard Sampler of four five-ounce tasters costs $6.19.(12) The complimentary quiet lounges at Dubai International Airport have fully reclining chairs that give coach travelers the rare luxury of a horizontal nap.(13) Soon you'll be able to play nine holes at a golf course planned for Hong Kong's 2006 SkyCity addition.(14) Turn a layover at Reykjavík's Keflavík International Airport into an hourlong soak in the Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland's famed geothermal hot springs, 20 minutes from the terminal, with Reykjavík Excursions (www.re.is);
$58 includes round-trip transportation.(15) Catch a PiYo class (a fusion of Pilates and yoga) at Las Vegas McCarran's 14,000-square-foot 24 Hour Fitness (the day-use fee is $10; luggage storage is available).(), in Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, sells nine flavors in "ice cream on the fly" packages that stay frozen for up to eight hours (a two-pint travel pack costs $25). From Outside Magazine, Sep 2005NINE HOURS, a Japanese hotelier that provides ultra-economical, pod-style accommodation, has opened a new location at Narita Airport in Tokyo. The concept of capsule hotels is nothing new—the first such establishment opened in Osaka in 1979, and they have grown in popularity among frugal travellers, inebriated office workers and even the unemployed—but this is the first time sleeping pods have appeared at airports. Gulliver is surprised it didn’t happen sooner.Catching forty winks during an airport stopover can be a trying experience, so much so that many people—myself included—no longer make the effort.
Being six foot four, your correspondent has learned to preoccupy himself in other ways while waiting for connecting flights: working and reading fit the bill nicely, as does staring forlornly at the runway while I drift into a semi-conscious haze. Though my mood often flounders and my temper shortens, I have found my circadian rhythm to be a negotiable biological process. Once the mind recognises that the conditions for sleep are absent, the body makes pragmatic adjustments. The horizon of consciousness stretches, and traditional concepts of time evaporate. But it needn’t be this way, says Nine Hours. It has set up 129 pods at Narita, equipped with beds, and not much else. Each one measures about two metres long, one metre high and one metre wide. The price is ¥1,500 ($14.50) for the first hour, then ¥500 for each subsequent hour. Or you can pay ¥3,900 for a full night. Customers have access to shower facilities, high-speed Wi-Fi, storage lockers and a shared lounge. Capsule hotels became popular in Tokyo because of sky-high property values and limited space in the metropolis.
In the airport, though, space is less of an issue than cost. Splashing out on a hotel room makes sense if you have ten hours to kill (not to mention a generous boss), but the average stopover will be shorter. Given relatively quick turnaround times, travellers in the market for a bed probably want to use it to the fullest. That means lights off, heads down, and consciousness over. Full-blown hotel rooms with amenities like telephones, desks and cable TV seem excessive; so does paying for a whole night when your flight departs in five hours. Indeed, although pods are a new phenomenon at airports, economical accommodation is not. The Economist reported in 2007 that the Japanese concept has gradually morphed into a more generously-proportioned model elsewhere. Today Yotel, a British hotelier, sells hourly accommodation in “cabins” at London Gatwick, London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol airports. Its product sits further along the spectrum between cramped pods and spacious rooms, offering workstations, flat-screen TVs and enough space to stand up and swing your arms around.
At Munich Airport, prefab-style NapCab sleeping cabins equipped with beds and desks are charged by the minute. Prices for both cabins are about double the cost of Nine Hours’ cosy pods. If there is a drawback to what seems like an efficient solution to a familiar problem, it's location. Despite being targeted at connecting passengers, most establishments are land-side. That forces travellers to pass through customs and security twice, which disrupts slumber time, heightens stress levels, and might necessitate visa purchases. On the other hand, people with lengthy stopovers usually leave the air-side terminal anyway. Anything that humanises the overall airport experience and de-monopolises full-service hotel offerings should be welcomed. And for those readers whose frugality keeps even pods out of reach: choose your stopover wisely. Doha’s new Hamad International Airport has free-to-access “quiet rooms” with recliner lounge chairs, dim lighting and complimentary blankets. Other airports have similar facilities, if you know where to find them.