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Forum Question Posted By: Replies:
London
Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Mon July 28, 2008 05:38 PM UTC
I plan to fly in October to Sicily via London (Stansted) by RyanAir. It will be 5-6 hours between flights in the night.
Can I spend this time at the airport Stansted? Are there any cafe opened in the night? Souvenir shops? Are there waiting rooms with seats opened in the night?
Thanks in advance for the replies.
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London
Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Mon July 28, 2008 07:23 PM UTC
yes you can kip there, lots cafe open alnight?

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Mon July 28, 2008 07:36 PM UTC
If you've got less than 6 hours between flights, you won't have a lot of choice but to stay at the airport, as there is nowhere nearby you can get to easily in that time - apart from airport hotels.

The official Stansted website is here

http://www.stanstedairport.com/

If you go to the Shopping and Eating tab, and select "Where to Eat and Drink" from the menu on the left-hand side, you will get a list of all the shops and restaurants, including the opening hours for most of them. You can filter this list to just restaurants and bars - and surprisingly, some are open 24 hours (even though there are no flights in or out from around 2:30 until 6:00), although most close around midnight until 4 or 5 in the morning. I'm not sure if the whole airport is open 24 hours, but I would think the departure lounge is, and there is plenty of seating there.

E-mail me if you have any specific questions - we have used Stansted quite a lot in the last few years (but not in the middle of the night!)

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Mon July 28, 2008 09:23 PM UTC
Agree with the above.

You'll be able to spend the night in the departure area (and you probably won't be the only one).It won't be dark, or particularly quiet or comfortable, but at least it will be warm. The seats there are not very comfortable (and there aren't too many of them), so you will probably be best finding a bit of floor somewhere.

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Mon July 28, 2008 10:42 PM UTC
The place is full of backpackers doing the 'all night vigil' waiting for the first flight of the day, which has the cheap seats.

Take some books to read or a sleep mask. The lights are on all night and you can always get a coffee. It is a small airport.

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Tue July 29, 2008 04:40 AM UTC
Thanks a lot for your replies!

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Tue July 29, 2008 06:04 AM UTC
One important thing that I forgot to mention. Ryanair flies point-to-point, and doesn't do transfers. Unless you are travelling with hand-luggage only and can check-in on-line, you will have to retrieve your luggage on arrival, and take it round and check in for the second flight - which will mean waiting for the check-in desk to open. So most of your wait will be spent outside security, not in the departure lounge.

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Tue July 29, 2008 07:48 AM UTC
That was the area I was describing, by the way: the area outside security, where the check-ins are.

The airside departure area also has shops/cafes but is smaller (or seems it). I'm not sure you'd be allowed to stay there overnight (do they close it/security when there are no flights, I wonder?) but even without hold baggage I'd prefer to spend the night in the main departure/check-in area, simply because a)it's bigger and has more corners to tuck yourself into and b)there are likely to be more people doing the same thing.

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Tue July 29, 2008 07:56 AM UTC
I agree with you, there is more room, and many more corners to hide in !

Check out the airport maps on the website - they'll show you what shops are where. The arrivals map is out of date by the way - the new extension opened at the beginning of July, giving more room at this end of the terminal.

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Tue July 29, 2008 08:10 AM UTC
I didn't notice anything different when I was there a couple of weeks ago....perhaps they've had a delay?

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Tue July 29, 2008 08:47 AM UTC
The website says it was open - that's how I knew. It wasn't ready the last week in June though when we passed through, so maybe the website is wrong. It's the new section on the left as you pass through passport control.

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Tue July 29, 2008 12:31 PM UTC
Hmmm....didn't notice, though I was a bit bleary-eyed at the time. Obviously not that spectacular!

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Re: Some hours at Stansted
Posted: Tue July 29, 2008 05:25 PM UTC
I don't worry about "dragging" my luggage - usually it's not to heavy! When I was in London in December 2006 (for 4 days) my bag was only 3,6 kg!

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