Five-hour layover at Gatwick - what else to do besides getting liqoured up?
 

Four of us will be incarcerated at Gatwick for 5 hours next Tuesday, awaiting a British Air flight to Marseille. Our wives will probably be satisfied to shop, which is definitely not one of my favorite pasttimes. Since I don't sleep on planes, I will have read for most of 8 hours on the overseas flight, so that's not a great option. Besides sitting in a pub and getting completely stewed, is there anything else for my friend and I to do?

Buy a daypass for one of the airport lounges?

Why would you want to do anything other than the aforementioned "getting stewed?" I mean really, Gatwick, though no Stansted, is no Heathrow either, and in all 3 of those I have been known to nip my way towards chipper.

laclaire - It will be a very long day ... by the time we reach London, well have been up about 21 hours straight, then the 5-hour layover, next the 2-hour flight to Marseille, then about a one-hour drive to the Bed & Breakfast near Avignon.

Even with all that, I agree that "getting stewed" is the most likely option; I'll probably be on my third wind by then.

You could pop down to Brighton on the train (about 30 minutes) and get stewed there by the seaside.

Get stewed in one of the lounges..at least in those if you end up lolling all over the place those "places" will be more comfortable.

Definitely go to brighton and get stewed while the ladies go shopping in the Lanes.

As you can't sleep on planes, I assume that you can't sleep camp-style at the airport. So, here comes a more serious suggestion. If you are someone who writes postcards, get it all out of the way at the airport. With 5 hours, you can get a ton of London postcards and just write away. You can even post them there and spend the rest of your vacation doing things just for you and yours. I bet that will get a good 2 hours out if you include friends and family.

Also, though it is not particularly interesting, I like to walk around airports to get some exercise and keep my lazy blood pumping. It can be fun (bear with me here) to walk from terminal to terminal and time yourself. Then in the future you will know how long to make your connections.

Sure, Brighton is only 30 mins from LGW - but you will be lucky to get there w/i 90 minutes of landing (getting through immigration and waiting for next train). The beach/pier is about 3/4 of a mile walk from the Brighton train station - but you could take a taxi. Then you have 30 min train plus security queues back at LGW. So basically you'd have have less than an hour in Brighton - and if you truly don't sleep on the flight you might be a bit disoriented and miss everything.

So just stay at LGW and buy you way into a lounge. OR you might get a room at one of the airport hotels and sleep for a couple of hours.

But I certainly wouldn't get stewed - if you are that exhausted who knows how it will affect you.

Thanks for your suggestions.

laclaire - Though I normally don't send postcards, I do a fair amount of walking around airports, so there will be some of that going on. I enjoy the girl ... uhhh people-watching.

Larry- were you at heathrow in September of 2001 when I flew through? Actually, were you the 40ish, slightly tall man who followed me into Lacoste, then into the scarf store, then tried to buy me a Cadbury bar at the kiosk? If so, I totally should have said yes because my flight got delayed and nothing would have been better than a chocolate bar while waiting. That and you were kind of cute in a sketchy way.

laclaire - yes, I was trying to have it not be so obvious that I was checking you out ... especially with Mrs. M. right there ;-)

The wives always get in the way. . . c'est la vie.

Walk to nearby Crawley, a small town about a mile or so from the arrivals terminal - i did this recently whilst waiting for a flight - just go out the front and turn left on the small footpath which soon emerges in Crawley, a town with shops, pubs, etc. Something besides an airport. An easy walk.

PalQ - Thanks, Crawley sounds like a good option.

5 hours is a LONG time even in a great airport (Heathrow)... I would definitely try to exit the airport. Even shopping, the women are going to run out long before the 5 hours does.

Or a hotel day room if there's one at the airport? The four of you could take turns having a shower and a quick lay down.