I found a hidden Stansted Airport area where you can sleep before an early flight… and avoid pricey hotels
IT’S always such a rare delight when a Ryanair midweek sale works out – and you can bag a return trip to France for about £30.
The downside is that flights are often at the crack of dawn at a random regional airport – which means a super-expensive 2.30am taxi ride, a nearby hotel or pricey airport parking.
So to save some pennies I chose a radically different option – albeit one that definitely wouldn’t work with children.
I decided to stay the night before my 7am flight inside Stansted Airport.
Despite the internet telling you that the airport closes overnight, this isn’t true.
It was an experience I’ll never forget and THIS is what I learned.
1. The last train to the airport is earlier than you think
The absolutely last train into the airport leaves London Liverpool Street at 23.25pm – stopping at Tottenham Hale, Harlow Town, Bishops Stortford and Stansted.
It’s warm, empty and takes 50 minutes – getting you into Stansted at 00.13am.
It only costs £31.50 advance return – a fraction of a taxi or parking.
You can also get a coach from most major cities, which often run through the night.
The nice thing about the train is that 99 per cent of the passengers are obviously doing the same as you so there’s safety in numbers.
2. Finding where to sleep
When you arrive, all the escalators from the station to the airport will be cordoned off, and everything really does look closed. Do not let this put you off.
Keep going (even if everyone who got off the same train has inexplicably assumed you know where you’re going and are following you).
Eventually after going up and down endless ramps you will come across an A4 paper sign stuck to a barrier explaining that if you’re planning to stay overnight – head to the ‘International Arrivals Hall’.
There are no obvious signs to the International Arrivals Hall. Don’t panic. Exit the station towards the coach carpark and try to find the lift at one of the entrances which takes you two floors up – this seems the only way to get there.
Once you get to International Arrivals – BINGO!! The amount of sleeping bodies on the floor will indicate you’re in the right place.
3. There is more open than you think even late into the night
There’s a Burger King, WH Smiths, Boots and Caffe Nero all doing a roaring trade.
Because the last arrival on the night I was there, was 2.55am, the place is swarming with greeters, taxi drivers and others also spending the night (and most of their holiday cash on a 1am burger).
This is the only place you can go – the Departures area is fenced off until at least 2am.
There are a few seats that are reserved for diners – but if you can’t face lying on the floor or the indignity of trying to get up off the floor in a holiday dress – there’s tons of seats outside (and a few random ones in the corridor to the toilet).
If you can handle it – the majority of empty ones are in the smoking area by the bus-to-carpark stops outside.
4. When to make the departures hall dash
Without any fanfare at all – between 2am and 3.30am, staff will quietly take down the temporary barrier to the departures hall.
There is no announcement – you just have to keep an eye on it.
You’ll know when all the Brits get up and start to queue, while everyone else looks confused.
THIS IS THE TIME TO DASH TO THE DEPARTURES – it seems you can get through no matter what time your flight.
There are no queues for security, hundreds and hundreds of empty comfy seats once you’re through and a few benches that travellers-in-the-know will already be asleep on as you march past. Also, Pret is open.
Suddenly at 3am wave upon wave of excited tourists will start coming into departures and queuing outside the pubs and restaurants – which seem to open around 4am.
The whole departures area is filled unbelievably quickly – this is the perfect time to escape to the hallowed ‘Quiet Seating Area’.
5. Finding the Quiet Seating Area
The ‘Quiet Seating Area’ is a legendary room downstairs by the gates, that hardly anyone seems to know about.
You used to be able to grab an hours kip, but recently they’ve change the seats to the most uncomfortable wooden slatted benches in the world – they don’t want you to sleep, they want to you spend money.
It is lovely and quiet down there, so unless you have freakishly silent children – I’d say its adults only.
If you make it down here and if you can get comfortable, it really is quiet enough to doze/stare at the ceiling uninterrupted.
Every so often an alarm will go off, someone will rouse themselves and march off smugly to their departure gate.
So let’s hope, after reading this – that next time it’s you. Good Luck!