How To Get The Most Out Of Your Layovers

I know, I know, I've disappointed yet again. I think it's safe to say that I'm just horrible at blogging - or making a commitment to things (such as blogging as we can see from my post about Colombia from last summer that I wrote 3 months after the fact but also in general). In my defense, I've discarded a couple of posts from here that I found were not relevant to what I'm hoping to accomplish here so that's why it's a little bare.

Anyway! This summer was simultaneously one of the busiest and one of the quickest of my life. I spent the first half taking classes, working at this cool art gallery, and observing Ramadan. On July 29th, a week and a half after Eid and a week after my last day of class, I boarded a plane to Thailand. A lot of people have been asking so here are some answers: yeah, I went alone! My parents were kind of ifsy especially as the date of my flight loomed closer (especially because there was a trafficking/murder scandal on the news like a month before I headed off) but I'm immensely appreciative of their support without which I obviously couldn't have endeavored to do any of this. Only brave cause they came first. I'll write a separate post just about parents if you guys want because that seems to be the biggest question!

I chose my flight on purpose through Student Universe (a great resource) because 1. it was one of the cheapest offered but mainly because 2. it offered a long layover in a country that wasn't on my agenda. My dad keeps reminding me to this day how I should've chosen a direct flight but I'm really happy with my visit to Tokyo.


On my way to Bangkok, I had a short 8-hour layover in Tokyo. It was a little inconvenient because the flight I'd chosen required me to switch between the 2 major international airports in Tokyo which are about 2 and a half  (painful, draining, exhausting) hours apart from each other using the express train. BUT this gave me incentive to see something along the way. I spoke to the Narita airport tourist help staff (after a lot of confused back and forth between staff who sell train tickets) and she helped me figure out a neat area to visit about an hour and a half away and which was about 40 minutes from Haneda airport (where I was scheduled to be about 6 hours later). I'd wanted to check out Shinjuku because Haruki Murakami (one of my absolute favorite authors) places his characters in it at one point or another but it turns out it was a little out of my way and I didn't want to get lost with only so much time to spare.

The place she recommended was the Asakusa district - home to the oldest Buddhist temple. It was incredible. I really like Tokyo for it's cleanliness and for its overall vibe. I fell in love on my way to Asakusa (the greenery is incredible) and at Asakusa. I also want to give a shout out to the woman who walked me to my train station when I got lost even though it was a little out of her way. Here are some photos of the Senso-ji Temple and of some streets:

On my way to New York, I had an overnight layover (22 hours) which was a lot less eventful. I stayed at a hostel near Narita airport which was in the middle of nowhere but I met some cool people so it didn't all go to waste!

Now, onto my advice for those of you who are considering a flight with a layover or are trying to plan for a layover:

1. Pre-plan and research. I recommend starting with your home country's travel site for the layover country. I also think that it's really important to keep in mind a country's cultural norms and what's respected/not respected in its society so doing research in this sector would be a great benefit. Next, gauge as best as you can, the different options you'll have within how many hours you'll have. I tried allocating an hour for customs/luggage and 3 hours for transit which left 4 hours of sight seeing time.
2. Be spontaneous. This is the direct opposite of the aforementioned point but hear me out. I tried to research as much as I could about the Tokyo metro system before going there but I could only ingest so much information. Experiencing it face front was simultaneously a lot more confusing and a lot easier than reading about it online. Don't overly pre-plan. There are so many mishaps that can occur (although I hope they don't) to delay your using every bit of every hour of your layover. I recommend making a list of places of interest but not setting your heart on one.
3. Luggage. I really recommend traveling light wherever you go. You can always buy whatever you need in the country you decide to go to and traveling light makes it that much easier to not be inconvenienced by bulky luggage on a one and a half hour train ride (a little guilty). However, a lot of airports have luggage storage where you can keep your luggage for a small fee. This is one of the things you should research beforehand.
4. Have cash on hand! I think this is the main thing I learned from my trip. I took the most minimal amount of cash with me because I have 2 brand new credit cards and my debit for backup. Huge mistake. I learned the hard way that certain cards charge a really hefty sum for atm withdrawals (capital one I'm looking at you) while others charge like $3. Some cards also have a foreign transaction fee (I didn't use the one that did). Gist of it is, I recommend taking a good amount of cash that you can just exchange at your friendly neighborhood exchange center. Airports have them.
5. Budget. No country is expensive if you don't let it be. A backpacker friend I met in Cambodia told me how he spent about $300 total for 2 months in Switzerland which I've heard from my other friends is one of the most expensive countries in Europe. I knew how much my train ticket in Japan was supposed to be so I budgeted a little extra for food and I ended up spending much less than that. In Thailand though....I didn't budget at all and I came back to New York broke. 

Happy travels!

Maesha Meto