As many of you would have experienced before, we often get stuck at airports longer than expected due to a missed connection or weather delays. The good news is that the seasoned travelers among us know how to turn every additional minute spent at an airport into opportunity.

To get some insights on this topic, we reached out to uber-traveller, Shashank Nigam of SimpliFlying, and he shared with us five tips from his personal travel experiences around the world, including Riga.

1. Explore the airport

Airports these days are full of latest amenities for travellers, as they compete to be better hubs. And while you wait for your next flight, it might make sense to just experience some of the charms of the airport.

For example, in Riga, you can head to the Fly-Bar for a relaxing drink and a filling and inexpensive home-made style meal. You can also get a private tour of the airport arranged, where you get acquainted with the history of the airport, its development, airlines, routes and general information about flight operations. And it costs as little as LVL 25 for an hour long tour! Surely something to check out on your next transit in Riga.

2. Make friends

If you missed a flight, it’s highly unlikely that you’re the only one. Others might have missed theirs too and are in exactly the same situation as you. Why not take the chance to start a conversation with a fellow traveller? It’s always good to make new friends. And the best place to find them? Customer service counters!

In Riga, you can head to the airBaltic’s customer service representatives and probably bump into others trying to get on the next available flight. Share with them any helpful information you might have found out. They will thank you for it! And you never know how the friendship might blossom in the future.

I was once stuck in Dubai airport for a full day, with a very pleasant Indian girl. I had known her from before, but it was at the airport we became good friends. She’s now been my girlfriend for over 5 years! See, I told you…you never know where just a “hello” might take you.

3. Check out the city

Most airports in the world have city tourism offices in the airport terminal itself. Just head over there and ask them if there are any city tours. Places like Dubai offer free tours for passengers in transit for longer than 5 hours! In Brunei, you can even choose to be taken on a half-day trek in the forest (which I took up, when I was there!)

The best part about Riga is that it’s a compact city and the main attractions can be easily explored in half a day, or a full day. When at the airport, head to the “Welcome to Riga” office, located on the 1st floor of the arrivals area “E”. And let the friendly agents there help you with your city tour.

4. Get some work done

Contrary to popular belief, airports are very good for getting work done. I’m often at my productive best, when sitting isolated in the boarding area, after clearing security. There is generally a wait of half an hour or more, once you clear security and start boarding.

So, find a power outlet. Plug in your laptop and get some work done. It’s great for clearing pending emails too, because you didn’t have anything “officially scheduled” for that time! If you’re not the computer-type, then just open up that book you’ve been trying to get through and start now, as opposed to after boarding the flight.

If you are at the Riga airport for very long, then feel free to check out the Business lounge as well. You get free entrance if you are flying on Business Class, or you can buy a pass to enter. + upgrade info from Option town

5. Go plane spotting

This is an obvious one. Airports are full of…planes. And every airport has a viewing gallery too, where you can often get sweeping views of the tarmac, the runway and a lot of plane traffic.

For example, in Frankfurt, one of airBaltic’s key destinations, you just need to go to the McDonalds – it’s one with quite a good view. Sometimes, you will not realize how quickly time passes just watching airplanes land and take-off. And this is especially true for plane geeks like me :)

So, do you have stories to share on how you spend your time at airports? Let’s hear your ideas in the comments.

Tags: transit, travel tips

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.