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Location Buffer Time is time you build into your trip at certain locations, helping to ensure you do not miss later transportation connections that could severely impact your trip.
When planning a trip, one of the main concerns is transportation. If you cannot get to where you need to be, on time, your trip could be severely impacted. Arriving late can impact other travel arrangements, such as flight connections, cruise departures, train connections, rental car pickup, activity reservations and even your hotel.
For this conversation, we are going to assume you are traveling by air.
You have probably spent a considerable amount of money on your trip and the last thing you want is a
disruption due to a delayed or cancelled flight. There are things you can do to help minimize the impact on your trip should your transportation to delayed or cancelled.
You should also consider where you book your flight and what level of assistance you may receive should your transportation be delayed or cancelled. See our Booking Support Levels page for more details.
Some of the following may seem obvious but may often be overlooked.
When we travel to Europe, we like to spend at least one night or more at our first arrival location. This is usually the location that has the highest probability of negatively impacting a trip.
Remember to think about your arrival time and what you intend to do at the location. This will help determine the amount of time or number of nights you need to stay. For example, if you arrive in the early morning and have a full day, staying one night may be sufficient. If you arrive in the late afternoon, you may need to stay two nights, giving you a full day to explore. There is more information on this on the Schedules, Departures & Arrivals page.
On our initial flight, we try to avoid having a same day transportation connection if possible. We live in Colorado and our non-stop flights are usually to London, Frankfurt or Paris, although recently they have added non-stops to Dublin and some other locations. Although we have been to these locations several times, there is always something new to see and do, or we may revisit some of our favorite sites and restaurants. So, we may spend a night or more before we continue with our trip.
As an example, let’s say we are flying to London, then continuing to Portugal. We may have been able to schedule a later flight the same day to Lisbon, but if our flight to London was delayed or even cancelled, we may miss the connecting flight. This would cause big problems, trying to reschedule on a later flight or even a flight the next day...if there was availability. Typically, we will stay a night to add buffer time between our initial arrival and the next leg of our transportation. By doing this, we get a half day in London to relax, see a site or two and have dinner. If we are flying out the next day, we may stay close to Paddington Station so we can walk over in the morning and take the Heathrow Express Train to the airport. If we are taking the Eurostar, we would stay close to the St Pancras Station where it departs. If we are taking a train to another destination, we would stay close to that departing station. Being able to easily walk to the stations is a big plus as it avoids having to take the Tube in the morning, which can be quite crowded during the week with commuter traffic. It also eliminates the possibility of having to deal with a Tube Line being closed for whatever reason, and it saves a bit of money. Now, if our arrival in London is delayed, hopefully we only miss the half-day in London and the rest of our trip is not impacted.
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Yotelair
London Gatwick Airport |
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On a trip to Slovenia, we flew to London and had a 7:10 am flight departure to Ljubljana the next morning. We chose to stay the night in London rather than trying and make a connection later in the evening on the same day we arrived. This also worked better, as we would be arriving in Ljubljana around noon, rather than late in the evening.
We had a half day in London to see a few sites before dinner at one of our favorite pubs. After dinner, we took the Gatwick Express to Gatwick where our hotel was located.
We found the hotel located in the actual terminal where our flight was departing in the morning. The room was extremely small with a couch/double bed and an attached bathroom...that's it. It was perfect and you can't beat the location for an early flight.
As we had to wake up extremely early, it was very easy simply walk to security and then on to our gate. |
Note: We prefer to stay in Windsor rather than London if it makes sense. This is often overlooked, as most travelers may only think about London, with a possible day trip to Windsor. From Windsor, it’s very easy to take an early morning train to London, arriving at Paddington where you can then board the Heathrow Express. You could also schedule a private taxi to pick you up and take you directly to Heathrow.
The takeaway from all this is to plan buffer time and alternatives, so you are able to make adjustments and hopefully make up for missed connections or cancellations with minimal trip impact. Think ahead so you have a plan and eliminate the situation of ‘Now what do we do?’.
Keep in mind that missing a night at a hotel may not affect your trip much, although you may have to pay for a missed night. If you are going to be late, you should contact the property to hold your room, especially if you are staying more than a night as you don’t want them giving your room away. If you booked your accommodation through hotels.com, booking.com or airbnb.com for example, you should easily be able to contact the property using the mobile app to let them know of any changes.
If you miss a train, especially in Europe, there is usually another train coming along soon. Before your departure, review schedules to see what may be possible should you need to make adjustments. |