Early Flights and Sleeping

[dddx]

I have read the other thread about sleeping in airports and everyone seems to say no to it.

But I need to ask. Say I have an early flight at 8am in the morning. How do I go about with this?

Do I sleep in at a hostel and wake up early to check out and then find travel to the airport? Would there be public transport to get to the airport that early for an 8am flight? Do hostels do check outs in the middle of the night like that?

Or would it be wiser to make my way to the airport late at night and stay there until the morning for the 8am flight?

Thank you for any advice!

[pointofnoreturn]

It depends where you are. I had flights at 7 AM with 5-5:30 AM check-in's so I slept in the airport. I've only slept in 2 airports - Paris Orly and Milan Malpensa.

The first thing I would do is check out the transportation options - is there a 24 hour option? i.e. Athens has a 24 hour bus service to the airport. Second thing, is there any nearby hostels, particularly one that will have 24-hour reception. And thirdly, are you willing to sacrifice comfort for savings?

Paris Orly was fine to sleep in. Milan.... a nightmare. But in the end, I'd do it again if I had an early flight (7 AM or earlier). But my flight in Milan was actually like around noon but we couldn't find a decent hotel and it was quite far from the city centre anyway.

[me]

i've slept in airports before flights home from Frankfurt & Zürich - those flights to D-Fort-Worth international from Europe always seem to require a very early check-in.

there's a website about this: sleepinginairports.com/ czech it out!
[btw, Athens airport is well rated on the site]

- d

[dddx]

Thank you all for the replies! And thank you for that link as well.

I seem to think that it should be fine since we are in a large group (six males). And from that site, the two airports we might potentially sleep in (London-Luton and Paris-Orly) seem to be rather decent to do so in. I think this should be quite the experience for us first time back-packers! And also a way to cut down on expenditure by saving on hostel fares.

[pointofnoreturn]

Yeah, Paris Orly was actually nice to sleep in. The cafes close around 9 PM so you might want to bring some food with you and a pashima shawl for a mini-blanket because it can get quite cold due to the A/C. A tip: Head to the second floor where part of the arrivals are. There are nice padded benches with no arm rests that face a HUGE window with incoming planes. I think you'll have to go up the escalator to the 2nd floor where the best benches are.

Take Bus No. 285 to Orly Airport from Villejuif Louis Aragon metro station (end of Line 7) and the bus ride is worth 2 metro tickets and a short distance. You might want to ask someone to point you out when the stop is approaching, especially if the bus is full and you might not be able to see anything. A nice woman did that for me and it was much cheaper than taking all the other expensive airport transport options!