Cancún in January, Mauritius in March, Punta Cana whenever: the leisure long haul layover from the crew side, and how not to waste it

TUI Glasgow, five years, long haul leisure, and I wrote in my bio that Cancún in January is a gift, so let me explain what a leisure long haul layover actually is from the crew side, because it is a specific kind of layover with specific traps.

The pattern

Glasgow or Manchester to Cancún, Punta Cana, Barbados, Orlando, Cape Verde, or with the 787 to further: Mauritius, Phuket, Mexico's Pacific side. Out on a ten hour sector with 300 people who have been up since 4am and are very excited. Layover of 24 to 72 hours depending on the route and the pattern. Back on the same length sector with 300 people who have been in the sun for two weeks and are very sad. Two sectors, one hotel, three to five days away.

The layover itself

The hotel is usually a resort, sometimes the same one the passengers are in, sometimes a crew rate hotel nearby. You arrive in the evening local time, your body thinks it is 2am, and there is a pool and a bar and a beach.

The traps

The first trap is the bar on arrival. You are tired, it is warm, the beer is cheap, and the crew are lovely. Two drinks becomes six and you have wasted the only full day you have with a hangover in the sun. The senior crew do not do this. Year one crew all do it once.

The second trap is sleeping the whole layover. Arrive, sleep fourteen hours, wake at 4pm local, wander, sleep again, fly home. You have been to Mauritius and seen a hotel corridor.

The third trap is money. Resort prices, a boat trip, a dinner out, a spa, and you have spent the per diem and the next one before you get home.

What works

A short nap on arrival, two hours, no more. Then out, even if it is just a walk on the beach and a real dinner. Sleep properly that night. The full day: one planned thing (a boat, a snorkel, a town, a rum distillery, a nature reserve, whatever the place has) with two or three crew, then pool, then an early night before the flight home. The flight home is the hard one and you want to be rested for 300 sunburned passengers.

The specific ones

Cancún: skip the hotel zone, take the bus to Puerto Morelos or a cenote. Punta Cana: the resort is the point, accept it, but find the local beach north of the resort strip. Mauritius: the crew hotel is on the coast and a taxi to the market in Port Louis or the tea plantation is worth every rupee. Orlando: it is Orlando, the crew go to the outlets, and honestly the outlet run at the start of a school year is a Glasgow crew institution.

Why it is a gift

Because in January in Scotland it is dark at 3:30pm and raining sideways, and I am paid to be on a beach in Mexico for a day. The crew who complain about leisure long haul have forgotten that. I try not to.

For applicants

If you want this, TUI and Jet2 and Condor and Air Transat and the Canadian leisure carriers are where it lives. The trade is the passengers: leisure long haul is emotionally harder work than business long haul, because nobody is asleep in a suite and everyone has a question about the transfer bus. The layover is the reward and you have to learn to take it.