The overlooked hours of travel and how to actually enjoy them
Flights, ferries, and road trips come with plenty of waiting around. Here’s how to make the in-between hours feel like part of the trip
Travel photos have a habit of skipping over the boring bits.
You remember standing on a windswept coastline, finding a tiny café down a side street, or watching the sun disappear behind the mountains. You probably don't remember the two hours spent waiting for a ferry beforehand.
Yet those hours make up a surprisingly large chunk of many trips. Airports have gates, road trips have long stretches between stops, and hotels occasionally leave you wandering around with your luggage until check-in.
There is something quite nice about those gaps once you stop treating them as time that needs to hurry up. They give you permission to sit down, entertain yourself, and recover before the next part of the trip begins.
The downtime hiding inside a great trip
Even a packed itinerary has pauses.
Some are short enough for a coffee. Others leave you staring at the departure board and wondering how 47 minutes can possibly pass so slowly.
Common travel gaps include:
Waiting at an airport gate
Sitting on a train or ferry
Riding as a passenger during a long drive
Arriving before hotel check-in
Waiting out bad weather
Resting between daytime sightseeing and evening plans
There may be something to be said for embracing them. Expedia Group's Unpack '25 research surveyed 25,000 people across 19 countries and found growing interest in what it calls "JOMO Travel" – trips centered around relaxation and enjoying a slower pace. In the same research, 62% of travelers said this type of travel reduced stress and anxiety.
A little empty space in an itinerary might actually be rather useful.
Your phone can do something besides show you maps
Your phone works surprisingly hard on vacation. One minute, it contains your boarding pass; the next, it is translating a menu, finding your hotel, or taking the 23rd photograph of the same sunset.
During travel downtime, it becomes an entertainment system too.
A longer train journey might call for a downloaded Netflix episode or podcast. Twenty minutes at a gate could be enough to edit some photographs, play a puzzle, or open a mobile game. Adults who already enjoy casino games may use shorter gaps for slots because individual rounds are quick and there is no need to commit to a long session. Someone might play slots with bitcoin at mBitcasino, for example, while another traveler spends the same break reading or listening to a playlist.
There is also a practical reason slots can suit these smaller windows. You can decide in advance how much time and money you want to spend, play a few rounds, and put your phone away when boarding begins. For travelers who play slots with bitcoin at mBitcasino, the format can sit alongside the other quick entertainment already stored on a phone.
Depending on the game, online slots can include features such as:
Different themes and visual styles – games can draw on everything from mythology and adventure to fantasy, food, and classic fruit-machine designs.
Bonus rounds – some slots include separate features or mini-games that temporarily change how the main game works.
Free spins – certain games award additional rounds after particular symbols or combinations appear.
Wild and scatter symbols – these can have special functions within a game, such as substituting for other symbols or helping to activate features.
Different reel and payline formats – the layout can vary considerably between games, giving players plenty of choice when they want to try something different.
