The Layover That Changed Long-Haul Travel: Melbourne, the Boys and a Genius Airport Hotel Find
- eatcleanhealthandd
- 16 hours ago
- 5 min read
Eat Clean, Health and Dream | Road Trip Adventures
Some trips are meticulously planned.
Others are planned well… kind of.
This summer’s adventure with the boys definitely fell somewhere in the middle.
The flights were booked. The train to the airport was booked. Car hire for the Australia leg was sorted.
The actual road trip?
Well, that idea came a little later and flourished and grew.
And that’s how I found myself planning a Melbourne-to-Brisbane road trip as part of a much bigger adventure taking us from the UK, through Australia and on to New Zealand.
The Flight Plan
When I was looking at flights, I initially chose Melbourne for one very practical reason: price and availability.
I also needed 3 seats together, because travelling long-haul with two growing boys is not the time to discover that the airline has scattered everyone around the aircraft and I didn’t want to sit separately from them.
The route itself was familiar.
Craig and I have flown London Gatwick – Shanghai – Melbourne a few times before, so I knew what we were getting ourselves into.
On the way back, we were flying Auckland – Shanghai – London Gatwick.
An open-jaw itinerary made sense. We could arrive in Melbourne, travel north by road through Australia, eventually make our way to Brisbane and then continue on to New Zealand without wasting time and money flying back to where we had started.
It sounded straightforward.
Until I looked properly at the Shanghai layover.
14.5 hours.
During the day.
Now, I have done some pretty long airport layovers before. The longest I had previously done at Shanghai Pudong was around nine hours, and on that occasion we had used the airport lounge. It did the job.
But this time I had two boys with me.
We had backpacks.
And, because apparently I hadn't packed enough responsibility already, I had somehow ended up carrying Albie's backpack too.
The thought of wandering around Shanghai for hours, tired after a long-haul flight and carrying hand luggage, wasn't particularly appealing.
So I started looking at another option.
And that's when I remembered something I'd noticed on a previous trip.
The Airport Hotel I Hadn’t Really Thought About
There are actually hotels inside Terminal 2 at Shanghai Pudong Airport.
I'd spotted them before but hadn't really considered using one.
This time, I searched for them properly and found
Aerotel Shanghai
The brilliant thing?
You can book a room by the hour.
That immediately changed the whole equation.
Rather than trying to fill 14.5 hours in an airport, we could land, clear the necessary formalities, have a proper shower, sleep for a few hours and then get up feeling considerably more human.
I booked seven hours.
If I'm honest, I mucked up the booking slightly and would have booked longer if I'd realised exactly how useful it was going to be.
But seven hours actually worked out pretty well.
And what happened next made me realise just how much of a difference a simple airport hotel can make to long-haul travel.
Straight from the plane to bed
We landed.
Customs was done.
Our main luggage had gone straight through to Melbourne, so we didn't have to collect suitcases.
And then we simply walked across inside the airport towards Terminal 2.
We passed a couple of other airport hotels before finding Aerotel.
No airport transfer.
No dragging ourselves outside.
No taxis.
No navigating an unfamiliar city with three tired people and too many backpacks.
Just walk.
Check in.
Room.
Done.
We had a twin room with everything we needed.
And then Albie discovered something that apparently elevated the whole experience considerably.
A remote-control toilet.
Yep.
Sometimes it's the little things.
He was impressed.
Within minutes we'd brushed our teeth, set alarms and climbed into bed.
And I have to say, it was glorious.
The underrated importance of a shower when travelling
I love travelling.
I love airports.
I love the feeling of being somewhere new.
I even love some of the slightly uncomfortable bits of travelling because they are part of the adventure.
But there is one thing I have learnt over the years.
After a long-haul flight, particularly one of ten hours or more, I need a shower.
Craig will absolutely back me up on this.
There is something about getting clean after being on a plane for hours that makes me feel almost human again.
It's a bit like camping.
I love camping. I love the freedom, the outdoors and the adventure.
But I also really like knowing where the showers are.
The same applies to long-haul travel.
Give me a shower and suddenly I'm ready to face the next part of the journey.
So after a few hours' sleep, I showered, brushed my teeth, had a coffee and checked that everyone's belongings were where they should be.
The boys were still sleeping, so I let them.
There was no need to wake them just because I was awake.
Eventually, though, the growing-boy stomachs started making their presence known.
Lunch—or something resembling it—was calling.
Keeping moving between flights
We headed off to find something to eat and spent some time moving around the airport.
And actually, that was another reason I was pleased we'd chosen the hotel.
We had slept.
We had showered.
We'd reset.
Now it was time to get moving again.
With another long flight ahead, I didn't want the boys sitting still for hours and hours before getting back onto another plane.
Travel can be brilliant, but our bodies don't particularly care that we're crossing time zones, sitting on aircraft and waiting in airports.
They still need movement.
Food.
Water.
Sleep.
Fresh air where possible.
And, occasionally, a decent shower and a proper bed.
Why this little hotel find has changed how I think about layovers
I've done enough travelling to know that sometimes the cheapest-looking flight isn't necessarily the best option.
And I'm not talking about upgrading to business class or booking expensive airport lounges.
Sometimes it's something as simple as looking at what you can do with the layover.
A 14.5-hour airport stop initially sounded exhausting.
But once I broke it down differently, it became:
Flight → sleep → shower → food → movement → next flight.
That is a completely different experience.
It's also made me think more about how much long-haul travel can disrupt our bodies.
We're asking ourselves to sit for hours, sleep at strange times, eat differently, cross time zones and keep going.
So whenever I can build something into a journey that helps reduce that disruption, I will.
The same reason I love finding somewhere with a pool or health club during a long Dubai layover.
A swim.
A shower.
Some movement.
A chance to reset.
It can make such a difference.
Aerotel Shanghai: definitely one for the travel notebook
So, was seven hours enough?
Honestly, I could have slept longer.
But was it worth it?
Absolutely.
It was easy, convenient and removed a huge amount of stress from the journey.
Most importantly, we weren't wandering around exhausted with backpacks, trying to fill hours simply because we had a long layover.
We slept.
We showered.
We ate.
We moved.
Then we carried on.
And that, for me, is the real win.
Aerotel Shanghai has officially gone into my travel notebook as a definite great find.
I'll be using airport hotels like this again—and I'll certainly be looking for them when planning future long-haul journeys.
Because sometimes the best travel hacks aren't glamorous.
Sometimes they're a bed, a shower, a coffee…
…and, apparently, a remote-control toilet that impresses your pre-teenage son.
And from there?
Well, the real adventure was only just beginning.
Melbourne to Brisbane by road with two boys.
Now that is where this summer road trip really started to get interesting.
Follow me at Eat Clean, Health and Dream for the next instalment of the Australian and New Zealand adventure—where we swap airport terminals for roads, beaches, wildlife, surf, national parks and plenty of family adventure along the way.
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