Dubai, 23rd October 2011
Unless you are lucky enough to be flying in Business or First Class, then stop-overs at foreign airports can be a right pain. Most likely you are hovering in-between time-zones, have only a few hours to wait for the connecting flight: not long enough to leave the airport and take in the sights, but too long to be able to while the time away over a coffee. So the idea of being able to seclude yourself away somewhere for an hour or two and have a doze is perfect. Enter the SnoozeCube.

Not necessarily a new idea, similar sleeping cubicles to the SnoozeCube have already been available at busy transit airports such as London Heathrow and Gatwick, Schiphol, Munich and many others, but it’s a new and happily embraced concept at Dubai’s International Airport.

In Terminal 1, next to Gate 122 on the first floor, the small entrance belies the availability of ten cubicles that are rented out by the hour to those in need of a nap. Measuring 2.4metres by 1.8metres, there is a single bed, hangers for your clothes and even a touch-screen TV and internet access – but that’s it. It’s a little place to call your own for a limited amount of time, and a certain step up from trying to rest on the seats in the terminal whilst trying to a grip on your luggage, or even sleeping on the floor – and option travellers going through DXB will be only too familiar with.

For Dhs65 ($18) you can put your head down in relative comfort and catch up with time zones whilst waiting for your next flight. Prices stay at Dhs65 for the first four hours each and after that decrease steadily to Dhs45 per hour for someone who wants to stay the night. Which then adds up considerably and makes the terminal’s Airport Hotel a viable option – but a hotel is not what the SnoozeCube is designed to be anyway. It’s just a safe little place to lay your weary head for an hour or two before grabbing that hand-luggage and catching your connecting flight.

Night, night.

Check it out here: www.snoozecube.com