Our 10 hours Overnight Transit at Incheon International Airport…

Incheon International Airport is rated as one of the best airports in the world. We were initially so excited to be able to transit at Incheon before our flight back to Singapore. We had planned to spend our overnight stay in Incheon at Dong Dae Mun (shopping!) before returning back to the airport to catch our flight at 9am. However, to our dismay, instead of arriving at 7pm, we arrived at 11pm. The idea of overnight shopping in Incheon went down the drain 🙁

To minimize hassle of bringing our luggage around Incheon, we decided to spend our 10 hours overnight layover on the “air side” of Incheon International Airport and here’s what we did…

If you’re doing an overnight layover in Incheon International Airport, you should be vaguely familiar with 2 things.

Firstly, recognize that the “happening” parts of the airport is located at the “arch” of the airport as shown above. Gate wise, you should head towards the 1-50 gates and NOT the 101-132 gates, which we unfortunately did 🙁

Secondly, if you intend to head to the rest area, it is located at 4F. Remember, thats 4F.

Ok, now you’re set. Thank you for reading this post!

Got you there didn’t we? To be honest, there aren’t many 24 hours food options inside the transit area of Incheon International Airport. You can grab some food from the duty free shopping area, Dunkin’ Donuts and also Lotteria. However, Lotteria is not even Korean. They’re from Japan. Plus, they only sell western food like burgers. Hence, do not think that you’ll be able to have any authentic Korean food after midnight. The real Korean joints only open at 6am in the morning.

If you’re looking for an actual hotel room, there’s a transit hotel in Incheon Airport located at 4F as well. However, the price is actually quite steep. The prices above are reflected as 6 hour blocks. A 6 hour block for deluxe room (standard room was sold out), costs 69,000 KRW ($85). There’s also a minimum booking of 12 hours. Hence, the room costs at least $170 for 12 hours! Nonetheless, for the well-heeled, Incheon Airport Transit Hotel is definitely a convenient option.

Thankfully, there’s a rest area nearby (remember 4F area?) where there are curved seats for weary travellers to rest. Here’s where we spent 5 hours catching some rest…

Although you may hear some snores from fellow passengers, it was still fairly comfortable. Kate did bring along some wet wipes to wipe down the seat before we rested. We also found out that the free showers for transit passengers was only available from 7am in the morning till 9:30pm at night.

After our 5 hours of rest, we decided to check out the rest of the airport…

There was a Korean restaurant that was supposed to open at 6am in the morning (strEAT). However, when we reached there, they were not ready and said that they would only be ready an hour later at 7am.

Hence, we headed to the “food court” (aka Food Empire Incheon International Airport) that was already serving at 6:30am…

Finally got to try Korean food in Korea!

For the kids, there are many kids zones throughout the transit area of Incheon Airport. If your kids are still energetic in the wee hours of the morning, you can bring them to one these zones to “tire them out” 😛

After our hearty breakfast, we headed back to the shower area to bathe. However, we reached at 715am and there was a really long queue! By the time we entered, it was about 745am. Remember not to throw away your previous flight tickets because you will need it to verify that you’re indeed a transit passenger. The showers itself was clean and spacious. You’ll be able to bring your luggages in if you wish.

As we approached the flight time at 9am, many other shops started to open as well. The Dermalogical Spa opened but was quite expensive as well. Not long after, we were ready to board our plane for our final leg back to Singapore

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We hope you have enjoyed this coverage of our 10 hours overnight transit at Incheon International Airport!