Gatwick Aviation Museum. Wikipedia.
The Buccaneer S.1 outside the Gatwick Aviation Museum. Photo and more in Wikipedia.
What do you do when stuck overnight at an airport hotel waiting for an early morning flight?
Answer
Let's look at Gatwick. If you arrive early in the day visit the Gatwick Aviation Museum. The Buccaneer S. 1 is outside the museum. It is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday all year round.
At Gatwick airport, if you are flying out on a Tuesday morning the first and third Tuesdays of the month, check whether the Gatwick Hilton Toastmasters club is meeting on the Monday evening.
The club, called Gatwick Communicators, usually meets at the hotel on the first and third Mondays of the month from 7.15.
See Toastmasters' Speakers Worldwide
What happens at a Toastmasters meeting? You can see speeches on line from clubs all over the world including the international champions of the past two or three years. A meeting will have two or three prepared speeches.
What exactly is Toastmasters International? It is a not for profit organization training speakers and leaders. From its beginnings at a YMCA in California in the last century, it has spread worldwide.
Gatwick Hotel
Any bargains at the hotel? Current offers on hotel rooms are from £70 - which sounds pretty good to me.
Have I stayed at the hotel? Yes, I have, not recently, but I have stayed there. I stayed in a honeymoon suite and I received a congratulations card, probably fruit and wine. If you are staying there to depart on a honeymoon, tell them you are on a honeymoon (or anniversary or birthday trip) and ask exactly what they can provide. Some hotel offer free wine or cards as a surprise. Some tell you it's included.
Others offer you Champagne, fruit and chocolates for an extra fee. Even if you are paying, you could be getting a good deal and saving time. You get the fruit knife, the napkin, everything organised. If you are budget conscious, you might find you can get more for your money by stopping at a supermarket, especially the cheaper ones such as Aldi and Lidl.
The hotel's greatest feature is being attached to the airport, five minutes walk from the South terminal, in a covered walkway. It also had a gym and swimming pool. If you are really determined to use these facilities and your booking depends on it, check the facilities you want are operating in the hotel (not closed for maintenance or because something broke down. Also find out whether the pool or other facilities will be open at convenient hours.
Warsaw and KL Airport Hotels
How many airports have hotels like this? I've stayed a couple of times at the airport hotel in Warsaw (just rooms and a very nice restaurant, no swimming pool or special facilities as far as I remember). there's another at KL in Malaysia.
Changi Airport
The tops of all the airport hotels must be the one at Changi airport, if for no other reason than the amazing facilities of the airport itself, including the butterfly garden you can see on the departures side when flying out.
Where else do you have a high chance of finding a Toastmasters International Meeting?
Singapore Toastmasters International speakers' meetings
Singapore has about 350 of them. I've been to about 100 meetings. I haven't been to 100 clubs, just fifty clubs, mostly twice but some once and several three or more times When I am in Singapore I go to a club every day. Most Singapore groups provide food, or make a small charge for food, if in the YMCA or a hotel. Those meeting in a local Community Centre (CC for short) often do catering from a nearby takeaway or a pot luck supper.
London's Breakfast Clubs
London has a couple of breakfast clubs at 7 or 7.15 am at banks or businesses or accountants or open to all in mainly in the City or Covert Garden. One is called Early Birds.
London's Business school
Another group meets at The London Business School near Baker Street station, twice a week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, in the evenings, every week. Contact them to be sure they are meeting, where and when. (Bank holidays, exams, university holidays can throw out the normal meeting dates).
Directions to London Business School: Take the exit from Baker Street station on the Bakers Street side, past Boots, the Lost Property Office, the Sherlock Holmes Museum and the pub by the corner. Cross the road and take the left turn. the meetings are in a building across the inner tree-lined quadrangle to the building at the back and downstairs in the auditorium.
Back to Gatwick
The forthcoming event is a major speech contest at Gatwick. This is a major event, lots of fun, attracting people from a wide area, so you will have to book a seat, probably though the club and then through Eventbrite which is an online booking service which helps organizers keep track of numbers.
This event is not free. The conference costs £59
and discounted accommodation is an additional £50.
The day starts at 8.30 am. Included are the Humorous Speech Contest Final, Table Topics Contest Final (impromptu speeches competition) and yoga sessions. The day finishes with an optional drinks reception, gala dinner and dance.
If you want free entertainment go to one of their regular meetings.
Gatwick is thirty miles south of London. If you are going to the Toastmasters meeting they can get you a discount of about 20% off the price of the car park near the hotel. They also have a couple of spaces in the car park. You must pre-book through the club.
You can get to Gatwick from Victoria station on either Southern Rail or the Gatwick Express.
Gatwick Hotel
Free monorail to North terminal. Fitness area.
and queue (Americans say line up) to get a free map.
Gatwick Toastmasters Autumn Conference Contacts:
http://facebook.com/d91autumnconference
email: gatwickcommunicators@gmail.com
Tel: 077 87 61 77 66
http://d91toastmasters.org.uk/conference
Extra Information:
www.gatwicktoastmasterclub.org
http://explore.hilton.com
http://www.gatwick-aviation-museum.co.uk
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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