8 hours layover @ DTW - What to do?
 

Hello everyone need your opinions on this. My inbound flight will land before noon yet my outbound flight will not take off till around 8pm so there's good 8 hours to kill. It's a Monday so I'd prefer stay within the area and not to deal with local traffic. Does the Westin offer day rooms with reasonable rates now? Do SkyClubs have any sort of sleeper seats to dose off a little bit? Thanks!!

The Westin offers day rates, I don't know how good. There are also a bunch of newer hotels (Holiday Inn Express, etc.) just outside the perimeter of the airport on Merriman Road and most have shuttles.

They try to get you to buy a 'night', stick with Westin or just SkyClub and a little exploring.

Good opportunity for an SDC? As a GM its free, unless the 8pm flight is the only one out, in which case try to take a later one in to DTW?

Go to Greenfield Village and the Ford Museum.

Detroit is a great facility, but it isn't interesting enough to spend 8 hours in. A day room at the Westin or another nearby airport hotel isn't a bad idea.

An alternative is to either rent a car or take a shuttle to Ann Arbor (20 minute drive away) and explore there. Plenty of museums and good restaurants in which one could kill a day. Granted, this is a much more appealing proposition in a warm spring day than in January/February, but it is an option.

The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn isn't far either, but one could spend days in there. I'm not sure one day is enough to really do it justice. If you wanted to do some shopping, Fairlane Mall in Dearborn or Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor are both decent.

Definitely +1

The Detroit area doesn't have traffic like other cities its size. Cold winters and hot summers means a lot of road repairs, but other than this and random accidents I really never been in moderately heavy traffic, much less jams.

8 hours is such a long time to spend in an airport. You can rent a car for $25 including tax and see some sights. DIA and Greenfield Village are two nice spots for tourism.

I think I'll check out Ford Museum, looks pretty interesting from their website. If I'm too tired from my NRT flight I may just standby and go home early. Thank you all for the suggestions!

See

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/midwe...iful-side.html

and note that DTW area does have a rush hour and grid locked traffic on some roads.

Bob H

Their night rates are incredible.

What about Windsor? Is there anything to see/do there?

Greenfield Village is closed all winter. The Ford Museum is a great choice and close enough to DTW to not have much hassle (can cab it if you like, though rental car will probably be cheaper).

There is enough in and around the Ford Museum to keep you busy for 4-5 hours. This is probably the best idea. But the drive to Detroit downtown is unlikely to be very bad in terms of traffic and there are sights to see there too for sure. Windsor isn't that interesting IMO but you do get great views of Detroit from over there.

There's nothing worse than visiting a really interesting place while trying to beat the clock.

Take 50 bucks and head into the city. Should be able to pick up a few houses.