Traveller spends week living inside an airport and makes one 'crazy' discovery after another

Most of us try to get through airports as quickly as possible. When content creator Maddy MacRae arrived at Singapore's Changi Airport, she was settling in. For five days.

Inspired by the 2004 Tom Hanks film The Terminal, and intrigued by Changi Airport's reputation as the world's best, Maddy set out to live in the airport for a week.

"I know, right?" Maddy laughed, when asked why anyone would choose to live in an airport. "It's funny. I've travelled a lot and I've spent a lot of time in airports and they can be hit or miss, but I also really love the film The Terminal. That was kind of the inspo for this whole social experiment."

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Changi, which has claimed the title of world's best airport 13 times including in 2025 when it also won best dining and best washrooms, offered the perfect setting for the challenge.

After collecting her bags, the Sydney-based TikToker went straight to her hotel, the Crowne Plaza, connected to Terminal 3, and kicked off her stay, which she streamed live to her 1.9 million followers each day.

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Much of Maddy's time was spent at Jewel, a 10-storey retail and entertainment hub. It's home to the world's tallest indoor waterfall, forest valley, canopy mazes, bouncing nets, gardens and restaurants.

"We found a place where you can get a massage and we got a makeover, and went shopping.

"We went rock climbing, bicycle riding around the Jurassic Mile. I went on the giant slide. I can't even list how many things we did. It was crazy," she told Stuff Travel.

One day,Maddy ventured out into Singapore itself, taking advantage of the free bus tours which took her to the Singapore River and Marina Bay Sands.

"I was listening to the tour guide and he says it's one of the only airports in the world where you'll find locals coming to the airport just to be at the airport, not actually travelling because it is an attraction in itself.

"I didn't realise how many Singaporeans were so passionate about Changi. So many people reached out to me, passionate about it being a great place to be. I think Singaporeans in general think that it's a great place to go and I agree."

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Thanks to a special workers' pass from Changi, Maddy could move between the departure and arrival sides – something most travellers can't do.

Still, she admitted, she thought she would lose her mind.

"I really thought I was going to go crazy," Maddy said. "This was work for me. But I didn't feel like I was stuck in an airport. It still felt like a holiday."

She said the hardest part of the challenge was the airport's size.

"When it came to choosing where I wanted to eat, because the airport is so enormous, sometimes it was quite a fair trek to find the place.

"I was quite tired by the end of the day. So sometimes I'd be like, OK well, I just want to find what's in Terminal 3 even though the place that I wanted to eat at was at Terminal 1. They do have a really great sky train which you can catch."

Some of Maddy's highlights of her stay were shopping and discovering local brands, like Beyond the Vines, "which make these cute little dumpling bags. And I ended up buying one for all of my friends and family. Spent too much money there.

"I fell in love with the style of coffee that they sold, called Bacha Coffee. They had this coconut pandan jam called kaya. Which I found in Woolworths yesterday and I was like, 'Wow, I've never seen that before', but I grabbed one of those."

The butterfly garden in Terminal 3 was memorable.

"I was overwhelmed and so impressed by how many butterflies were in there because you think, 'Oh, maybe there'll just be a couple', you know, but it was full. I had one land on my head, which was really special.

"I also really loved the Jewel. There's a top level where you can see the waterfall from a really nice angle. They have a hedge maze, mirror maze, these canopy gardens with nets that you can bounce on.

"They had a photo booth studio which was themed rooms for photo booths and I was there with Hayley who was my follower who joined me for the day, and we took some really cute pics."

Would she holiday at the airport again?

"I think, yes, at Changi. I wouldn't do it anywhere else."

Where to go on a layover in Changi

• Visit Jewel for shopping and the food court on its ground floor. "There's a really great ice cream shop there called Birds of Paradise which is really cool. And definitely go to the rooftop which is where you can see the waterfall." Connected to Terminal 1, transit passengers need to clear arrival immigration to enter Singapore to visit Jewel. A layover of at least five hours is recommended.

• The butterfly garden (Pass through the security checks in T3 and access from either the ground or second floors).

• The free movie theatre (next to the butterfly garden).

• The free Singapore tour: "but I would try not to do it in the middle of the day because it's very hot."

This story originally appeared on Stuff and was republished here with permission.

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