The Escape Lounge at London Stansted Airport is the airports only lounge. I found it to be pretty disappointing. Perhaps because of the lack of competition meaning they have no reason to improve. I accessed the lounge for free with Priority Pass, but usually it will cost you £29.99 per person.
Besides the lack of toilets, this lounge seems to offer all the standard services you’d expect of a lower-end lounge. However, every aspect was very low quality. Compared to lounges at other London airports like the No1 lounge at Gatwick or the Galleries Club lounge at Heathrow, the Escape lounge leaves a lot to be desired. I made a full video review on Youtube (below) so please watch that for more details:
Stansted Airport
Stansted Airport is London’s 3rd busiest airport and, besides a daily Emirates flight, is pretty much 100% budget airlines. Ryanair make up the vast majority of flights here, as well as a few from easyJet, Pegasus and Tui. However, being 42 miles (68km) away from London, calling it a London airport could be considered a bit of a stretch. That coupled with less convenient transport links than Gatwick and Heathrow make it one of London’s least accessible airports. Despite this, almost 30 million passengers pass through each year.
Considering how busy Stansted is, the lounge selection is very poor. In fact, the Escape lounge is the only lounge at the airport.
Also a quick travel hack. To avoid the drop-off charge (£7 under 15 min, £25 over 15 min) you can park at the Radisson Blu hotel. The hotel is less than 5 minutes walk from the terminal.
To find the lounge you need to walk through the main departure zone, down a corridor which is shared with the toilets. Remember these toilets because the lounge itself has none. So if you need the loo you’ll need to leave the lounge, which is a pain.
I will admit though, considering how overcrowded the departure zone was on the day I travelled, the Escape Lounge did prove to be a good escape. Only being half full and much calmer than the main area.
Seating and Interior
There was a good range of seating available. A dining area for eating, some bar tables, sofas, and private lounge chairs. Unfortunately, much of it felt a bit tatty and past its prime. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the cleaner was quite slow to get around so many tables had discarded plates, glasses and many crumbs for the entirety of our stay.
A major complaint though is that there are no toilets in the lounge, besides a disabled bathroom. You’ll have to exit the lounge to go.
Finally, there is also a somewhat obstructed view of the runway so you can watch the planes taxi and takeoff if you want. Unfortunately these viewing windows are right next to the transit system which ferries people between the satellite terminals. This means it can be quite noisy when the train passes every few minutes.
Food and Drinks
The Escape Lounge actually has quite a large selection of both hot and cold food. Unfortunately, they’ve gone for quantity over quality. The full food menu can be found here, but I found the majority of it to be pretty bland and unappealing. From the hot section it was very reminiscent of primary school lunches. To be fair, I did like the sausages and there was an interesting cauliflower curry-type thing. From the cold section there was a nice Orzo and pea salad. Besides that everything else was disappointing. Especially the chocolate muffin which was dry and almost turned to powder in my mouth.
The drink selection on the other hand was more impressive. There are two coffee machines (one of which was broken) as well as plenty of tea. Fresh orange and apple juice as well as a soft drink fountain where also available. Then you have the bar with a selection of house alcoholic beverages. You can also order more exotic drinks at an extra cost.
The Bottom Line
The Escape Lounge Stansted is a mediocre lounge at a mediocre airport. There’s nothing egregiously bad here, they just don’t do anything well. And compared to lounges at other London airports, the Escape Lounge leaves a lot to be desired. This is especially embarassing considering business and first passengers for Emirates daily flight to Dubai are given access to this lounge. If I were paying £5,000 for a first class ticket to Dubai I wouldn’t be too chuffed about this being the only lounge option. (First world problems I know).
As Stansted’s only lounge, the Escape Lounge is better than nothing and can be a nice ‘escape’ from the usually overcrowded departure area. But I still wouldn’t pay the £29.99 entry fee. I would only recommend the Escape lounge if you either have free entry (like me with Priority Pass) or have a really long wait.
More from me…
Please feel free to check out other related posts I’ve written:
- My review of the No1 Lounge at Gatwick’s South Terminal – A better lounge
- My review of the British Airways Galleries Club Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5 – A much better lounge
- Best Airlines in the World – If you want to find out which airlines I think are better than British Airways, read this…
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