At the airport at Stansted: every facility, and where to find it

The most useful thing to understand at Stansted is which side of security a service sits on, because that decides whether you can reach it. Landside is everywhere before the security search on the way out, and after the border on the way in: the check-in zones, the arrivals concourse, the currency desks, left luggage and lost property. Airside is everything past the search: the duty-free hall, the shops and restaurants, the lounge and the gates. There is one terminal, so no building to choose, but you cannot return landside once you are through, so sort out anything you need on the right side first.

A lot of what you need costs nothing. The Wi-Fi is free for 2 hours, there are drinking-water refill points around the terminal, and a multi-faith prayer room sits opposite Check-In Zone A, open 24 hours, with a second room airside. Help points by the main doors and in the Short Stay car park connect you straight to a member of staff, and special assistance for reduced mobility is free. Walking out through the green customs channel costs nothing if you are inside your allowances. The paid services are the optional extras and the retail: Fast Track, left luggage, currency, and whatever you buy in the shops.

To see where each desk and gate sits before you arrive, the terminal map and walking times lay out the building and the three satellites. The live security queue shows on the screens at the security entrance, and a single flight's status is on your airline's app, because both change by the hour.

A departing passenger needs four things, in order: check in, drop any hold bags, clear security, and find somewhere to wait. The airport's own advice is to be at security at least 2 hours before departure, and to allow more in the early-morning peak, when the Ryanair and Jet2 banks fill the queues.

Check-in desks open on the airline's schedule: most open 2 to 3 hours before departure, with Emirates earliest at 4 hours. The desk opening time is the earliest you can drop a hold bag, and your airline, not the airport, sets the bag-drop and gate cut-offs. Ryanair, for example, closes its bag drop 40 minutes and its gate 30 minutes before departure, and those cut-offs hold even if you are already in the terminal. Hand-luggage-only passengers can usually skip the desk and head straight for security.

At security, the rule that trips people up is liquids. Stansted still enforces the 100ml limit: containers larger than 100ml are not allowed through, and the airport has not moved to the larger allowance a few UK airports now offer. It is worth reading the current liquids and hand luggage rules before you pack rather than guessing at the gate. Screening is by body scanner, and small electronics stay in your bag.

If the queue worries you, Fast Track buys a separate, shorter security lane from £6.49 per person, open 04:00 to 20:00. Every passenger needs their own pass, including children, and there is no refund if the standard lane simply happens to be empty when you arrive. Whether it pays off depends on the day: the typical wait here is short, but the early-morning peak can run to 20 to 40 minutes, which is exactly when a pass earns its money.

Two of the practical services you reach airside belong to this hub rather than the shopping one. For money, ChangeGroup runs the currency exchange, with branches landside and at airside departures and 26 cash machines around the airport that dispense pounds, euros and US dollars. As at any airport, the walk-up rate is not the one to take if you can avoid it: ordering online for collection at 0% commission, or using a travel card, almost always beats the counter.

The free Wi-Fi runs for 2 hours on both sides of security. Connect to the network and you are on, with no account to create. There are power points and drinking-water refill stations around the terminal too.

The rest of the airside experience, the shops and World Duty Free, the restaurants and the cheap Wetherspoons, the lounge and the viewing area, lives in the Shop, eat & relax hub. Anything you buy duty-free still counts towards your UK customs allowance on the way home.

Arriving passengers clear passport control, collect any hold bags, walk through customs, and come out into the single arrivals concourse. Stansted publishes no formal named meeting points, so agree a spot in advance: a coffee shop or the information desk works well. If you are collecting someone, the live arrivals board shows landing times before you set off.

If a checked bag does not arrive, or you left something on the plane, that is the airline's responsibility rather than the airport's: report it at the airline's baggage desk in the reclaim hall before you leave. For anything lost elsewhere in the building, lost property is run by the Excess Baggage Company from a desk in the international arrivals landside concourse, open 06:00 to 22:00. Items left in a car park go to the same team; items left on a car-park bus go to the bus operator.

If you are travelling on the same day, or arriving before a hotel check-in, left luggage lets you store a bag rather than wheel it around. For what you can and cannot bring into the country, including the ban on meat and dairy from the EU and the duty-free limits, see UK customs and your allowances.

Special assistance is the free, regulated service for anyone with reduced mobility or a hidden disability. Book it through your airline at least 48 hours before you travel, and the airport's assistance team meets you and takes you the whole way to your seat, then back to the arrivals hall on your return. You can take your own wheelchair to the gate. If you have not booked, the Assistance Desk in Zone A and the help points around the terminal and the Short Stay car park will still get you help, although booked requests are handled first at busy times.

Families are well covered too. Baby-change cubicles sit in the ladies' and gents' toilets across both arrivals and departures, and there are two adult Changing Places, opened with a key code from the Landside Information desk opposite Zone 500. Children under 3 are sent to the assistance lane at security rather than needing a Fast Track pass. For drivers, the accessible bays and shuttles are covered under Blue Badge parking, where the normal car park charge still applies.

Smoking and vaping are allowed only in the designated outdoor areas outside the terminal, before security, marked with signs and bins. There is nothing airside: once you are through the search, there is nowhere to smoke or vape anywhere in the building, and that includes e-cigarettes and heated tobacco, so the next chance comes after you land. The locations are on the smoking areas page.

The multi-faith prayer room opposite Check-In Zone A is open 24 hours for prayer, quiet reflection or simply a sit-down away from the concourse, and there is a second room airside near the lounge. Both are open to people of any faith or none.

Plane spotters have somewhere to go as well: the viewing area page covers where to watch aircraft at Stansted. And if you want to picture the walk before you arrive, the airport map shows the terminal, the three satellites and the gate walking times, including the longer walk on foot to Satellite 3.

Most landside desks track the operating day, opening around 04:00 to 05:00 for the first departures and closing in the evening. Lost property runs 06:00 to 22:00, Fast Track 04:00 to 20:00, and the check-in desks open on each airline's schedule before its flights. A few things never close: the Wi-Fi, the help points, the 24-hour prayer room, the toilets and water points, and the arrivals hall itself while flights land through the night.

For the journeys either side of the terminal, live departures and live arrivals carry the timings, and the airport lounges give you a calmer place to wait airside. The live security queue shows on the screens at the security entrance, and a single flight's status is on your airline's app, because both change through the day rather than sitting still on a page.