tony de wonderful

Just was thinking after the thread about online check in.

There are some good airports and some bad ones.

Personally I really like Schiphol (Amsterdam). I find it really clean and well looked after, plus it is easy to walk about. I like to get a bite to eat at McDonalds there which I find extraordinarily civilized, you can get a beer if you want at the same time. I also look fwd to flying through Schipol.

It's got some good shops there where you can pick up some good Dutch foods such as cheese, cold meats etc and chocolate etc.

I've flown through Dubai loads and it's ok but teeming with people who lay around all over, have debatable personal hygiene, and don't know how to queue. Plus it has that whole 'Dubai ostentatious luxury' thing going on with the duty free shops and is just a bit too vulgar for me.

Heathrow isn't too great and last time I was through has the worst security queues known to man.

Same for LAX which is dreadful for queuing and generally a total dump.

Manchester is ok but takes ages to get through passport control flying in I find, it's ridiculous.

FlightMan

Heathrow.

People say it's a basket case, but if you understand the issues faced there, it's amazing it's not shut 50% of the time!

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Singapore is lovely - they even have a butterfly house and carp ponds.

Amsterdam is clean but lots of walking.

Heathrow T5 - they have a Gordon Ramsays!

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

Favourites - Newcastle, it's a breeze to get through security & the airside shops are pretty good, and I'm learning to fly there.

Schiphol - as above, clean, tidy, easy to get to the gates, good shops. How an airport should be.

Worst - Exeter, utter **** hole with rude staff & very little in the way of facilities.
Heathrow - the whole place is a joke, terminal 1 in particular.

bigsinky

george best

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Been flying all around the world for many years so best airports for me are:

Singapore- so clean and easy to use. Not a bit of chewing gum anywhere

Schipol - very chilled out and relaxed, loads of nice shops, decent seats. Also one of the few airports that does not do announcements which is why it is so quiet. Also when you are collecting your luggage, look out for the brown glass like strip on the wall. It is in fact a 2 way mirror

Hong Kong- just for the landing really but the airport is not too bad

Heathrow T5 is not too shabby now, the rest are in the dark ages

Seychelles - you can feel the breeze and the smell of rum as you arrive

Terrible ones include Bangkok, Narita, Faro, Geneva and LAX.

Steve vRS

Aberdeen and then Manchester as it means I'm coming home from work

Jan *****, sorry Oliver Tambo in Jo'burg is nice now as well.

As for bad airports, Timisoara in Romania and St. Petersburg take some beating on the crap-o-meter.

Steve

jonc

The approach into Hong Kong was great before the airport moved over to Lantau Island.
http://www.mcnees.org/images/travel/...ak_airport.jpg
http://www.travel-images.com/pht/hong-kong107.jpg

Zurich Airport is the most relaxing airport, not at all crowded and everything is pristine.

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

Another vote for Singapore
Normally spend 5 hours there and it's a pleasure

Doha airport is a bit manic but will be good one he massive extension is finished

Manilla is crazy and not recommended

jasey

Another vote for Singapore.

Been there twice.

Once when I was born and again approx 35 years later - the girl at passport control checked my passport and Said "Welcome home Mr Jasey"

Turbo2

No votes for Luton Lech Walesa airport yet then?

billythekid

Barton.

TopBanana

I like the small ones, no queueing, no walking miles and miles and no waiting hours for bags

jasey

Humberside "intl" was good for baggage reclaim.

Was basically a large window and the ground crew passed your bags through it.

This was a few years back

taxi rank wasn't so hot - consisted of a telephone hotline to local cab firm.

Xx-IAN-xX

.
Georgetown Guyana hassle free

FlightMan

Tampa is quite nice, as is Brisbane.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Manchester, of course !

Kept me entertained as a kid, employed for a while and always a welcome sight after time away, I ride my bike round the roads made redundant for cars by the second runway, its weird, when on a Plane waiting to go I want to be on my bike and when on my bike seeing the planes I want to be on one.

Saw the 380 land there with J4ckos mate the other day, totally graceful and without drama, 747 still my favourite and for comparison a Cargo one landed next, still pretty much as big but took loads longer to land and made a lot more noise.

Atlanta - Immigration, the train, always glad to get out of there, huge and confusing.

ScoobyWon't

East Midlands - simply as at 01:15 this morning while waiting for WW5542 to touch down, I spotted a woman with a beard waiting in arrivals

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

drinking at that time in the morning, hope you were off duty

ScoobyWon't

I'd not touched a drop. But she kept swaying back and forth.
In a spethal kind of way.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

I hate Manchester Airport - always way too busy.

Koh Samui has to be the world's most chilled airport. It is literally a grass hut at the side of the runway! Although a plane crashed into it a couple of years ago so it might have been rebuilt into something more substantial/less chilled!

I have no recollection of Brisbane Airport even though I have been there six times!

brendy76

iTrader: (6)

Lol!! There is schipol and george best is ****hole!

Dubai and changi (Singapore) are excellent with regards to filling time between flights. Dubai with all of the reclined chairs really is different to any other airport I've been to, bloody long walk to get to where you need to be though.

Banderayke (sp) in Sri Lanka is not so nice, poor aircon and some flies werntbthe highlights of the stopover. Did have wireless and a good coffeeshop though and the staff were actually interested in where you had been and where you were off to.
One thing I didn't like about foreign places Is that they ask you where you are from, I say northern Ireland, 4 out of 5 responses were 'ahh the IRA?'. Ffs, if I speak to a yank I don't reply, shhh 9/11 or agh Vietnam!
Anyway, back on topic, George Best airport must gave the worst security setup in the world.
*rustles some paper, 'Fact!'

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

I see no-one has mentioned the ****hole of the airways, that has the affront to call itself an airport when in fact it is a poor excuse for a cattle shed staffed by the rudest, most obnoxious passport/security/shop staff ever, populated by orange/red/fat/badly dressed passengers located in a dump with shoddy facilities.


Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you

DaveMiddleton

I travel about 200,000 miles per year (a lot on business and am writing this from Kuala Lumpur on my way to Pert for one meeting before turning round and coming home!!).
Singapore stands out. I arrived to live in Singapore on 1st July 1981 - the day Changi opened it's doors after an overnight move from it's pre decessor. It was perfect that day and still is!! (although I have not lived there since 1984)
I use Amsterdam Schippol as my hub for all my travelling due to it's logical layout and numerous runways .
Lack of runways is one main criticism of Heathrow (even if T5 is a wll laid out shopping experience) as you are very often bussed from Terminal to Terminal taking too much time followed by very long security queues.
Do not particularly like Dubai as it is too crowded (going in as well as coming out) but it is a huge improvement on the original which I had to face when I lived there in the mid 80's.

Jaybird-UK

Frankfurt Hann, very small and personal - just something about it for me.

Or Billund, just because it reminds me of childhood trips to Legoland DK

Worst? ORD or LAX

Coffin Dodger

I hate all airports, not sure why but I always feel really on edge when I'm being "processed" by them, probably verging on a panic attack. Most of the time though it's a means to getting somewhere nice for a holiday so it all quickly becomes a distant memory.

Think the most chilled I've ever experienced was in the Dominican Republic, even the passport control lot were really friendly, guess they realise that pretty much everyone who passes through there is in the holiday vibe and looking forward to their first Mojito

David_Dickson

Barra airport in the Outer Hebridies - its just a wee building by the side of the runway.
Well, when I say runway, I mean beach.
Yep, the plane lands on the sand at low tide....

greenonedave

London City airport, just perfect !

Setright

WOW!

I am so gald to see Singapore's Changi Airport get so many kind words!

I practically grew up in Singapore, living there from February 1982 until February 1994. Age 6 to 18. Always loved the place, and the airport is fantastic.

GOING TO SINGAPORE? Take note, you may purchase Duty Free upon landing! It has always been like that, but in these "Green" crazed days, surely saving all that "airborn liquor" is a selling point??

Swiss Tony...Hong Kong is no longer operating that rockface airstrip, but it was cool to try it a few times way back when.


I cannot really recommend Copenhagen Kastrup...although they are my fellow countrymen, there are too many Danes...and "customer service" is just not high on their list of priorities.

Off memory, I have been to Abu Dabi, Frankurt am Main, Dusseldorf, Billund (DK), Tirstrup (DK), Karup (DK), Stockholm Arlanda, Oslo (name forgotten), Luleaa (Sweden again), Malaga, Dubai, Karachi, Tioman (Malaysia), Bangkok, Kaula Lumpur, Hong Kong, Sturup (Sweden, right next to a racetrack), Heathrow, Gatwick, Standsted, Aberdeen, Manchester....


Aberdeen stands out, not for it's size or facilities, but because the staff spoke with that beautiful Scottish accent :-)

Steve vRS

Sat in Terminal 1 at Manchester as I type.

All airports are grim when you are on your own, flying with work

Steve

PS Yes, Liverpool is a dump.