Best and Worst Airports?

Humblebrag?> why yes, yes it is. Kona (KOA): open air huts on the apron with palm trees as shelter. Idyllic </Humblebrag>

My favourite is La Paz in Bolivia because it’s sited on the altiplano above the city and there’s a huge window giving a panoramic view of the Cordillera Real, which is just spectacular, I mean proper, drop dead astonishing. I don’t remember anything else about the airport. I liked Lukla too for the sheer nuttiness of watching planes revving their engines to the max with the brakes applied then releasing them, hurtling up the runway and clearing the fence at the end – above a huge cliff – before banking hard left and flying off up the valley.

Bad? I’ve had a few, but Bogota felt like stepping into some sort of dystopian hell-scape – I guess it may have changed by now, but I didn’t like it.

Pfft, your ‘worst’ are still good. Worst by far is OAKN, no facilities, hot, full of holes and grumpy ground staff.

30ft high anatomically correct blue stallion with eyes that light up red?

We call it Blucifer. And DIA has been a shit show since they found out the concrete used to build it may not have the correct strength 😮

Mexico City and Dubai are the worst. Mexico City just seemed like they couldn’t be bothered, and Dubai had the nastiest, shit-covered toilets. There are few times when I actually look forward to an airplane toilet. Kansas City is an airport that was built just before 9/11 and had to be modified in the most ill-thought-out way. Once you clear security, you can choose 2 tiny restrooms on the concourse. 2 coffee places though, and an ‘Irish’ bar.

I found Hong Kong to be easy and clean 15 years ago. Things have probably changed since then. Nagoya was fine, from what I remember.

Best – Rarotonga was lovely as was Aitutaki on the way there. And Queenstown is a stunner too. Never flown into there but Courcheval always looks impressive.

Worst – The airport itself isn’t too bad but there’s something deeply bleak about the departure lounge, specifically the Burger King, at Ibiza airport. Chambery is not great, short a small, badly ran airport. Zakynthos is also a dive.

This is such a STW humble-brag thread

Yeah, where’s CFH when you need him to remind you how many gold cards he has?

Gold? Pfft. You get them with an Amazon Prime membership these days. It’s diamond-studded ebony cards you need now.

there’s something deeply bleak about the departure lounge, specifically the Burger King, at Ibiza airport

It’s the spiritual aura of an unbroken stream of ravers over 30 years having the worst 90 minutes of their life as they wonder if a small fries and full fat Coke can stave off the mental cratering that comes with the end of a 10 day binge long enough that they can get on the plane and close their eyes…

I haven’t been on a plane for about 14 years but I seem to remember all of the airports I’ve been to being pretty much the same.

I was in Stanstead very early morning, connecting for another flight,  got to the gate early just to chill out and read, nobody else there, and just after i sat down I saw that someone had done a shit on the carpet. So I vote Stanstead.

This is one of the least surprising things I’ve read on STW.

Anyway, a bit niche but best airport rental car return is Munich. Usually under 2 minutes from stopping the car to being inside the terminal.

Aside from rental car, LHR T5 & T2 are pretty decent especially when you consider that T5 is bigger than all of Stansted. T3 & T4 need to be flattened though.  In general, South African airports are of a decent standard.  Amsterdam is good for a big airport.  Any airport that has a train actually in the terminal is good.  Luton really should have tunelled the line below the terminal.

Worst lounge award goes to Shanghai – everything stinks of cigs and the sandwiches look like what a petrol station might be throwing away but got kept for a few days longer before being put out in the lounge.

Worst major city airport for me was Berlin Tegel – a horrible little place that was plain embarrassing in the capital of Europe’s largest country. Luckily it closed in 2020. Another bad one is Chambéry – bad at the best of times it becomes a whole new circle of hell when you are waiting for it to reopen after bad winter weather. It was the only time I was fed by the Red Cross.

As for best, Qatar and Singapore are excellent. In the UK LHR T2 and T5 are very good.

Doha was great this morning. On to LGW which gets a special “best” mention for the most efficient security system in any major airport I’ve been too. American airport security people should be made to come to Gatwick to learn how it’s done.

Reading this thread reminds me why I can’t be arsed with flying abroad for holidays.

A quick thumbs up to London City Airport, well it was really good over ten years ago.

Any airport that has a train actually in the terminal is good.

Zurich and Amsterdam are tops here, as the airport station is also a major rail interchange. 👌

Soon many to go at for the worst.

Heathrow. The building is OK, but in the refurbished T2 and in T5 it’s just all over-priced over hyped bollox on sale. And those in the shops are miserable feckers. And on return… Border Farce (see other thread !)

Someone said Attaturk.  Try to new one that’s replace it. Huge..absolutely HUGE. and no public transport to it, nowhere near anywhere else, and no hotels anywhere close either. I had to get a hotel near the old nearly defunct Attaturk airport and a 40 min taxi.

Schiphol.  Guaranteed to lose your bags every time, and put your connection gate 5 miles from the gate you landed at

Detroit  (auto correct wrong detritus! So apt). Again connections guaranteed to be the other side of the runway. And immigration staff  – THE most surly miserable unhelpful unengaging **** you’ll ever ever meet.

Best ? Well… that means least worst.

– Zaragosa. Tiny and cosy. But last time I was there the 1 bar was being rebuilt, so that fecked that.

– Richards Bay (Sarf Afrikkka).  Tiny place with thatched roofs on the terminal building !

Hahn (nowhere near Hamburg, eh, Ryanair).  The bar was full when 3 people were in it. But had a little Gasthof across the road from the entrance, which was very hospitable.

Any airport that has a train actually in the terminal is good.

Lol, no.

Prestwick.

I liked Lukla too for the sheer nuttiness of watching planes revving their engines to the max with the brakes applied then releasing them, hurtling up the runway and clearing the fence at the end – above a huge cliff – before banking hard left and flying off up the valley.

@badlywireddog No tarmac 25 years ago… And that extension to the left on the video wasn’t there. One plane in, 360 turn and back out again. But this is my only photo. We were camped in the field to the left of the runway in your YouTube so got to watch the planes taking off all morning before our flight.

Most favourite ever? As on page 1, Samui. Felt like being on a tropical island holiday, whilst (still) being in an airport. Transport options outside were interesting though – back of a pickup, or back of a scooter.

Vancouver is also excellent, mostly for chilled-ness. Getting off the plane in LHR is a culture shock after boarding there.

Honourable mention for O’hare. The border guard remembered me second time around after 6mo and asked me if I liked the brewery he recommended the previous time he stamped my passport.

Worst is harder to pin down. The U.K. has bad infrastructure and grumpy staff. Here in Sydney it is almost impossible to get a beer, but you can buy a myriad of designer shyte. Taipei was much the same.

I guess most worstest has to be Lyon. Having cycled there on a horrible main road, I slept at a horrible hotel for my 6am flight. I went to the airport where bike boxes were promised, but the fella who gave them out was late in.

Then, once sorted with a box, the oversized luggage chap announced it was “too grand”, shrugged, and was basically a useless turnip. The easyJet chap then took me under the airport (no euphemism) to the cargo bit, and we all but put my bike on the plane ourselves. The airport was ok, but the staff are terrible.

The easyJet chap then took me under the airport (no euphemism) to the cargo bit, and we all but put my bike on the plane ourselves.

I can’t remember exactly which Greek airport it was (one of the island ones) but that was basically their idea of security. You checked your bags and then, when it came to boarding, you walked onto the apron to find all the bags laid out by the plane and you had to indicate which one was yours, then it’d be loaded on board.

Absolute chaos.

Sexy tall blond female German border guard (Cologne), looks at my passport, flashes me a smile and wishes me ‘happy birthday’

30 years ago, still remember it.

Veronezh – 1990’s.  Only for internal Russian flights, no security at all.  The 2 gates were actually 2 doors, side by side that simply opened out onto the tarmac.  After ‘checking in’ I was handed back my luggage and told to go to gate B.  Through door ‘B’ and was pointed at a Tu-134 half a mile away.  At the aircraft I passed my bags up into the hold and went to find a seat.  Aeroflot were pioneers of the unallocated seating, also paperless bording cards and in fact having enough seats for the booked passengers.  Appart from that the airport was actually ok no passport control queue (no passport control), no security queue (no security) no tacky shops (no shops) etc.  Hopefully it’s been attacked by Ukrainian drones by now as it’s dual civilan/militery use.

I use to like Jakarta though with the open air and elevated walkways to the gates.  Best though are always small general aviation airports, so much less stressful and it always feels a little special.

London City was always swift and civilised apart from……the evening we landed back and stood around with no sign of luggage for 30 minutes (that’s a long tome for LCY) and a couple of other plane loads came through.  So I eased my way over to the bored looking lady at a the desk in the reclaim hall and gently asked if there was a problem, which extracted a shrug and a “why should I know?” response, to which my statement “well, you’re sat at the baggage enquiries desk and I am enquiring about my baggage” only prompted a mutter, a lifting of a telephone and the prompt appearance of two very heavily armed policemen who started to give me a totally OTT talking to.  Thankfully another passenger was able to testify as to the fact I hadn’t been aggressive and the luggage turned up.

I can’t remember exactly which Greek airport it was (one of the island ones) but that was basically their idea of security. You checked your bags and then, when it came to boarding, you walked onto the apron to find all the bags laid out by the plane and you had to indicate which one was yours, then it’d be loaded on board.

I’m old enough to remember doing this for a flight from Dublin to Vienna (70’s)!

Someone said Attaturk.  Try to new one that’s replace it. Huge..absolutely HUGE. and no public transport to it,

This isn’t right. It’s on the M11 metro line since January 2023.

https://www.istairport.com/en/airport/airport-transportation/urban-transportation/public-transportation/?tab=3&locale=en#metro

Very impressed with Doha when I transferred through there

El Alto / La Paz is a bit scary – the bit where if you have an altimeter watch you can see the air being pumped out of the cabin prior to landing.  And there was a wee ramp to walk up off the apron.   WOO!

Take off is fun, a long, long runway before a hop to Santa Cruz for refuelling.

A shout out for Foula – it’s got a bog and a great place to camp.  There is even a spot of mobile reception on the runway – every now and then a local drives down and wanders about trying to find it.

worst, most european ones which have crap snack options.

second worst,  flew from puerto montt to puerto natales (chile) and it was like a bus landing and taking off at least 3 or 4 times on the flight (it had started in santiago), i lost count maybe 5 or 6, but at one landing, their was a pretty fresh looking burnt out plane at the side of the runway..

has dubai airport sorted itself out, i remember the toilet situation was horrible. massive queues and then footprints on toilet seat and used paper in the cubicle corners.. (circa 2008/2010/2012 last time i flew through there

Haven’t flown for 8 years so my only experience of them recently is picking people up or dropping them off. On that basis Tarbes-Lourdes gets my vote because there’s free parking. Even the long stay is free.

Worst Stanstead, dreadful communications, 40-60 quid a day parking if you just turn up and a miserable place to spend time if there are delays.

Norwich airport is a **** joke. To add insult to injury there’s the ‘airport improvement charge’, which you have to pay to get in to departures. 15 quid iirc. Apparently it’s been in place for years with no sign of any improvements.

OK it was 20years ago but Colombo was a horror fest. More mosquitoes in the airport than the rest of Sri Lanka, point arse into cubicle and let go.
We were held on the tarmac for hours to medivac the times journalist that got shot through the eye. But they turned the aircon off. Convinced that it was that that led to liquid bowels.