Letters to the Editor
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Try Jackson Hole for a lovely setting
Where it comes to lovely mountain settings, Jackson Hole surely is near the top of the list. The view of the Teton mountain range from the terminal is stunning, and the approach from the air is awe-inspiring on a clear day.
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Sky Harbor
The positive comments about sky harbor are appreciated by a native of Phoenix, but the aesthetics don't compensate for what could be one of the worst public transportation connections of any airport. This will hopefully improve as I understand that a tram will connect the terminals to the light rail line under construction.
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RDU/IAD/DCA/LHR/CDG
RDU - While I agree with RealName that Raleigh-Durham International Airport (which is located wholly in Durham County, incidentally) should be on the list, the staff isn't the reason. In my lifetime (since 1979), I don't believe there has been a single moment that RDU hasn't been under construction or reconstruction. First, it was the construction of the new terminal, attached to the original terminal (which, confusingly, became Terminal 'B'), then its reconstruction, in anticipation of the 1987 Olympic Festival. Then came American's disastrous C-terminal hub, which then became Midway's disastrous C-terminal hub, which is now being rebuilt as a general terminal. Ever-present unpainted drywall, plastic sheeting and roped-off construction areas are now part of the aesthetic, I think.
IAD - In my decade of living in D.C., Dulles always depressed me -- I don't know if it was the constant construction in the lower levels, the omnipresent water leaks, the cold concrete, the enormous security lines, the sardine-can-like ride in the mobile lounges to spartan mid-field terminals, or the seemingly endless taxiing to runway 12/30. The $60+ cab rides to and from D.C. didn't help, either, sometimes the only choice when a weekend flight arrived too late to catch the shuttle for the last Metro from W. Falls Church (after the $8 Flyer bus service to K street ended).
DCA - National is somewhat schizophrenic: while the B and C terminals are gorgeous, airy and convenient to the Metro and the GW Parkway, flying out of the Banjo feels like a punishment -- the walk down the dark, narrow corridor, with its low ceilings provides an ominous sense of dread that doesn't lift once you get to the security gate. Once inside, you're trapped in a tiny room, with a full view of planes taking off and landing... and servicing the other end of the airport. Your only refreshment and retail options, while you wait for your tardy flight are limited to a small kiosk in the middle of the round room, if you're lucky and they're staffed.
LHR - Aside from being dingy and covered in endlessly half-finshed construction, Heathrow is filled with over-tired, over-packed travelers and overpriced shops. Traveling through Heathrow seems to be an exercise in hurry-up-and-wait: you race for one of the precious seats in the pre-departure area, strain to hear the muffled announcements above the incessant din and then, once your departure gate is finally posted to the information display, you have 20 minutes to get through a maze of corridors and through security before your plane leaves, 40 minutes late, without you, to spend another half hour taxiing.
CDG - I had the wonderful luck to spend nine hours in Charles de Gaulle in June 2001. It started with an hour and half in line for a Sabena flight to Brussels (then on to JFK, then BWI... ugh). Unfortunately, my flight appeared popular with illegal immigrants who wanted to leave France to reset their tourist visas -- between 300 and 400 people were attempting to buy tickets to the already sold-out flight, most of them in-line in front of me. By the time I got to the counter, the flight was supposed to be departing the gate. I handed the ticketing agent my passport and check-in information, she disappeared and the announcement was made that the flight was cancelled and that all passengers were to go to the Swissair desk for re-ticketing and in a woosh, the crowd, the agents and my passport were gone. After 5 minutes of screaming various obscenities in French and English, I was finally returned my passport and queued at the end of the line. When my turn came, there was a silver lining - I was given a business class bulkhead ticket on a Air France 777 flight from CDG to IAD, direct... unfortunately, it didn't leave for another 7 hours and I couldn't check any of my luggage until two hours before the flight, meaning I was stuck at the ticketing area, subjected to repeated 'inspections' by the airport police, as I was suspected of loitering and the occasional evacuation due to someone finding an unattended piece of luggage.
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Depends what you mean by 'airport'
Anyone who judges an airport on account of the food is expecting too much. It's excellent, or not worth mentioning.
Best: Hall's Creek, Western Australia. The small plane taxis to the gate of the permiter fence. You step out, go through the gate, across the road and into the pub, where anyone you'd ever want to meet in the entire town is catching up or doing business.
Hall's Creek is not that big but its airport reminds you what they are for: a place to get on and off a plane. Not a shopping mall or a bottleneck for the officious.
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Airports from Hell
Where to begin?
IAD - my home airport for foreign travel. No internet connection unless you sit on the filthy floor outside the airline clubs, unhealthy, disgusting food (unless you get to the very new terminal which must be situated in Maryland because it takes hours to walk there) and god help you if you take the USAIR regional jet terminal - you walk forever to find the gate, get on a bus, drive around across runways for 40 minutes, arrive in a prefab building attached to nothing with a million people packed in, not enough seats for them all, no signs, and a truly expensive 'deli'. It was more like a bus station than an airport.
Charles De Gaulle - spent all their space on long walkways to the plane and then put customs, transit, baggage claim, info and all those long runways emptying into a 6 foot area. Rude employees who smoke in front of you.
But the best has to be my third world experiences:
Monrovia, Liberia - Chaos, bullet holes, outrageous humidity, go through customs and the door doesn't fit into the frame, its leaning next to it. Sells Massengil douche in the 'gift shop'
Lungi in Freetown Sierra Leone - located on an island - you can take the drunken Bulgarian piloted helicopter to the mainland or the decrepit Greek 1940s era ferry that dodges wrecks of ferries that didn't make it before.
Conakry in Guinea- crowds of touts, threatening, heavily armed guards pushing past you and yelling at you, if you don't know your weight in kilos, they make you sit on a scale used to weigh luggage.
Cairo, Egypt - I was herded into a room filled with angry Yemeni youth about to be deported from Egypt and being kept under armed guard. Everytime they rose up as one to demand better treatment, the Egyptian police laughed and slapped a few of them. Frightened US tourists huddled by the metal detector. People take your passports for hours on end. The shuttle bus driver tries to shake you down for money. the gift shops sell the most appalling gaudy faux Egyptian crap I've ever seen.