PDX is nice. Free wifi and no sales tax. Unfortunately, all the shopping is on the wrong side of the security gate. Not good if you just have a one-hour layover.

I really liked the new Hanoi, Vietnam airport. Brand spakin new, and almost no planes. It has a lot of potential, but right now it's a little creepy. Very, very cheap duty free though!

braslvr: Yes, LAX is pretty easy to drop people off at. But once you are inside things go to pot. I have not had problems at 6, 7 or 8...But Bradley is awful! I have experienced nothing but pain there. Another good thing about LAX is that it is so central (at least for me, as I always head strait to Venice) Seems like most airports in the world are a bit out of the way. London, Denver, Washington, Miami, BKK, etc.

Great article, Tammy...just got around to reading it. For anyone who hasn't:

The Good

• Singapore (I agree...one of my favorites)
  
• Honk Kong
  
• The new BKK
  
• Siem Reap
  
• Hato, Curaçao (Caribbean)
  
• Tel Aviv (huh???)
  
• Greenville-Spartanburg
  
• Vancouver
  
• Kona
  
• Sacramento
  
• Reagan
  
• Madison
  
• Detroit (only now that nerokerr is out of town)
  
• Memphis

I do like the Singapore airport. Mostly because of the trivial immigration/customs effort involved. They do it they way it should be done.

The Bad

• Mumbai
  
• Cairo
  
• Moscow
  
• O'Hare
  
• Houston
  
• Key West
  
• Ontario
  
• Heathrow
  
• Dallas-Fort Worth (But I like DFW! Easy drive up check-in...although transfers suck)
  
• Pakistan

"Washington Dulles airport is at once one of the most beautiful and dysfunctional airports in the country. Those 'Empire Strikes Back' creepy-crawly people-mover vehicles are rage-inducing."

Haha...so true.

Others have pointed out the evils of Heathrow, and I'll readily agree. Specifically Terminal 2. Grrr....

More.

Good:

-Barcelona
-Denpasar, Bali (it's the only place I've ever been that has frangipanis in the frikkin' men's room)
-Frankfurt
-Bangkok
-Minneapolis (my home base, and home to good memories of departure)

Bad:

-Montreal (all the bad, none of the good of 70s-era disco design)
-Brussels (what the fuck?)
-de Gaulle again, just because it's so memorably hateful
-Houston. The glazed turd sculpture of everfucking Bush-pere is enough of an indictment.
-Havana - they won't let you into Cuba without passing Immigration, although they tend to forget to staff Immigration.

Amsterdam Schiphol I'd say is my favorite. It's just so damn efficient. I can leave my house an hour before a flight and still not have to worry about whether I'll make it or not... and that includes 15 minutes on the tram and 7 on the train.

I have an affinity for Dublin because I seem to fly through it a lot... and can get a Guinness at 9am. Though the immigration stamp always takes up a whole frickin page in my passport.

I hate Houston because of poor staffing at immigration and security, which caused us to miss our connection back to Detroit... which then lead to not being able to get a flight for two more days, and instead flew to Columbus and had someone drive down to pick us up. And the huge statue of Bush Sr sure didn't make things more pleasant. Although, as we were on the way back from Perú, it was a little surreal that we were back in the US, but I was still speaking mostly Spanish...

O'Hare always seems to have weather related problems, which caused me some hell going to Cracker's party last year.

Toronto was a pain in the ass last year with the construction on the terminal... had to wait for a bus to haul you around everywhere.

The Marrakech airport is kind of a joke... Only two bag scanners, but the guy watching the screen as it goes through and the guy to check you as you go through the metal detector is one and the same. He didn't even pay attention to the bag that went through the x-ray. It's such a small airport that I guess it really doesn't matter, anyway...

Domestic (US) best:

1) DEN Denver. Hands down winner.
2) ATL Atlanta
3) LAX


Domestic (US) worst:

1) ORD Chicago
2) MIA Miami
3) JFK

Worldwide best:

1) NRT Narita. Hands down winner. LOVE the place.
2) AMS Amsterdam
3) SIN Singapore

Worldwide worst:

1) MNL Manila
2) LHR London
3) GIG Rio

quote:

Originally posted by Stoo:

Tel Aviv (huh???)

That's by far my favorite airport...There is more shopping post-security than in any airport I've been in.

Good

Singapore -- it's just a nice place to hang out and you can smoke on the roof
Wattay (Vientiane) -- you can smoke on the tarmac
Inchon -- not really my style, but I recognise that it's pretty nice unless you need aspirin (you have to pass through customs, which they won't let you do)
Hiroshima Nishi (HIW, not HIJ) -- they only fly small planes from it and have a place to park your bike!

Bad

Johannesburg -- I just remember it as one long line and my cat was miles away in cargo
LaGuardia -- I've never left there on time or know anyone who has
Phoenix -- I just hate the name "Sky Harbor." It used to embarass me when I lived there
Istanbul Ataturk -- there's something wrong with the air (sick building syndrome?) that always made me feel ill even before getting on a plane

PDX is a-okay with me because of the free WiFi.

I hate LAX, but that's why I fly out of Burbank most of the time.

quote:

Originally posted by gymboy689:

quote:

Originally posted by Stoo:

Tel Aviv (huh???)

That's by far my favorite airport...There is more shopping post-security than in any airport I've been in.

It's the security that has me going "huh?" When I flew out I had to walk 2km down the highway because of a bomb threat, and then spent 45 minutes explaining why I had a Malaysian stamp in my passport. I guess my opinion of the Tel Aviv airport is colored because of that...

quote:

Originally posted by nerokerr:
I have an affinity for Dublin because I seem to fly through it a lot... and can get a Guinness at 9am. Though the immigration stamp always takes up a whole frickin page in my passport.

I hate coming to Ireland for that one reason. They're making my passport full. I hate the new policies the country has adopted. But that isn't really just an airport problem. Harbors also have this in effect. Bring back the pretty stamp!!

Ok - my two cents:

The worst:

LAX (Disorganized and long lines everywhere)
O'Hare (Too damn big, especially dragging kids around)
Atlanta (Smoke filled and worse food than most)

The best:

Portland
Denver
DFW
Sacramento
Myrtle Beach
Greensboro/Highpoint
Charleston
Raleigh/Durham

The best:
Budapest (BUD) - There's a great view of the runways, even before clearing security. Plus, this is the only airport I've been through post-liquid explosives farce where security actually treated us like customers and not terror suspects. I appreciated that.

Edmonton (YEG) - OK, maybe biased, but since the last round of renovations at my local airport, I've found it to be a really attractive and comfortable building. Of course, security did confiscate a butter knife on my last departure, which seemed pretty silly.

The worst:
Paris (CDG) - Are there any travellers who aren't already familiar with why CDG sucks?

Okay, that's about it. Most other airports I've been in have been kind of middle of the road experiences. I fail to understand where the hatred for LHR comes from - I've always found it very efficient and quite decent as older, busier airports go.

I flew into CDG when virtually all government workers were on strike, including airport employees. Add that to the already-known suckiness

I flew out of PDG after an extended stay in Barcelona. The railway workers in France announced a strike to begin several hours before my flight returning to the States from Paris. I was utterly broke, with one day on a Eurail pass remaining to get me to Paris. This meant I had to arrive in PDG on the last train before the strike - 36 hours before my flight left. I spent a day in that awful airport with about $10 to my name.

I really like ATL. Partly I suppose becuase I know home is close when I'm there, but it's organized and shops more like a mall than a stinky airport. The best part by far though is the arrival gate. There's a long escalator that leads straight up to where the people wait. Very anti-climatic and exciting when your seeing someone after a really long time.

I wouldn't call Nairobi Airport "nice," but the workers were so friendly the 12-hour layover was more than bearable. Heathrow is horrendous - small, cramped and hot.

And call me crazy, but there's nothing better than airports during the Christmas season. I don't know why they put me in such a good mood, but I love how you can see every type of person imaginable running around, completely absorbed in their own life, knowing you'll probably never see these people again.

*sigh* I wish it was Christmas.