in transit?
So O'Hare gets the vote of the day, and I have to also recommend the Shock Top on tap near gate K9.
For visual aesthetic I would also recommend Seattle, love the woodwork and those planes, the birds in flight. And I have always been partial to the retro tropical charm of Miami, not to mention our traditional stop at La Carrita for un cortado.
So what is you fav airport either U.S. or elsewhere? You can rate for convenience, visual stimulation, services or all around best place to be suspended for a few hours.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
posted by ridavio at 6:40 PM
6 Comments:
Hmmm...but which came first? The airport or the terminal? The chicken or the egg? The Jet Blue terminal at JFK is so nice that I get there extra early to hang out and don't want to leave, but JFK as an airport, while much improved, still sorta sucks. Sounds like you're making the best of the situation, but do hope you make it home at a reasonable hour. Are you marching, watching, or neither this Sunday?
1:30 AM
I would have to say that I generally rate my airports by convenience and user-friendliness (ie: how easy it is to find everything I need in as little time as possible). Houston is great for international flights to/from Central and South America, although Charlotte now has direct flights into San Jose. It is only an hour and fifteen minutes away and is easy to navigate both inside and out, but it takes second to my top pick, GSO (Greensboro, NC) for size and convenience.
The airports that I rank lowest would be ones that I probably had to spend way too much time in and that took 3 days to cross juggling miscellaneous possessions, including small children. Probably the lowest on my list is Atlanta because I think it is just too much if I have to take a train and/or bus to my connecting flight.
I have to give special mention to a few places because of the lasting impression they left on me, be it good or bad:
Bogota - because there was no customs coming into the country, even from Peru, but they sure went through your stuff before you left
San Andres - because the view is beautiful and it was such a rush landing on one side and stopping on the other and wondering if we were going to just run right off into the ocean
Salt Lake City - the view of the salt lakes
San Diego - there is a very small window when you can land here due to the marine layer. I couldn't land there more times than I could.
And San Salvador - the lights weren't even on in the airport when we landed.
1:55 AM
I'm a big fan of Mitchell Field in Wisconsin. Big but not huge, easy to navigate, excellent signs, good parking access. And they often have live entertainment, like a piano man taking requests.
12:05 PM
not really my favorite, but long beach airport (a jetblue site) is remarkable for being tiny and like either a trip to the past or some forgotten corner of the third world.
1:47 PM
oh, one more thing. have to do a hometown pitch. for the san francisco bay area, oakland airport cannot be beat for easy in/out.
1:50 PM
@Chris, JetBlue is nice at JFK, as is the American terminal for that matter, I've spent more than a few hours in the wine bar there.
@Juls, I have to agree with you about the monstrosities like Atlanta, just went through that massive cavern last month. But it also makes me wonder how a place like DFW, which is equally large, can be so much easier to manage.
Love that you bring up some international destinations, I can recall some intense airport experiences from my past - armed guards with machine guns greeted me at the Frankfurt airport in the 80s at the height of the Beirut/Tripoli crisis in the Reagan years. Rolling for a LONG time till take off in Mexico City in the late 80s, due to the altitude. Landing in Cusco and feeling completely out of body until I got some coca tea in me - again altitude.
@Dave Miller, a piano man! you get the prize for most original airport distraction during a lay-over.
@David, so glad you mentioned Long Beach, I almost did as well - classic retro, effortlessly executed. And of course you are spot on about ease of access at SFO.
6:56 PM
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