Best big US airport: Tampa Int'l. It's easily accessible, not too crowded, easy to get around in, and the people are friendly. Best little US airport: Charleston, SC is a great regional airport -- recently renovated, almost cozy. You could just hang out there and feel at home. Best int'l airport: I have not been to that many, maybe a dozen, but either Copenhagen (again, my fave city anywhere) or Amsterdam's Schiphol. Schiphol gets a demerit for being so far away from the city, though. Worst big US airport: Lots of competition here. NYC La Guardia is hideous, but Chicago O'Hare is worse. There's no place worse on earth to be stuck waiting than O'Hare. Worst small US airport: Norfolk, VA is a really ugly airport in the middle of nowhere that has maybe one crappy little restaurant. Worst int'l airport: What is it about London Gatwick that makes it seem so tawrdy and pathetic? Gatwick makes Heathrow feel inviting.
Worst US Airport - Raleigh-Durham - It's a mess. The old American Airlines terminal is barely used, and the main terminal is cramped, crowded and a complete joke. They are supposedly redoing it, so I hold out hope for improvement. There is no room in the building for lines, and I've often found myself standing outside in the bitter cold to get through security or to get to the Delta desk. Best International Airport - The aforementioned Copenhagen - Pure class. Best US Airport - Washington National - I've always been a big fan.
So Far I like Frankfurt, San Francisco will be up there too once they get the BART link to the city, should happen in about a year, I think.
Are we talking terminal, or as a whole? For just terminal: I like Minneapolis Intl. 5 wings of a centeral common area with enough shopping/food/entertainment to be nice, but no over do it. I dislike LAX because nothing is joined together, and (unless there have been some renovations) even some of the multi-terminal airlines require a trip between terminals. Bad stuff. don't know enough about the rest to really comment. As for more than terminal: Best National - Washington National (I won't use the formal name). Metro stop right there, easy access internal, even not too difficult access by car. The bad part is the lack of runways. A plane got a flat tire when I was there and shut down the airport for about 90mins. Also has inbound/outbound restrictions. Best Intl - not too sure as none have made a great impression on me - though I did like Barcelona Intl, though it is a bit far out. Worst national - either Dulles Intl or Dallas/Fort Worth Intl are both quite horrid. Both lack convieneces and both are fairly ungly. And neither is all that easy to get to. Worst Intl - tie - Moscow Intl and Santiago Intl. Though I imagine Moscow's has imporved since I was there, it was typical Soviet unimaginative archatecture and further out than BFE. Getting to the airport is a trip in itself. Santiago is much the same, though it is a bit more pleasing to the eye.
Worst Large Overseas:Gatwick Worst Small Overseas: Cairns, Australia(It's basically like a breezeway going between trailers at a public school) Worst Large Domestic: DFW Worst Small Domestic: Montgomery, Alabama
I was in the the International airport in Ho Chi Minh City(Saigon) for a couple of trips in 1999, inside wasnt so bad but once you exited the building, we were swarmed by thousands of people offering us every sort of stuff.
I was stuck there for about 4 hours in a monsoon once. Typical crappy 3rd-world airport, dirty as hell, no restaurants, one sorry excuse of a gift shop. Boston and San Francisco both have great airports. DFW is also pretty good. Internationally, gotta like Hong Kong and Dublin. Alex
Can I vote for Copenhagen Airport as well? Good. (When it comes to Best City, just cast my vote straight down the Obie Ticket - Copenhagen's beautiful, historic, is a dream to walk through, has wicked good restaurants, art, and even cheap hotels/hostels (important to me as a student). You can even get a gay marriage there - which is of no interest to me personally, but I do know a couple girls who took advantage of that sensible bit of Scandinavian law. Probably the most beautiful women per capita I've ever seen anywhere - and I was walking the streets in the middle of coldest December). Gatwick's no great shakes, but I flew in and out of there a lot when I lived in London, for no other reason than the Gatwick Express to central London beat the horrendous stop-and-start ride in from Heathrow on the Picadilly Line. Thankfully, the Heathrow Express has rectified that. Speaking of long-ass rides out to airports, don't let anyone tell you Luton is a London airport if you're headed to/from central London, and you've only got public transportation to count on. And definitely, definitely think twice before scheduling an 8:30 am flight out of Luton, if you're staying in central London. Trust me. Least impressive international airport, IMO, is Florence's humble little strip. That's about all it is, as I remember - a little boxy terminal about the size of my local Home Depot. Not that it's awful, just that I thought there would be more to it. I'd also like to note that, while it wasn't a stomach-turningly 'bad' airport, Nashville's airport forces you to go through an obscene amount of walking if you're unlucky enough to land at one of the outer gates. I must have been closer to Music Row than to the Arrivals area when I landed there, and walked all the way out, just to drive back. I am just waiting for my first opportunity to schedule a flight out of Stewart Air Force Base Airport, or whatever they call it now - the long-lost, mythical 4th major NYC airport that never was.
Minneapolis/Saint Paul Intl. definitely has my vote for best domestic. I guess I haven't been to a whole hell of a lot of airports, but Shannon in Ireland was pretty straightforward with a lot of duty free booze.
This is my pet peeve about airport design and the worst one for it right now is Minneapolis. If you land at one of the outer gates and have to switch terminals, which happens a lot, even when flying the same airline, you can have a good 25 minute walk. Detroit used to be horrible for this feature (and the worst airport in general) before they opened the new Northwest terminal. Now it's one long terminal with an elevated train that goes from one end to the other.
add in about 2000 degree with no a/c and that Saigon odor. I thought Saigon itself was intriging but not the airport.
Yeah I like that airport too. I don't like LAX. SFO is just way too busy for me. I like the new international terminal part of BWI. I thought Portland had a nice airport. The airport in Hilo, Hawaii is kinda neat cuz it's indoor/outdoor. It's a really small airport and there ain't much happening there.
The MSP is a great airport! It has an interesting layout, and for a large airport, very functional, it is very easy to get from point to point. Lots of moving sidewalks and bridges, and just recently they've added two separate tram lines (one short-line to connect the main terminal to long term parking; and the other to connect to the new commuter terminal). The roads are easy to deal with going in and out of the airport. Abundant covered parking short-term, long term, and rental cars are all a few easy steps from the terminal-- which is nice for those cold days. For those who like to shop, there are tons of shops and restaurants, also a new public-transit terminal has been added--which will soon include the light rail stop (the line will be completed in 05) to connect the airport with the downtown. Dallas has to be one of the worst in the country, I've come within minutes of missing my connecting flight there on two separate occasions because of how long it takes to get around in that airport. The interior is ugly, and the concorses are crowded as hell.
The former gold and green concourses (which are the two longer of the four arms, along the outside) are now connected by a bridge, so the time it takes between these terminals is much shorter now, regardless, every inch of these concourses are covered with moving sidewalks. The former blue and red concourses aren't even half as long as the other two concourses. At worst, the most inconvenient connection in the entire airport to make would probably take around 15 minutes walk (or glide)--not as bad as it may be in ORD or DFW. Although, I haven't used the new commuter terminal, so I can't comment on how quick the tram takes people to and from the main concourse. Although I would say before these improvements, your estimations may be more accurate.
I really like Minneapolis airport. Denver isn't that bad either. Did not care for Dallas, Miami, or Mexico City.
Best large international airports, agree with Obie about Tampa. Real easy airport to get around in and not too crowded. Orlando's is also similar. I also liked Seatac. Thought it was reasonably well laid out and not too huge or difficult to get around. If it wasn't for the crowds, Newark Liberty is well laid out and the parking to the terminals are reasonable. San Francisco is not bad except for the fog. Worst large international airports would be O'Hare. A labyrinth, huge, poorly laid out and bad signage. Followed by LAX. Just too big and the auto traffic is attrocious. Same goes for Honoloulu. Poor signage and the worst baggage pick-up system in existence. Instead of the carosel, they have a serpentine conveyor that pushes the limits on how many times you will be bumped by people and or their luggage before you lose your patience and become irritated. Worst international in a US Territory goes to Cyrill King Airport in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands. They were constructing a new terminal for years, so maybe it was completed, but the old terminal was an old airplane hanger that hadn't been painted since the second world war. When it rained the departure lounge leaked so badly that they opened up the ceiling tiles and placed polyethylene sheets to channel the water into plastic trash containers. The best, the planes when taking off had to land in St Croix and refuel. There were or are hills at the end of the runway, and if planes took off fully loaded with fuel they could clear them. Best small airport I love the Airport on Lihue on the Island of Kauai. I know they added jetways, but up to maybe 10 years ago you had to walk across the tarmack to get onto the plane. In that climate it's a great way to board and makes the experience of flight so much more connected to reality of boarding a big metal bird and taking off. Worst small airport, a dirt landing strip on Virgin Gorda. The only portion of the landing strip that was paved is located within several yards of the terminal. Acceptable Logan Detroit John Wayne (orange county) maybe because LAX is so bad. National (Ronald Reagan) location, location, location! BWI Denver Poor Miami Hartsfield, I don't get the Hullaballo. Nothing special about it. Dulles, who would build an airport an hour plus outside the center city? I like the old terminal building architecturally speaking. JFK, too big, all over the place in terms of it's organization and growth. Potentially dangerous LaGuardia. The runways are a bit short. Nice way to take a unscheduled bath.
I don't like Bradley Airport in hartford. It looks like the Wright Brothers were scheduling flights there. I did like Tampa's airport - kudos to Tampa. I also hate Rome's Fuimicino. that might be because I was stuck there forever and Alitalia sucks so giant.
Let's hope your airport judging ability doesn't lie on the amount of gift shops they have. The only international airports I know are in 3rd world countries, in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, which are small considering the size of the city. They both have plenty of gift shops and restaurants, though. We would appreciate a visit by such a wordly gentleman like yourself sometime. Hartsfield is alright, it's easy to move around the terminals, but it's a bitch moving within them. Austin's airport was renovated recently and they're already talking about expanding, though it is nice, why didn't they build a big one to begin with, since they were going from scratch?
The gift-shop thing was a bit of a joke. Most 3rd-world airports I've been to tho (Mexico City, Beijing, Saigon, Hanoi, Bogota and Cartagena altho I was too little to remember the last 2) are fairly uniformly crappy. Most of those are great cities however. Yellowbismark, don't want to turn this into a Vietnam War thread, but the city is still commonly called "Saigon" (even by Vietnamese) and the central district was officially renamed "Saigon" about 10 years ago. Alex