MY Favorite or Worst Airports! and WHY!

[Coach]

I think the real question is:

How many of these airports have lakes?

[_Q_]

I find most North American airports to be pretty similar. The stand outs for me are:

Toronto - Big, clean, but incredibly boring and lacking amenities for the amount of traffic it gets. Seriously, everything but Timmies closes at 10 pm. That's unheard of in most places in the world.
Old Winnipeg Airport - Looks like a bunker from the 1940s. It's laughably bad.
Minneapolis - For how busy it is, it's surprisingly efficient and well laid out. Lots of stuff to do and eat to keep you busy.
Edmonton - Surprisingly nice Airport with lots of stuff to do. Very impressed with it.

All other airports that I've been to (Calgary, Vancouver, Chicago O'Hare, San Diego, West Palm Beach, Houston, Montreal, Salt Lake City) do exactly what they need to do well I think.

As for international airports, I actively avoid Cairo or Damascus airports. Beirut, Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi are all good to certain degrees. All the big European Airports are OK ie. I don't get the hate for Heathrow, Amsterdam, Frankfurt. Oddly enough I always get harassed at Amman Airport when I leave, but have no trouble getting in. It's weird, but I still don't avoid it since the airport itself is adequate enough and the airport security harassment never lasts longer than 15 minutes.

Probably the worst airport of all time is Cancun airport. That place is a hole.

[Meelapo]

Originally Posted by jofillips

Kuala Lumpar was pretty stunning - I remember in one of the terminals the atrium was was an open air jungle, very well done indeed.

The Air Asia airport in KL is not nearly as nice. It's actually quite horrible.

[bigtmac19]

Originally Posted by BlackEleven

I'm amazed we're 43 posts in and no one has mentioned the two I hate the most (at least from a quick cursory scan)

1) Paris Orly. I've been to probably hundreds of airports. This one sticks out in my mind as the worst. It's mostly only cheap flights that fly out of there, so overcrowded and dumpy. It's basically the Wal-mart of airports.

2) Miami. Too young to remember the 80s? Pay the Miami airport a visit.

Nicest:

Copenhagen (and all the Scandinavian airpots) are top-notch.

I liked Tokyo for all the stores selling everything under the sun. I told my friend to pick out a drink and I would drink it no matter what it was (it is really not evident what is in the cans unless you speak English). Turned out I got some delicious sparkling apple drink.

Frankfurt is probably the nicest for a huge airport. Easy and efficient to get around it considering it's size and how busy it is.

Re Orly, I've been in both De Gualle and Orly, De Gualle was worse.

[bigtmac19]

Originally Posted by EYE_Overstand

i never want to leave or arrive at this airport. i believe its in the carribean somewhere. i stumbled across it on tumblr. i don't know if its functioning or not.

A friend flew in there a few years ago! Pretty crazy. I believe it's an island in the Dutch Caribbean.

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by bigtmac19

Re Orly, I've been in both De Gualle and Orly, De Gualle was worse.

Me too, multiple times each. De Gualle has some really ugly parts and some nice ones. Orly is ugly everywhere, imo.

My opinion may also be tainted by the fact that both times I was leaving from Orly the line to clear customs was so long it took me 2 hours to clear it, and everyone in line was pushing and shoving and trying every trick in the book to cut in front of one another. Most of the flights leaving at the same time as mine were leaving to parts of the world outside of North America and Europe where orderly queuing is for suckers, so I realize it may have seemed normal to them, but we we're still in France. I really wish the security that was everywhere did something about it instead of letting it turn into a free-for-all.

[bigtmac19]

I just thought CDG was small and dumpy and it surprised me for a city the size of Paris. It was my first time there and I was not expecting that.

Left London from Gatwick. The duty free was awesome there.

I would also agree with the mention of the Eurostar from Paris to St. Pancras. That station was beautiful.

[JohnnyB]

Of all the places I've been Vancouver is honestly the stand out best airport. I've never been to another airport that has such a relaxing feeling of nature. Every time I come through international arrivals where there is the waterfall I feel it's actually a pleasant and welcoming place to be. The aquariums they have and the natural feeling in the terminals is pretty special. Definitely number 1 for me.

[JohnnyB]

In terms of dislike, I'll ignore the old and run down ones that have sucked and say the new terminals in Beijing blow chunks. They are huge and impressive architecturally, but they feel cold, impersonal and make you feel small. Having to take trains to terminals is also kind of lame.