Europes Best and Worst Airports

Worst Airport was Waterford, it was like a cafe withna metal detector. Best was Copenhagen, in and out in five minutes and only ten minutes from town.

Nearly all modern airports are horrible, sterile places where your soul disappears the moment you open the door, that is before you even get near security. Gatwick and CDG get special awards for trying to make the experience even more miserable.

Approved, above and beyond: Schiphol (10/10, efficient, well planned and connected, good selection of eateries etc), Copenhagen (9/10, excellent, but expensive), Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (9/10, all you can eat and drink lounge for €15), Frankfurt-am-Main (8/10, good facilities, efficient), London City (8/10, although frankly the majority of these points are for location).

Disapproved, nasty experiences: Luton (3/10, horrible and overcrowded), Gatwick (4/10, the same problems as Luton but it is at least closer to London).

Does-what-it-says-on-the-tin: Frankfurt Hahn (7/10, albeit too far from Frankfurt am Main, but I've only ever used it for connections), Brussels Charleroi (7/10, the same, too far from Brussels, but otherwise fine for connections), Stansted (6/10, at least it's bigger and less crowded than Luton, fine for connections, albeit too far from London), Eindhoven (7/10, a bit far from Amsterdam but otherwise a grand airport).

I've been in Liverpool (6/10, fine, pain in the arse that it's not rail connected which slows down transfer), Lisbon (7/10, also fine, cheap to get to from the city on the metro), Barcelona (6/10, a bit far out of the city), Belgrade (6/10, a lot more expensive than the city, but otherwise grand), Tuzla (5/10, miles from anywhere and not much going on, but that's to be expected), Tbilisi (6/10, fine airport, just a pity about the mad flight times), Stockholm Skavsta (6/10, (can't remember it really, so I'll give it a middle of the road 6/10, as there was nothing stand out or appalling about it, obviously), Tallinn (same as Skavsta), Prague (6/10, close enough to the city, but loses out because of the absence of a direct rail link and the hassle that causes), Bergamo (7/10, lovely airport, quite new, close to the city too), Sarajevo (6/10, does what it needs to, nothing less, nothing more, a bit compact), Lyon (5/10, grand, but no TVs in the place to watch football during the Euros, which beggared belief, and quite expensive to get to from the city centre), Marseille (6/10, does the job, not too far from the city, albeit only by bus, or bus shuttle and train), Nice (6/10, closer to the city centre, better facilities than Marseille), Warsaw (7/10, efficient enough airport, not too busy), Birmingham (5/10, bad experiences at security on multiple occasions, albeit it is only an hour from Euston in London, and with cheap advance train fares for under £10, and otherwise a good airport aside from the slow security experience), Edinburgh (7/10, decent airport, well linked to the city centre by bus and tram) and Torshavn (6/10, like Tallinn and Skavsta, I don't remember much about it, although I was drinking, so that might have something to do with it).

Sh*te, I didn't realise until now just how many airports I'd been through, and I've probably missed some out.

What other airports allow smoking beyond security cos Newcastle can't be the only one surely.

corkery wrote: Worst Airport was Waterford, it was like a cafe withna metal detector. Best was Copenhagen, in and out in five minutes and only ten minutes from town.

Belfast city up there as the worst, 1 crappy bar/cafe and only serves from 12 think it is

Faro was a nightmare - how many fkn security points did they need?

Cardiff is a disaster given how far out it is and last time I visited was lacking few things


Best
Paris Orly is actually a decent airport I thought, place is massive and well equipped with everything you'd want and handy to get to.

Edinburgh I find always a good airport and the staff usually dead on.



Bit like SD, think I've been to almost all gb airports bar Bristol and Southend

Polish airports all tend to be the same though haven't been in Krakow since they were redeveloping it last year, Koln was good but wasn't too impressed with Berlin (before they opened the new terminal) though had good transport links

Worst: Paris Beauvais followed by Frankfurt Hahn t(he Ryanair one), Oslo Sandefjord Torp

Best:  Amsterdam, London Gatwick, from left field I will say Tallinn Estonia

Oh and a special mention to possibly the worst is Stockholm Skavsta or whatver the one in the middle of nowhere is called.

coyne wrote: What other airports allow smoking beyond security cos Newcastle can't be the only one surely. When I went to Alcudia last month and saw the smoking sign I almost burst into happy tears, smokers will know what I mean by when once you're past security the wait for the next cig is never ending