I have to agree. I needed to kill a day at Schiphol. I ended up spending some time at the art museum (!) in the NWA/KLM terminal, ate at a decent pub, and found plenty of space to relax with a book. I probably could have hooked up some bud if I were so inclined.
The other great thing about Schiphol (among 100 others) is that it’s so easy to get into town and back if you have a few hours to spare. Last time I was through there was on a 6-hour layover to Johannesburg, and there were no worries about going into town, strolling around for a few hours, and coming back. IIRC, it was only like 20 minutes into town, 30 tops. I mean, it is very much the ideal major airport. Everything is so friendly, bright, and cheery about the place. It’s kind of the anti-airport in that regard.
Thanks, Cat Jones, I´ll try to remember the offer later before I travel (I leave on the 21st of January)
I admit I’ve never understood the hate for O’Hare, either. It’s too big, but it’s very clean, airy, lots of shops and food. There’s way, way worse airports. I’ve had 40-minute layovers there and made my connection with ease. It’s not THAT big; you should be able to walk across it in 20 minutes.
The BEST airport I’ve been in is Tampa, which was shockingly nice. Great restaurants and shops, very modern and clean.
McCarran in Vegas isn’t as nice as Tampa but it’s good. San Francisco would be okay if it wasn’t for the fact that it takes a week to get to the fucking rental car center. Vancouver is much better than it used to be, with great food available. Ottawa is very nice now, but eat before you go thru security. Atlanta, though far too big, has stuff to keep you well occupied.
And big ups to little Tri City Airport in Bristol, TN, which has free wireless, and it’s super fast to boot.
I must have forgotten Washington-Dulles when I wrote the OP. A few weeks ago I arrived 3 hours early and made my flight only by running at top speed through Terminal C. What a fucking hellhole.
In the spring of 2002, I had the dubious pleasure of shepherding a team of ten pre-teens through that airport. We had to change planes in Kansas City after a long first leg, which meant that the other adult and I had under one hour to herd the kids off one plane, halfway across the airport, and through security into the proper gate area. Also, we were flying Southwest, so we had to get lunch for everyone. Not being insane, we decided to get the kids into the gate area and get their boarding passes (this was pre-internet check-in), then send one person out to bring food back. The security guards were reluctant to let me bring pizzas I’d just bought from the Pizza Hut kiosk that was within plain sight and soft drinks in sealed 16-oz. bottles into the gate area, but they relented when I told them the other option was to have the same ten rambunctious kids they had just managed to check come through yet again. They insisted on sending all the food and the (sealed) drinks through the x-ray machine, though.