When I was young and flighty I travelled from Jekyll Island, GA to SF, CA by Greyhound bus. My seat companion was a Romanian gentleman who had gotten permission to visit the US and report back. He landed in NYC and got on a Greyhound bus with a ticket for NYC.
The man never got off the bus!
It drives me crazy to this day. His entire impression of the US is based on what he saw in Greyhound bus stations, and on the drives between them. For those who aren’t familiar with Greyhound bus stations - imagine the seediest part of any city.
The places I can think of are London, New Orleans, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo.
Those are some pretty interesting places to have only been in the airport. But I get to Northern Kentucky about once a week; it’s where I go wine shopping.
Delta. Who’d have thought that Atlanta to Norfolk would be such a popular route? And it was a 10:00 pm flight.
And a confession:
I picked the routes specifically because the planes connected in two new states. Yes, I actually could’ve saved a wee bit of time by connecting in DFW… but DFW? I’ve been there a zillion times!
Albany, NY Cincinnati (ok, N. Kentucky) Houston Newark Miami
Now, technically I’ve been in other parts of NY state and Kentucky, but I’ve never spent any amount of time in the areas of those airports. Newark…well, that’s an iffy one. I would fly into Newark on trips to NY for my last job, but we got to the airport, went into Manhattan and returned to the NJ only to fly back out - I’ve not seen any other part of NJ. Houston was a stop on the way from Atlanta to San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as was the stopover in Miami.
The only part of Texas that I’ve seen is the DFT airport on the way from California to Kentucky, and it wasn’t a very endearing visit. The little train that goes between terminals is too noisy, the dining options leave much to be desired, and the big army guys who are supposed to be walking around looking intimidating to terrorists were obviously more interested in watching the TV in one of the bars. (I think there was an important football game or something.)
Chicago I got bumped and they put us up for the night. Sadly, our flight left early in the morning, so we didn’t get to see any of Chicago. I was pretty young at the time, but I remember it being very crowded, and a bit over-stimulating.
Minneapolis I had to run through this one to make a connection. It was a bit of a disappointment because I had spent months telling everyone how excited I was about stopping over in Minneapolis, and how I was hopeing to see Prince.
Newark Let me tell you about the time I spent in Newark. No, let me not. I was so excited to be back in America speaking English and using American money that I didn’t even notice that we were there for six freaking hours.
Mexico City We were stuck there for a while, so we went poking around various restricted areas (back before that was considered that bad of an idea). Much fun. I found the gift shops to be pretty deficient, and I had forgotten to buy soveniers for anyone, so that was kind of sad.
Guadalajara I don’t think we even got out of the plane for this one.
There are bound to be a few more. Honolulu, i think. Maybe Dallas Fort Worth?
I’ve crossed the border from Switzerland to Liechtenstein for no other reason than to say I’d been there. It wasn’t too far to the Austrian border on the other side of Liechtenstein so I crossed that too. Seeing as my trans-Liechtenstein odyssey took me through the capital, Vaduz, I stopped for a pint, which as any traveller knows, is the real measure of whether you’ve been to a place. What makes this even sadder, and really annoyed my wife, was that all this was on an afternoon drive from Como in Italy. I can still hear her say, “they’re only fuckin’ lines on a map”. She just doesn’t understand.
Another pointless foray was taking a detour into Poland on the way from the Czech Republic to Germany. We had the worst spaghetti known to man and bought some pornographic knitted dolls. Another nice afternoon.
I’m still pissed off that I was only about 100 miles from Four Corners (junction of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado IIRC) and Mrs. MWAP put the foot down. Lines on a map, feh.
My wife always claimed that you hadn’t been to a place until you’d taken a piss there (the pint leads to the piss anyway). Preferrably directly on the ground. So we stopped on our way back from Namur to Frankfurt so I could take a leak in Luxembourg, somewhere on one of the turnouts there.
I also made my way from Kitzbuehl to Zurich via Liechtenstein. Small place, surly Swiss Border guards. You know a country’s rich when they can get the Swiss to provide their security.
And there was the time we had breakfast in Geneva (Switzerland), lunch in Aosta (Italy) and dinner in Thonon les Bains (France) all on a Sunday drive with the kids.
When I was on my check ride in the Flying Club’s T-34, we flew from San Diego to Las Vegas. My instructor and I had a quick lunch in the airport, then flew back. The one and only time I was in Nevada.
1994: Winnipeg, Manitoba.
A cheap Canada 3000 (“the pack-'em-in airline”) flight between Vancouver and Toronto.
2000: Amsterdam.
KLM (“The reliable airline–only lost my luggage once”*) Toronto-to-Helsinki and then London (Heathrow)-to-Toronto.
Until recently, I would have added…
1989: London, Ontario.
I was working in the 'burbs of Detroit, and the company flew me home twice a month on Skycraft Airlines (“a non-IATA carrier”), which traveled between Windsor and Oshawa, Ontario. Due to a snowstorm in Oshawa, we were diverted to London, Ontario.
*Actually, technicallly-speaking, they didn’t lose it. They knew where it was all the time. It just wasn’t on my connecting flight from Amsterdam to Helsinki, thanks to delays at The Airport That Is Always Under Construction in Toronto. I had to wait till the next flight brought it. But they brought it right to the hostel where I was staying!
I do not count being in an airport as really being in the country. So here are the airports I’ve been to without leaving the airport to get out into the country:
Amsterdam
Kuwait
Cairo
Zürich
Tokyo
Domestically, the only place where I just stopped in the airport for a layover was Los Angeles. However, I did drive to California once, so I’ve “really” been to California.
Tokyo (Narita) about 8 times - never been to Japan officially (outside the airport)
Copenhagen - Layover to and from Dublin.
Atlanta, GA
Cincinatti, OH
Chicago, IL
San Francisco, CA
Cleaveland, MI
Chicago, IL - who hasn’t been through that airport? Some day I need to visit the real city, instead of going through that airport numerous times a year
Dallas, TX - the 2nd most likely city for me to make a transfer.
Greensboro, NC - I’ve been in the airport SO many times in the last year…USAirways…
Newark, NJ - I’m not sure if this counts…but I’ve gone to Newark on many occasions to fly out from their airport. That’s the only reason I’ve ever been in that city though.
I have a couple international airport-only visits. I still count them when I list off all the countries I’ve been to
Frankfurt, Germany - the most disgusting airport I’ve ever been in! Thank god the United States has smoke-free airports. I spent 4 hours in this airport on my way from Boston to Athens
Geneva, Switzerland - on my way from London to Rome
Zurich, Switzerland - and on my way from Rome back to New York City
