What's the best / your favorite airport that you've been to?

[billtm]

In my opinion the best airport that I have been to is Hong Kong Intl'. I was amazed by just how big the terminal building was. Also it has a tram / people mover.
What's the best airport that you've been to?

[KEVIN_224]

For me, I'd have to say Indianapolis (IND).

[billtm]

For me, I'd have to say Indianapolis (IND).

Its a really nice airport, but since I go to it so often, it kinda gets boring.

[oscar]

Mine is Dallas/Fort Worth.  I use it often for connecting flights, for which I like the wide range of food and shops, and that it's fairly easy to get around for such a big airport.  But only on one business trip did I leave the airport for or returned from a local destination (a thoroughly meh and forgettable experience in both directions), so I can't say much about parking/other ground transportation, TSA checkpoints, baggage claim, etc.

For medium-sized airports, John Wayne/Orange County (CA) and Halifax (NS) are my favorites.  I haven't used the former lately, but used it a lot in 2004.

While I travel a lot, I rarely fly except to the West Coast or beyond, so my experience is limited. 
'

[Zeffy]

Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). But that's the only airport I remember actually using, since the one in Orlando I cannot remember what it actually looks like.

[Roadrunner75]

I will give Chicago Midway credit for giving me something to look at outside the window - city streets right next to the runway.  Instilled a real sense of confidence that we were going to actually make it off the ground instead of rolling right into a house.

[Avalanchez71]

You know DTW isn't half bad.  PRG is kinda user friendly.  I like the spread in the business lounge over at GVA.  The damn TSA screwed up BNA.

[Alps]

Detroit, just because they have a train that runs entirely inside the terminal.

[oscar]

Detroit, just because they have a train that runs entirely inside the terminal.

As does DFW, which helps you get around its five terminals.

[Alps]

Detroit, just because they have a train that runs entirely inside the terminal.

As does DFW, which helps you get around its five terminals.

Detroit's is inside the terminal building and just runs between gates. Many airports have trains between terminals.

[thenetwork]

I was very surprised at BWI Airport in Baltimore.  Rental Cars were practically at the terminal (no long shuttles to offsite rental car agencies), and once you get on the BW Parkway/295 South you feel like you just warped into the middle of nowhere (At least that's what it felt like 15 years ago).

Akron-Canton (CAK) is a great little airport -- again, with a rental car area within walking distance from the terminal, and very little traffic to and from I-77.   If your travel plans ever take you to Northeast Ohio, it's a thousand times better than flying into Cleveland, and it's only 45-60 minutes to downtown Cleveland.  Not bad -- especially if you have to rent a car in CLE and finding your way to I-71 North, that's almost 20 minutes right there.

Denver's DIA airport is nice as well, though isolated from the city & metropolitan area.  If they ever build that 3rd airport in the Chicagoland area, they can learn a lot from Denver.

[Roadrunner75]

I was very surprised at BWI Airport in Baltimore.  Rental Cars were practically at the terminal (no long shuttles to offsite rental car agencies), and once you get on the BW Parkway/295 South you feel like you just warped into the middle of nowhere (At least that's what it felt like 15 years ago).

Not exactly BWI itself, but there is a nice park right next to the runway approach on the ring road around the airport (MD 176), located here:
https://www.google.com/maps?ll=39.163085,-76.662008&spn=0.000017,0.013078&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=39.163071,-76.662178&panoid=g_vT-UyOQhLXG6ef1TfbrQ&cbp=12,256.16,,0,-1.85
When we stay a weekend in Baltimore, we'll take the little guy over to the park so he can watch the planes come in and play on the slides.  It seems popular with the locals for plane watching.

[SSOWorld]

MSP - I can do laps around the terminal during the layover. 

[Pete from Boston]

Detroit, just because they have a train that runs entirely inside the terminal.

As does DFW, which helps you get around its five terminals.

Detroit's is inside the terminal building and just runs between gates. Many airports have trains between terminals.

Detroit: an entire rail line in a single room.  Worth a brief layover (long enough to eat a National Coney Island loose-hamburger-in-a-hot-dog-roll).

[US 41]

For me, I'd have to say Indianapolis (IND).

Same here. Barcelona doesn't have too bad of an airport either.

[corco]

I'm going to continue being the guy that constantly pimps Boise, but the Boise airport is pretty legit. Rebuilt post 9/11 and not on the cheap, so it's both very pleasant and well laid out for the current security situation.

As far as hubs go, I like Salty Lakes. Easily manageable, has everything you need, and the volume is small enough and the airport prepared enough that in the wintertime delays for de-icing aren't too bad. My only dislike is that twenty gates worth of regional planes (which I'm usually on for one leg) are in one room and it's kind of jammed sometimes, but since the plane is tiny there's no reason to really go down there less than 15-20 minutes before departure time.

[briantroutman]

I was very surprised at BWI Airport in Baltimore.  Rental Cars were practically at the terminal (no long shuttles to offsite rental car agencies)...

I did a double take when I saw this one. Maybe it was that way years ago, but it's practically the polar opposite today. When going back to visit family in PA, I tend to alternate between BWI, PHL, and PIT. Often, Southwest's fares to BWI are lower than the other two airports, and rental car prices and taxes are often lower, too, but I dread the seemingly interminable ride to the rental car facility. It's certainly the worst of any airport I use frequently.

[kurumi]

Changi Airport, Singapore. Modern, clean, and -- when we were super late for a flight to Denpasar because long story -- the airline held the gate for us. Literally we found our seats, apologized to everyone around us, fastened seatbelts and the plane backed away from the gate.

[JakeFromNewEngland]

I would have to say SFO(San Francisco). It's a relatively clean airport and when we flew in on a Sunday it was not packed like JFK that morning.  Also, the train system was very cool to travel on between the terminals.

[roadman65]

As far as gates being close to the bag claim, ticket counter, parking, and street it has to be Kansas City.

As far as design goes, I would have to say Atlanta has a cool layout with the concourses spread out the way it is.  I think the underground transit mall is neat with the Plane Train and corridor with moving sidewalks and walkway if you choose not to use the train or moving walk between the concourses below ground knowing the planes are above you.

As far as architecture goes Newark has a neat building design.

For convenience it is Atlantic City as you have not many flights in the terminal, so you have the whole airport to yourself and you are in and out within minuets.  Plus the roads leading in and out are not too clogged and minuets you are to the major area highways.

[jeffandnicole]

One of my favorites is the really, really tiny one on Molokai, Hawaii.  About the only way to the island is via plane.  When we left Molokai, there was no security whatsoever. 

On the mainland, I don't know if I have a true favorite.  I'm in Vegas a lot, and the waiting areas are nice with the slot machines, but having to take the tram is a bit of a pain.  The consolidated parking garage - a 7 minute ride from the airport via busses that leave every few minutes - is efficient though.

PHL never gets high marks for their airport, and it looks like you're walking under a highway viaduct with the concrete structure that holds the terminals together, but it's much better than it was in the past, IMO. It's scheduled to undergo a big makeover soon, although not as big as one version had it (which involved replacing the entire airport with a new building.

When we stay a weekend in Baltimore, we'll take the little guy over to the park so he can watch the planes come in and play on the slides.  It seems popular with the locals for plane watching.

One popular place to watch ships, cars and planes in the Philly area is actually across the river in West Deptford, NJ.  Well laid out to view from your car or on a park bench, you get a great vantage point of the Girard Point Bridge (the I-95 double-decker bridge near South Philadelphia), boats and ships and personal watercraft on the Delaware River, and the planes as they fly in to PHL.  They usually fly in from the north...on days they aren't you can see them leave instead.  You don't actually see them touch the runway, as you lose sight of them when they're only a few feet from landing.

[roadman]

Mine is Dallas/Fort Worth.  I use it often for connecting flights, for which I like the wide range of food and shops, and that it's fairly easy to get around for such a big airport.  But I have never started or ended a trip there, so I can't speak to that part of the experience, such as dealing with parking/other ground transportation, TSA checkpoints, baggage claim, etc.

Been through DFW exactly twice, but I have to agree with Oscar - it's a really good airport.  Then again, nearly every other airport I've been through (with the exception of Dulles and their "take a 20 minute shuttle bus ride across the tarmac to change terminals" issue) is automatically superior to Logan Airport in Boston.

[Roadrunner75]

One popular place to watch ships, cars and planes in the Philly area is actually across the river in West Deptford, NJ.  Well laid out to view from your car or on a park bench, you get a great vantage point of the Girard Point Bridge (the I-95 double-decker bridge near South Philadelphia), boats and ships and personal watercraft on the Delaware River, and the planes as they fly in to PHL.  They usually fly in from the north...on days they aren't you can see them leave instead.  You don't actually see them touch the runway, as you lose sight of them when they're only a few feet from landing.

Yes - there's a number of good spots there - by the old ferry, the new boat ramp and the battlefield in National Park.

I remember also when 95 had the gap by the airport, and the new Girard Point Bridge would dump you off onto Enterprise Avenue, forcing you to detour around the perimeter of the airport past the old international terminal to get back on 95.  Now I see that they closed part of the old PA 291 perimeter road and moved it to the other side of 95 to squeeze in some more parking and runway space.  A good section of closed northbound lanes appears still intact and in good shape and ready to be featured on an "abandoned roads" thread.

[oscar]

One of my favorites is the really, really tiny one on Molokai, Hawaii.  About the only way to the island is via plane.  When we left Molokai, there was no security whatsoever. 

If you like "no security", there are a lot of small airports in western Alaska for you, though the price of that is no jet service.  The nicer such airports, such as St. Mary's (one of the secondary airports featured in the "Flying Wild Alaska" TV series), have small staffed terminal buildings.  Many are just a gravel airstrip, a windsock, and maybe a fence to help keep wildlife from wandering onto the airstrip.

[Pete from Boston]

For me, I'd have to say Indianapolis (IND).

Indianapolis is a great mid-size airport — they did a very good job in the new setup — but we avoid it because rental cars there are subject to an extreme new airport/new stadium tax.