<p>…and Miami is the worst in South Florida.</p>
<p>Favorite:</p>
<p>1) Portland, Oregon - nice design; good shopping, including a branch of Powells bookstore.
2) Syracuse - easy to get in and out.
3) Baton Rouge - small and well designed.
4) Sacramento
5) Medford (Oregon) - small, easy to get in/out.</p>
<p>Least Favorite:</p>
<p>1) Miami - a real zoo
2) JFK - another zoo
3) DFW - too big
4) SFO - Prone to delays
5) LAX - Bad design</p>
<p>I’m not a parent but my favorites include…
** The Best **
- Minneapolis
Big, lots of shops and places to eat. Cheap to fly in to.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Seatac
Just finished a big remodel here (might still be in the process actually) and the new wing is very nice. Also, lots of Starbucks (absolutely necessary for most Seattlites). Flights are almost always on time.</p></li>
<li><p>Chicago-O’hare
HUGE airport. Although flights aren’t always on time, there are tons of places to eat and the escalators below have a Disneylandesque/Las Vegas feel (with the neon lights above).</p></li>
<li><p>Portland
Nice airport but a little boring for layovers. Fairly old. Most flights on time but not a large selection of destinations. Often will have to fly up to SeaTac or down to LAX before reaching your final destination.</p></li>
<li><p>Orlando
Cheap flights, easy to navigate with the tram. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The Worst
- Atlanta
Just gross and run-down. Not much to do, spread out and tons of flights. Very crazy/hectic feel, not too enjoyable to spend time in.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Laguardia
Very big and hectic. Has an older feel and located near Queens. Might be better to fly into JFK or Newark. (although I haven’t heard great things about JFK either).</p></li>
<li><p>Colorado Springs
Very tiny! Its often expensive to fly in to here because of the limited amounts of flights. Better to fly into Denver and drive. If I remember correctly, there was only 1 or 2 security machines in the whole airport!</p></li>
<li><p>Madison
I flew into Madison during the remodel last summer, but I remember it being another tiny airport (not a fan of those ;)). I’ve heard its a lot nicer now though, so it might not deserve to be on this list.</p></li>
<li><p>Miami
Didn’t like Miami’s airport too well. Better to fly into Ft Lauderdale if you are staying in Southern Florida. Best for Northern Florida probably Tampa and Orlando.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I just spent the last few days in the Allentown, Raleigh, Charlotte, Philly and Phoenix airports…</p>
<p>For a small airport, ABE is great. Cheap parking, virtually no lines/waiting.</p>
<p>Philly is…Philly. </p>
<p>Phoenix is beautiful and growing each year.</p>
<p>I try to avoid O’Hare and Atlanta at all costs.</p>
<p>EEK. I’m using O’Hare out of Mom’s love!</p>
<p>The Good: </p>
<p>1) Tampa. It’s fantastic. Quick security, well-designed, easy to get in and out of. Fairly good food choices. Baggage claim is really fast. Has discount carriers - SouthWest & JetBlue. Also, they are the ONLY airport that has long stalls in the ladies’s room, so you can get in there with a garmet bag and still close the door. Smart design! Almost never have flight delays out of there.</p>
<p>2) Philly. Happily killed three hours there last summer and enjoyed it thoroughly. Good mix of shops, restaurants, and very easy to walk around. </p>
<p>3) Reagan National. Easy to navigate, ground transportation is a short walk away, good stuff to do for killing time. Easy to get to baggage claim. Also great to be at the parking garage or subway within five minutes from leaving baggage transportation. </p>
<p>4)** Atlanta**. I actually like it. Sure, you really have to walk to get a connecting flight, but there’s a lot of stuff to do. I never take the trains, mostly because I’m happy to have the opportunity to stretch my legs. Personal thing, because I like to move around after being on a plane.</p>
<p>5) San Deigo. Clean, small, love the lighting, always enjoy flying in there. </p>
<p>Honourable mention: Newport News. $5/day parking, close to the airport; you could walk it but they have a shuttle. Very small, but the flights are cheap. Clean, nice.</p>
<p>The Bad & The Ugly:
- Logan. A lot of delayed flights - maybe the previous poster just doesn’t fly the same routes that I do, but at least 1/2 of my flights out of there are delayed. Fairly expensive, except on a few routes. Ground transportation is a nightmare. You have to pay a fair amount of money to taxi out, because you go through the Sumner Tunnel tolls. Logan Express isn’t cheap (and the parking at the Logan Express terminals, out in the suburbs, is $25ish/day), so taxis from the 'burbs are cheaper. Parking at Logan, for 30 hours, ran me at $48. Also, some terminals don’t have anything in the line of food options beyond security. </p>
<p>2) Dulles. I like the economy lot and the shuttles are fairly frequent; however, the design is horrible. Last week, it took me an hour to get through security. After that, I had to take a shuttle to my gate. Real pain and requires leaving a lot of extra time to navigate. Food choices are horrible. Whole airport feels run-down. On the plus side, JetBlue does run out of there. Essentially have to drive there, because there isn’t a good way to use public transportation to get from DC to there. On the plus side, it’s easy to access from the western part of Virginia.</p>
<p>3) O’Hare. Maybe people who know how to navigate it don’t mind it, but I hated it. Cursed it out the entire time. I flew United in there, and my bags went to the USAir baggage claim. If you’ve ever had to cross several terminals to get your bags and ask directions, it’s a horrible place. Too sprawling. I’m a very experienced traveler but had to spend a fair amount of time finding baggage claim and ground transportation (shuttles). Gave up on the shuttles because I was exhausted and shelled out for a taxi. On the plus side, good bar to kill time in when flight is delayed. Discount carriers aren’t big at O’Hare - Southwest & Jetblue don’t fly there.</p>
<p>4) LAX. 'Nuff said. Parking, traffic, navigation - all horrible. </p>
<p>Miscellaneous Commentary:
- Ft. Lauderdale is freakin’ cold. It’s Florida in the summer, people - why A/C to 60 degrees when everyone has shorts and a t-shirt on? I had to shell out $15 to buy a long-sleeved shirt, because my August luggage did not have it.</p>
<p>2) West Palm Beach seemed really run-down when I got there. Also, for a flight that landed at 3 am, baggage took an awfully long time to come out. It’s not like there were many other planes coming in!</p>
<p>3) For such a huge airport, Atlanta doesn’t have many airline options.</p>
<p>4) Norfolk: I HATE that parking situation. You have to circle the airport before you can enter the parking garage. Also, the signs are horrible: they are miniscule and force you to stop at each one to figure out where you are going.</p>
<p>I admit…I’m biased when it comes to Logan (Boston). I lived on the T (Coolidge Corner) for the majority of my years there, so it was easy to get in and out of the airport (and cheap…$1.25!). I never had to deal with the traffic, except when I picked students up at the airport for part of the admission process (this was at Olin, where finalists are flown in for a weekend). </p>
<p>I also flew the American Airlines shuttle almost exclusively, so I rarely saw the lines and gates that leisure travelers do. The AA terminal (B) isn’t great, but the separate check point for the shuttle makes up for the lack of restaurants for me. All I need is a little Dunkin’ Donuts anyway. :)</p>
<p>Reagan --ugh. As a long-time Washingtonian I absolutely refuse to call it that. It’s still National to me.</p>
<p>Madison is now just about compeletely redone. Quite nice. Still small with 12 or so gates.</p>
<p>I hate, hate, hate ORD. The slightest bit a of weather and the whole place closes. It’s impossible during the winter especially in the afternoon. If I can’t go directly to DCA I prefer to go by way of Detroit. Sometimes I’ll drive to Milwaukee. Flights are cheaper, but for a new airport it looks shabby.</p>
<p>Jacksonville. Florida…perfect.</p>
<p>I like the little tiny one in Erie, PA. The people there are very friendly and actually seem to enjoy their jobs. Even the name is fun - “Erie International Airport.” (International because they used to fly to Toronto. Don’t think they do anymore.)</p>
<p>I hate the Atlanta airport, but it’s the one I’m in most often (besides Munich.) The food and shops are outrageously priced. The terminal is too big. The art is silly. The staff are notoriously rude. If you ask a question, you’re likely to get told to “read the signs.” Hey, if I could find a sign, I wouldn’t have to ask you! Three hours is the absolute minimum you must arrive to make an International flight, and we’ve even had trouble with that allowance. We aim for four. I’m always embarassed that it’s many foreigners’ first US experience. I feel obligated to apologize to them.</p>
<p>Sad, though. When my sons were young, it was a fun place. They used to love to go with us to the airport, so they could ride the trains, and watch the planes. Free amusement park. That was pre 9/11. Now the trains are beyond security, for ticket-holders only.</p>
<p>Agree tsdad. Washington Reagan National airport. The only airport named after two presidents…</p>
<p>Favorites:
San Francisco
Portland
Denver
San Diego</p>
<p>Least Favorites:
La Guardia
O’Hare (how can anyone possibly like this place?)</p>
<p>Oh dear! I am going to write about my trip through O’Hare this summer! It can’t be worse than Frankfurt, can it?</p>
<p>Best:
SFO, DCA, SAN, SEA</p>
<p>I like O’Hare because I can get a direct flight to almost anywhere. Food is not bad either. You can take a train right to the door.</p>
<p>ugh…I absolutely despised Reagan! My family attempted to locate the airport coming from Pa for about an hour before we actually found the correct airport. We found it very difficult to distinguish between the Dulles and Reagan signs, but that was nearly 6 years ago.</p>
<p>My favorite is BWI, it was always very easy to get to (from Lancaster, Pa…Philly is way out of the way!) and is clean. I also don’t think I’ve ever had a delayed flight out of there. </p>
<p>The newly remodeled Madison airport is very nice. Despite my hour delay due to snow, it was a relaxing wait. I also recall the intercom messages were not hideously annoying.</p>