Worst Airports Article

Yahoo! posted an amusing-to-me article today about the worst airports in the world. If you travel alot, you might be amused by it too. The journalist gave a disclaimer in the beginning that he was only rating major airports because the small shack by an open field in India shouldn't have to compete against CDG.

That said, I laughed. Outside of the US, the only country to make it onto the list twice was FRANCE. In fact, the only Western country apart from the US to make the list was France.

Beauvais, which IS NOT IN PARIS, but is listed as a Parisian airport is on the list. Remember the time I was flying home to Paris from Venice and got rerouted to Liege, Belgium and had to take a bus back to Paris? Yeah, it was that airport.

CDG (the main airport in Paris), came in at number 5. They'll probably go on strike for being named on the list.

I agreed with the list about JFK being the worst. I flew through there once and said never again. There weren't escalators in the international terminal! Watching all those international travelers lug their suitcases up and down stairs was just sad.

My favorites: in the US, I'd say Charlotte. I love the rocking chairs. Internationally: Mumbai and Seoul. Oh man. Mumbai has these leather lay out chairs that look like something from the first class of the airplane, and are just what a lay-overed weary traveler needs. Seoul has 30 minute hot showers for $7. And when I hadn't had a hot shower in a month, and I'd already been traveling for 3 days and had 2 more to go before getting home, that was the best $7 I'd ever spent. In fact, I paid it twice to stand in the hot water for a whole hour.

My least favorites: CDG and Beauvais, as already noted. Frankfurt. It used to be really crowded and smoky and all around unpleasant, and while all that has changed with the new terminal...I still have the old feelings about it. And there's no Starbucks.

Because really...a Starbucks can make any airport feel just a little bit better.