Airports can make or break a holiday

[NoOneKnowsWhoYouAre]

I've just got back from Marrakesh. Had a lovely few days, but the peace and serenity of the entire holiday was totally ruined by the shit show that is Marrakesh Airport. It felt like it was designed to suck the life out of you piece by piece. Or queue by godammed queue.

The queues started to get into the drop off zone. It took 20 mins to get to the drop off area from the entry to it.

Then you queue to get through the doors of the airport. That took 10 minutes as they xrayed everyone's bags.

Then you queue to check in, another 15 mins. You can't check in online, we'll you can but then it has to be printed and validated at the airport

The you queue for security, that only took 10 mins, where they xray your bag again.

The you queued for passport control. This took forever. Almost an hour. It was genuinely horrendous, made worse by the fact I had an upset stomach and thought I might vomit.

Then as you leave passport control, they checked your passport again!! So bloody weird.

The they charge you nearly £4 for a bottle of coke in the shops. And if you need the toilet you get to queue again.

The you queue again at the gate, where they check your passport and boarding pass then send you outside where, they check your passport again(!!) whilst you yet again queue.

I travel all the time, I go to Morocco regularly, but I will never set foot in Marrakesh airport again as long as I live. It was horrendous. It felt designed to break you.

A shit airport can absolutely ruin a holiday, am I right??

Has anyone else had a worse experience at an airport?

Clicked on this thread to see if it was about Marrakech.

Went through today, over an hour to get through and we didn't have any large bags am not looking forward to the rerun leg

Yes to this! Firstly the infrastructure to actually get to the airport is absolutely dire. The queues on the road leading to the airport at 4 in the morning are a joke.

They are doing horrendous renovations with carparks and it took us an hour to actually be dropped off stuck outside departures. If you get out the car the driver is fined over £150

We used to park at the airport but it costs three times as much to park at bristol-air port than it does at Heathrow. Why, just why. So we now park at relatives in Bristol and take an Uber.

When your flight lands you have a horrendous walk to get picked up...honestly, across carparks, through the multi storey and out the back,
It's a joke

We always try to go from Liverpool rather than Manchester. Cork and Limoges are probably the easiest we have been through, both very small and quick, and friendly. The worst experiences. Nairobi, many years ago, we all had to take our luggage out to the plane. Going into Orlando. For an airport at the supposed happiest place on Earth, the experience with 2 young children was horrendous. We have got to the point of taking food with us and just buying tea at airports. Just fed up of paying a lot of money for crap food. The last we bought was at Manchester, Half the food placed were closed, and tgecredt on the point if closing, at 4.00pm on a Sunday. We eventually got a ham baguette, that was hard and dry. Grubby tables. Grumpy staff, and cost a bomb. So now, it's pop into Greggs or Tesco on the way.

@Lincslady53 we always buy sandwiches in Boots at the airport. Reasonable and a decent choice. Also if you go up stairs there's a very quiet area where you can sit at Manchester. Whenever I've been to Manchester the staff have been really good.

Liverpool is brilliant.

Cairo chaotic normally.
During the 2013 Egyptian revolution my db had to leave along with all foreigners and was told to take imodium as all airport toilets were overflowing. Can't imagine what it was like then.

2 years ago Corfu was just queue after queue. They were renovating, not sure if it's finished.

I came on to say Miami! Joyless, miserable staff and no sense of urgency at all.

I haven’t been in many airports but Antalya airport in the middle of July was hell. I am a very nervous flyer so wasn’t bother about all the security but walking around the departure lounge trying to find a space on the floor to sit was torture. 5.50 euros for a can of juice as well.

I flew through Manchester in July and it was a dream! Both ends. On the way out, no queues, dropped bags, eating breakfast within 15 minutes. On the return journey I was back in my car within 30 minutes of landing and that included collecting luggage!

I hear you! I paid over £20 for a drink and a muffin at Starbucks. Our flight was delayed by 3 hours (not the airport's fault, cheers Tui) and the airport was hot and crowded, with hardly any seating. It was vile! And the extra security for UK flights is a pain in the arse.

I’d agree with this.

We swapped planes due to a technical issue in Moscow (in 2017) it was terrifying, about 30 armed police just staring at us for 4 hours while they got a new plane in place.

But it still wasn't as bad as being a transit passenger at Heathrow. All the staff were really rude and the airport security was directly at the top of an escalator with a queue on it so everyone was having to do a slow backwards treadmill as the people at the top suddenly realised that they needed to get their liquids/laptops out.

Geneva is on my shit list forevermore after last years debacle in early December. I thought it was going to be akin to Munich or Zurich. No, it was one long horrible airport I walked the length of about 20 million times. Bussed furthest from passport control only to turn around and walk right back the whole way to the trains. Check in kiosks were confusing, the shopping area a mess, nowhere for anyone to sit, and just overall disorganized and awful feeling. Security was quick and thr BA lounge surprisingly good but never again.

Love the Tampa Airport for best US airport, though its been a few years since I've been there. And I had a really good experience leaving Heathrow this last time as a disabled passenger, was very impressed by services available for self help and assistance.

Chambery was far worse than Marrakesh for me. DH and one DC nearly didn't make the flight due to their complete inefficiencies and chaos at security.
Best one I've been to recently was Doha. Had to transfer through and it was calm and efficient and plenty of staff to guide you. Very clean and pleasant.
JFK is just so busy and chaotic. I find Stansted quite awful on busy mornings too.
I never let an airport ruin a trip but I agree there are some airport experiences that can undo some of the holiday relaxation!!

Didn’t totally agree as I think you can breathe a sigh afterwards and get on with it but then was thinking of France, in a tiny room with angry looking security guards with guns standing about, shouting at people every so often. The kids looked terrified! We queued for a few hours there in 38 degrees with the bare minimum of air con. Was scary. Charles de Gaulle only from now on! (Edited to add if we ever go again!)

Birmingham is always an absolute shambles that I avoid whenever I can. We use special assistance for disabled DS and the accessible queue on the way back is also the staff queue who are able to go straight to the front, so we end up spending longer waiting than the regular queue, but need the wheelchair access.

JFK was awful and I wanted to cry when we go there, same with Orlando.

Hurghada airport is the worst though. All the entries you have to make in books, and forms to fill in for them to be tossed into a pile without even being looked at.

Good ones I have been through are Berlin, Tokyo and Madrid. I have never had a problem from Luton.

But then that has to be offset by flying Delta One which, in my view, is the worst BC offering US to UK routes

I thought jfk & Santorini were bad but Naples airport was a completely different level of hell

If you had read my OP you'd have seen that I had been ill on the holiday so yeah it was a bit crap, but I have had amazing holidays that have had a taint put on them by a shitty airport experience, so I stand by my title

100 times worse in the reverse I'm afraid. We didn't have any bags either. I also thought Marrakesh was a bit shit though!

Worst UK: Gatwick as they have a chronic shortage of ATCs and the flights are never on time.

Best UK: Bournemouth- small and perfectly formed.

Worst International: Cairo - a dog literally shit on the floor and the owner didnt pick it up and then it went downhill from there.

Best International: Istanbul or Doha- basically airports that make money out of being efficient transit airports are always good.

We had a nightmare in Cancun a few years ago, arrivals was total chaos, three flights all arrived one after the other and there was no queuing or order, no staff directing people, it was a total rammy. Departures much more organised.

Flew to JFK in March and paid a bit more to go via Dublin and not Heathrow to be able to do pre-clearance, when we arrived in the US we went straight through as a domestic arrival and were on the subway in 20 minutes. Agree Heraklion awful too.

Liverpool good, but again struggling to cope with the number of flights.

LAX, have been four times now and it’s just diabolical. No one seems to even know what terminal planes depart from.

London City - so lovely.

We spent an entire day there last year due to issues and our holiday was cancelled. Never going back there again it was terrible. Seating was awful, shops were rubbish, far too hot and crowded. Take me to Gatwick or Heathrow any day compared to there.

I don’t mind LAX 🤣 always seems so spacious

Well it is very spread out! I bloody hate it!

My worst experiences were Antigua- all luggage just chucked in a pile in a corner
Istanbul- 2 hours queuing to pay an entry fee in a very hot airport and get your passport stamped
JFK New York - where do I start- got 2000 dollars nicked out my handbag whilst putting it through screening - we had been merchandising for a band so I had some and H had some - he had expensive sunglasses and an expensive top nicked out his case and a nice note on top of the packed stuff when opened saying 'we are not responsible for loss of any goods' weird or what and proving they had been in the case.

Marrakech was a breeze for us