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?

My favourite was always Kastrup Copenhagen- when we lived there I used to look forward to it. I like Schipol too and Arlanda and Munich

Re LAX and ….No one seems to even know what terminal planes depart.

This might help explain why…..

www.flylax.com/-/media/flylax/pdfs/getting-around-lax/lax-airline-location-map.ashx

Orlando was pretty bad.
The exit was via one lift.
Two U.K. planes had landed and everyone was queuing to get out. everyone had put their suitcases on a trolley as usual, walked past customs and then when past there got told to go via the lift so if you had a troller you had to dump it if using the escalator. So the trolleys which had been used for about half a minute were then piling up.
Then people with babies etc who needed to use the lift were blocking the escalator.
We stood there for ages before being able to get past. Terrible design!

Heraklion Airport is a disgrace to Greece. Dangerously overcrowded, hot, disorganised and utterly filthy. Overflowing toilets and rude staff. Needless to say we won't be going back.

We’ve been here many times, and never had any problems at all with the airport, heard many people who say the same as you. We even eat & drink in the airport and have never found it was overly expensive

Yes Herakleion! Just filthy.

Also Tivat in Montenegro, tiny and so disorganised.

Split fab, as is Newcastle.

Makes a big difference!!

Gatwick Airport is awful, especially the South Terminal and the marathon walk from some of the gates on arrival. Not at all enjoyable especially after a red eye flight. I also find it very hot there.

North Terminal a bit better unless again it's a distant gate involving a long walk and escalators/lifts.

The transit between the terminals is rammed full at busy times too.

Just horrible especially at the end of an otherwise good holiday.

Favourite airport probably Vienna - very clean, modern, well designed and has helpful polite staff.

I’d travelled through this airport 7 or 8 times prior to this last time and it was this last time it was so awful. We did eat and drink nd I agree, it wasn’t overly expensive. Our issues were around their security, their ‘special assistance’ which we needed for one of us and their ‘we don’t give a shit’ attitude.

@foy ooh that's handy- we are going for new year!!

Agreed - we hate Palma airport, god it's dirty, everyone is stressed and employees bloody rude. We now go to Portugal - Faro Airport is clean, staff polite and efficient. Parking is definitely easier too. So much more relaxed.

We've flew all over the world - but Palma really grates.

@NoOneKnowsWhoYouAre ah crap! Will look forward to that Thursday then.

Do you think three hours is enough time?

City airport (London) is a dream. Mainly business travellers and everything operates quickly and efficiently.

Luton needs to be demolished.

To Vienna? I'm jealous Enjoy!

Oh I know, but it’s a bit much when people on the information desks who work for the actual airline also don’t know! Thanks for sharing that image though as it does rather sum up how ridiculous it is!

Problem for staff can be that even your “own” airline can make life difficult by, for example, moving certain flights from one terminal to another for reasons various, often at season changeover (I know BA are fond of doing this at Heathrow)…

I know it looks odd to the public that uniformed staff don’t have it all memorized but sometimes it’s safer for them to check, if they have the means, rather than risking sending somebody off to the wrong terminal.

It has definitely been quite awful in recent years. But otoh I have had a couple of much improved experiences recently and I do believe it is improving. From a very low bar.!

@Foy19 yes to Vienna - never been

Geneva is shit, surprisingly for Switzerland where everything else is very efficient

but there is a whole new section of hell for the shed next door where the ski charters depart/arrive. Just awful.

Faro airport is the only part of the algarve I don’t like. The car hire staff are friendly but it ends there. The departure lounge last time we were there was so horrendously busy I’d estimate there were only enough seats for about a quarter of the amount of people that were there. And no particular delays to speak of. Just a dangerous/enormous amount of people and they charged €18 for a coffee and a croissant. Didn’t quite spoil the holiday but most definitely put us all in a bad mood for the trip home.

In all fairness and I may be totally bucking the trend of actually liking one in the UK , I also quite like Heathrow terminals 2 and 5 -

This thread took me straight back to Cancun. 4 hours to get through the first checkpoint, then collect luggage and god knows how long I then waited to have my suitcase unpacked to check what I was bringing in, then I had to repack again. Still laugh now at my pants all over the side 😂😂

Antalya airport is awful and probably worse because most flights back to the UK seem to be late at night.

I don’t expect anyone to have anything memorised, but I do expect that when they check the computer and then send me off that they’ve sent me to the right place! I’m sure it is not their fault, but the airlines, I’m not blaming them individually. But it is a shit show to have to go to three separate terminals because of poor information, which is what happened last time.

You’ll get some grief for that but I agree they’re not bad at all, though the central area terminals aren’t great for access at times if you insist on arriving by car.

Only gripe I have with 5 is it could maybe do with a bit more money spent on routine maintenance and general TLC…it’s starting to look a bit shabby in one or two areas.