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?

It is.

Changi Airport in Singapore is amazing. It is not a steel and glass modern structure but there is a lot to see and do, including the ultra-modern Jewel mall which is connected by a bridge from Terminal 1 so you never leave the air-condition.

I particularly liked the free snooze loungers with chargors during a long layover.

Heathrow T3 felt quite relaxed, spacious and calm when I flew from there with Virgin Atlantic. Arriving back there were long queues at passport control but was OK. Much better than Gatwick.

Chambery used to be ok. It sounds like it is now like our worst airport experience which was either Grenoble or Insbrook (apologies to the one it wasn’t.) Queues upon queues and all the planes delayed waiting for passengers to get through. Just ridiculous.

Antigua is awful, it only seems to be half staffed.

Hehe yes!

As much as I love the place, I would never return to Kos, airport is so tiny they won't let you inside and you're left queuing outside in the 40 degree sun.

Go by train next time.

To Morocco? 😂

Go to Essaouira! Amazing airport!

@GettingStuffed yes it is truly shit - I mentioned below our luggage was part of a general heap!!

@notimagain yes I agree with that -

We were in Marrakesh in February and the outbound experience was hell on earth. Queues lasting forever then when we thought we were making progress the guards would let a group in one of the queues. People were kicking off - it was horrendous. Only just made the flight and we were in bags of time.
I fly a lot from Dublin to Manchester. Getting into Manchester - great - through the terminal in 5 minutes. Going back - nightmare. I now only take the last flight of the day as I know security won't be bad.
Never had any major issues with US airports but pre-clearance in Dublin in September was something else. Put me off going back.

Has anyone mentioned Birmingham? Last time we flew from there about 5 years ago it reminded me of a particularly grotty service station and it stank

Zurich airport was shite

Bristol airport makes 50% of its income from parking charges. The actual flights part is basically just an excuse to sell car parking. Like a loss leader for a supermarket to get people in.

They have great incentives to build more parking (which they’re doing with a huge multi storey) and zero incentive to improve public transport access, taxi and drop off provision (none of which they’re doing).

@Babush as we live in Bath it's our closest airport and yet we rarely use it - anywhere we want to go usually has awful flight times, fares are often double Heathrow , parking is horrifically expensive , the bus takes forever from Bath and the cab drivers here load it hugely too -

There was an airport on a holiday island in Vietnam. Long queues of people arriving to go past immigration. The queues did not move for a long time and we did not know what we were waiting for. There were families, all waiting.

Then I noticed that some of the people were leaving the queue with an immigration officer and let through. I twigged that the people were bribing the immigration officers. After a while, the queues started moving. I guess the officers realised that they had flushed out the bribers and there were no more takers for the day so got on with the job.

I think T5 at Heathrow is pretty good. Better than the other terminals.

Worst - anywhere with rude staff and poor signage. Rio is pretty crap. Hopefully improved after Olympics!

It is enough time as long as you are queuing outside exactly 3 hours before, and not just queuing for the drop off!

Koh Samui Airport is a place of dreams. It is mostly outside and beautifully landscaped. It felt like part of the holiday.

I'm off to Singapore Chiangi in February on the way to Cambodia. I'm actually looking forward to it. We booked a long layover just to spend some time there.

It lovely. It’s quite amazing how a huge airport that clearly has enormous numbers coming through on a regular basis can just be so……calm.
such a contrast with European and American airports.

We transit through T5 fairly often and agree it's good. The only thing to improve it for me would be some shopping options that are actually achievable for your average traveller. There's only so much browsing in Louis Vuitton and Gucci I'm interested in doing during a 5 hour wait, but give me a Mango, Zara, Dune etc like LGW and I might actually spend some money.

Also agree that Changai is amazing. When we left Singapore we didn't fly until about 4pm but left the hotel at check out time and went straight there, dropped our bags and explored the airport and the Jewel while we waited.

Changi is a smashing airport but for info it is actually fairly middling in terms of size and passenger numbers for an international hub airport by 21st century standards.

Places like Atlanta, Dubai, Heathrow and some other European airports are significantly bigger and busier….that might some extent might explain why Changi is so calm.

Agreed..the other quibble for those that like windows and seats is in 5A at least one (pay for) lounge has been constructed in what was formerly free sitting/window space.

It would be a shame to see the views and free seating all get blocked off by the construction of commercial outlets, as has happened at one or two airports.