Travelling to Europe & wondering which airport in your experience has been the easiet to travel back to the USA from:
London, Rome, Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt,
Madrid. Doing a trip and looking at stopovers.

I've returned from Heathrow, Ciampino, Schiphol, Charles de Gaulle, and Frankfurt Rhein-Main. <i>Much</i> prefer Schiphol, which is easy to get to/from and easy to maneuver in.

We find Schiphol/Amsterdam to be very easy to use, with great connection to the train right in the terminal. It's a 15-min train ride from Centraal or a 30&euro; taxi. Tough to beat it.

CDG/Paris is the pits, long lines and short-staffed security checkpoints. Train is in Terminal 2 and a shuttle ride away from Terminal 1; ride takes 35-45 minutes from Paris; taxi costs 40-55&euro;.

Here is what i know

Heathrow - Nightmare
Amsterdam - Fairly Easy
Frankfurt - Moderately easy and OK. If you fly Lufthansa they are real good at on time departures.
Munich - Excellent
Copenhagen - Good
Rome - (Be there next week)

What airlines and ultimate destination? These are more important considerations than the airport.

From your list …

LHR - its my usual landing point, so I am used to it and know it well. However, I accept it is not the best, but it is certainly not the worst. At least everyone speaks English

CDG – I only use it if I am transiting to a destination within France. Otherwise, avoid it. If there is a problem, I hope you speak French. Baggage goes missing on a regular basis

FRA – I like it, and LH has great connections. Security is OTT, always has been. Almost everyone speaks English. Ever lost a bag

AMS – Like it, but have had delayed luggage there several times. DH flew through there last week and loved it. Everyone speaks English

Rome – never connected through it, but would not consider it unless I was connecting to another flight within Italy, it was at least 25% cheaper than any other option. Nobody speaks English when you have a problem, but they are very charming about it and they have the best-dressed police force on the planet.

Madrid – Architecturally, the new T4 terminal is worth a trip in itself. However, its miles from the older terminals and if you land in one of the T4 satellites, it can take over 20 minutes to get to the main terminal. If you have to change terminals, from time you get off the aircraft to the time you get to the check-in in the other terminal might well take you an hour. English is spotty, but better than Rome


There is no perfect airport. You need to decide on your airline from the US, the partner airlines in Europe and the final destination before you decide on your airport. For example, LHR might be a nightmare for many, but if you are arriving in UA and flying to Scandinavia on SAS, its perfect as both use T3. LH has great connections from Frankfurt and Munich and is part of the Star Alliance network, as is UA.

What is your final destination?

I don't know Frankfurt, but of the other airports you mentioned, Amsterdam is tops and Madrid is easy to get to but can be chaotic once you're in the airport.

I agree with several of the other posters regarding your final destination. If all is equal, I would choose Amsterdam. From your list, I've travelled through London, Rome, Amsterdam and Paris with plans to go through Frankfurt in the spring. Amsterdam has, thus far, been the most convenient and easiest for the same reasons mentioned above (English-speaking staff and connectivity).

I havebeen fortunate never to have experienced any of the &quot;nightmares&quot; some people have at Heathrow but I have to say that having been to every one of the airports you mentioned including the CPH shopping mall I would agree with Schiphol if for no other reason than it has moving walkways which WORK.

Amsterdam Schipol is the best of them.

Schiphol would be my choice, though walk times can be a bit long.

Hi OReilly

From what you said:
&quot;Madrid – ...However,[T4]...miles from the older terminals and if you land in one of the T4 satellites, it can take over 20 minutes to get to the main terminal. If you have to change terminals, from time you get off the aircraft to the time you get to the check-in in the other terminal might well take you an hour. English is spotty, but better than Rome&quot;

I am getting the jitters. How can I find out which terminal my flights will land in/leave from? I won't receive my ticket until a month before my trip when I pay the full price. Right now just paid a deposit to hold the rate.

The flights are reserved with Iberia. I land in Madrid at 1100. The connecting flight to AMS leaves at 12.50

Return flights much the same: land in Madrid at 21.55, connecting flightto TLV at 23.35 (a bit longer, but late at night).

Both legs, in both directions, with Iberia.

Should I look into the possibility of changing my flight times?

Miz - apologies if this is considered hijacking your thread!

Why should you, you've been through booked so unless you travel agent is a total idiot there'll be plenty of time to transfer

You'll be changing from an Iberia non-Schengen zone flight to an Iberia Schengen flight which should mean T4S to T4 which is a simple change by the shuttle service - note you'll pass through passport control &amp; security at Madrid so if you've bought a litre of duty free booze in the US it'll be confiscated

See http://tinyurl.com/ynx4a2

final destination Rome ..but I have heard returning to the USA some airports can be a pain. There is also a chance I may spend a day or so in a connecting city on the way going but not on the way back.

Thanks Alan!

I go thru Heathrow. Partly it depends on your home airport in the U.S.

I would always opt first and foremost for a non-stop flight on a European airlines (I am coming from Seattle, for example).

Of the huge airports, Munich is fairly easy to navigate. I have arrived there and departed from there several times.
Not speaking German has not been much of a problem for me.

The airport in Z&uuml;rich can be a little confusing because you up to go out to the aircraft.

Geneva has a fairly easy airport to use.

Dublin is so so. I only used it once.
London Luton was not bad the one time I used it, but it is not international.

I must agree: CDG is the bottom of the barrell in western Europe.

my question was also prompted by some postings on this board re travel to Rome such as these below: (all things I am hoping to avoid if possible).


&quot;What did we do wrong? Well, next time I would get there 3 hours in advance so there's time for some shopping! Two hours in advance didn't give me a minute to spare. We had to go to customs to get our VAT forms stamped and then to the different VAT companies. There was so much misinformation with regards to that as well. No one ever wanted to look at the merchandise. But that's another subject&quot;
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&quot;We returned to the US from Rome FCO on Sunday October 22. It was incredible. All persons flying to the US were prevented from going directly to their carriers for check in. Rather we were all made to go through a line initially, checked for flight/airline, etc., then sent to our carriers for check in, then put in yet another line for security. Lines were incredibly long and the whole thing took a couple of hours (it didn't help that we were too early for our flight and made to wait until the carrier started checking in for it--between the first and last lines) I noted lots of people with Carnival Cruise tags on their luggage. Thinking this was somehow a special problem due to cruise disgorgement, I asked our Delta check in person if there was some special problems that day, or if the airport was always like this. She replied the latter&quot;
*******************************

&quot;On a recent flight out of Brussels to the US, I was put throuogh 3 separate security checks, and the departure gate was so far away from the main terminal, I thought if I walked any further I'd be in Holland.&quot;
*****************************

&quot;We were at FCO in July to catch an Air France flight to Paris. The lines at the ticket counter were HUGE. We finally found the business class check in (which was shorter) and tried to check in. However, they were not checking in that flight yet so we were unable to get up to the Air France lounge. We went to Alitalia and changed our tickets (no charge) and went through security to the lounge.&quot;
************

&quot;we flew out of FCO on October 26, 2006 and did not have to get into a pre-line before going to our carrier or so it seemed. I say that because even though we arrived 2 hours in advance they told us that we were late! We were asked some questions by some sort of Italian airport authority person but it was directly in front of the carrier and not a seperate area. By the time, we made it on the plane almost everyone was seated and it looked like they'd been there for awhile.&quot;

Any more experiences? Especially when you are returning home.

I've flown home through Heathrow &amp; CDG in Paris...and once from Istanbul.

I'm not sure why people hate Heathrow, I've never had a problem there. It's a huge airport, but at least it's in English. Upon arrival there twice now, I've never spent more than 30 minutes for the Immigration/Customs cattle call.

I found CDG is more nightmarish, but then I did have to leave my HUSBAND in Paris because the airlines wouldn't let him on the plane. He forgot his Green Card (he's Canadian), so he had to stay for two extra days to get his traveling papers from the US Consulate office, so maybe I'm jaded. To CDG's credit, however, I did find my Mother &amp; Aunt when I met them there, so they're not a complete loss. But not without switching terminals and having the time of my life walking in the caverns of CDG to get there.

Istanbul puts you through five rounds of security &amp; baggage checks, which was a time sucker, but boy are they good at it. Those people don't screw around with airport security, and by the time we got to our gate, we were fairly sure we were as safe as anyone could be. We stopped in Heathrow for a transfer to our flight to Denver. Our baggage -- and our tired selves -- made it home together.

This wasn't a ride home, but we also flew from Rome to Athens, and I found Rome to be easy. Athens arrival was a dream as it was a brand new airport just opened in advance of the 2004 Olympics, so everything was new, easy to use, and in English.

I've found there's no airport I can't get home from if I show up at least 3 hours early like they recommend.

The one airport I'll never use again is JFK, I'll fly in and out of Newark for any future trips to NYC.

Jules

&lt; It's a huge airport, but at least it's in English. &gt;

As is Amsterdam