Schiphol has a very large terminal complex but as I said above, the walkways work and of course, a lot of the connecting spaces are pretty bright and airy.

LHR, OTOH, at least in Terminal 4 I find to be somewhat grim and it takes a lot longer to navigate.

Whether or not one speaks English is irrelevant when you are facing what seems like a "From Here to Eternity" trek.

Another vote for Schiphol - not mentioned is that there is plenty to do if you have to wait around e.g., huge variety of shops, as well as many restaurants and bars.

AMS is far superior. I mean, it has a Casino! C'mon! It also has some nice little shopping places including a nice cheese shop to pick up some fresh cheese and bread to bring home, which will still be fresh on arrival.

CDG is a nightmare, especially Terminal 1, the spaceship.

GVA (Geneva) is a nice smaller place, uncomplicated.

I think you should decide what city interests you the most and know what to expect at the airport (which is what you're learning now) so you can be prepared. If you fly from CDG or FCO be there three hours ahead of the scheduled flight, but don't eliminate Paris or Rome or any other city because of problems other people have had.

I've flown out of both and found FCO worse than CDG, but it could have been an extra busy time. I didn't have any problem finding English-speaking staff in either airport.

The last time I flew from CDG the line at passport control before boarding was very long but when I got on board and mentioned it to my seatmate he said there was no line at all when he went through. Just a matter of timing.

A recent update on AMS. My DH travelled through AMS on his way to Provence and love it. ON the way back (a Saturday) it was a nightmare! He was in a security line-up for over 75 mins transiting back to Canada. He checked in 2 hours before his flight and barely made it. The gate lounge was completely inadequete to hold the number of passengers. His evaluation - never again :(

Una: as long as your luggage is checked through, you should not have a problem, as both flights arrive/depart from T4. However, I was there this weekend with my sisters. We waited over an hour to pick up our luggage. This makes the 4th bad experience in as many journeys, so I would never recommend Madrid T4 as a transit point if you have to pick your luggage up.