gothere

OK, we all have our favorites, but I have to admit, some airports in Europe are old dingy and horrible. Which ones would you avoid?

richardab

Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal One (for International Flight other than those operated by Air France). This place is horrible. It looks like a bad cement car park and the shopping is cramped. Customs and Passport Control are a nightmare. <BR> <BR>Terminal Two is much nicer.

tom

The Athens "east" (International) terminal is awful. <BR> <BR>Stinky & smelly from the stale cigarette smoke - the few "no smoking" signs are blatantly ignored ('course, most other adisory & traffic signs in Greece are routinely ignored also - at least they're consistent in an anarchic manner). <BR> <BR>No jetways - you step off the plane onto the black asphalt Tarmac, when it's 95-100 degrees out, and then onto stuffy, non-air conditioned busses. Fortunately, I think fear of a jet fuel fireball explosion keeps most people from lighting cigarettes, just yet. <BR> <BR>Minimal food & drink services. Air conditioning & ventilation is minimal. Floor tiles cracked. Floors & walls dingy. General sense of decay & crumbling infrastructure. <BR> <BR>They're opening a new airport, supposedly in time for the 2004 Olympics. Don't expect a single penny to go into improving the existing terminal. <BR> <BR>The new airport will probably be OK for a couple of years until it, too, starts crumbling from a lack of maintenance, like most public infrastructure I observed there. <BR> <BR>

Doug

Sorry, but I hate Schiphol. It's too big, too crowded and too far between gates. The people there are helpful, the stores fantastic and the transportation system is pretty good, but the negatives outweigh the positives for me.

francesca

Paris CDG terminal 1 - I agree, the worst,least efficient and the ugliest. Orly is better, if you have a choice. <BR>Best- Schiphol and Munich

s.fowler

Omigosh! That description of Athens East Terminal is the same as when I was there in 1978! <BR>I am not a Zurich fan. I find it dark and dreary and, while well organized, it has walks that rival Heathrow.

Carol

- Frankfurt is the worst-there's nowhere to sit and relax if you are on transfer, it's crowded and it is Europes least "charming" airport. <BR> <BR>

Marion

Just came through CDG Paris - TWA Terminal 2 yesterday. Husband asked that film be inspected & passed through by hand. Girls on gate who spoke appeared to speak little or no English (why when this is an American airline??) called supervisor (who also was vertually non-communative).. This nasty man just looked at the film and cameras through the clear plastic bag then muttered it's ok, and THREW film and brand new camera onto the x-ray belt and through the machine. NEVER AGAIN DO WE GO CGD.

frank

Without a doubt Faro (Portugal,Algarve) <BR>based on a 90 min wait for bags twice in a row. <BR> This airport takes more planes than it can handle & is in utter chaos every Saturday.The queues for checkin go right out of the front door.Don't go on a Saturday.