Flammie on airports

I travel a lot and even though I want to be sustainable and ecological, flying is a necessity, both required by work travel and by price, accessibility and so on. I am a budget traveller, I overnight at airports or take a long night at the bars to early flights without a hotel in between if I can. If I can get a cheap flight combination with overnight layover I am often selecting it. I do eat and drink at airports too. I have been to a lot of airports, here’s a list of the ones I remember and have visited so often that I’ve google reviewed some airport restaurants or hotels. It may be noteworthy that restaurant reviews at airport have different emphasis as normal restaurants: slow service can be very critical flaw at airport whereas prices, selection and even quality of food can be expected to be more meh. For restaurants at airports it is often good to trust in the chains: O’ Learys for pints and pub grub, fast food chains for cheaper food-ish nutrition… The fact that I have mainly reviewed the places to avoid tells the whole story, most food places and bars at airports are just good enough for the context but nothing to write home about.

• For a good reference sleeping at airports has great descriptions of airports for such cheap travelling, much more detailed and up-to-date than I can fit in here

ARL: Arlanda

Arlanda is a big airport and easily overnightable. There are airport hotels even in the terminal, I have not needed to use them though. The restaurant selection seems large but is quite hard to find one with seats and decent food. Good beers overall.

• New Orleans Bistro, avoid, overpriced and not worth it, if you want doritos and salsa from a jar you can buy it from a kiosk instead

AMS: Schiphol

Schiphol is also a large hub airport but it seems somehow not so large. Good to overnight in but quite bad at bars and services. Not sure if there are airport hotels nearby? It’s not one of my usual layovers.

• Crossroads, avoid, slow service and mid food

CDG: Charles De Gaul

Charles de Gaul is a huge airport and it’s quite badly organised, however, it is ok for overnighting. There are some restaurants but they can be hard to find and terminals are disconnected so you may end up in restaurantless zone.

• EXKi at Terminal 2G, avoid terminal 2G altogether if you want to eat or drink, this is about the best they have and it’s overpriced and selection is limited

HEL: Helsinki-Vantaa

Helsinki-Vantaa airport is truly one of the best for overnighting, open all hours with several areas of nicer chairs and sofas, and the security from landside to airside is usually open even in night hours, so taking a trip to city centre and back for early morning flight is no problem. Best foods is probably had from hot dog stand and best craft beer from the irish style pub.

• O’ Learys should be avoided, unlike most O’ Learys, the service here sucks and food is somehow worse, there are better choices.

OSL: Gardemoen

Oslo is a semi-large airport that is quite annoying to overnight at or use in general, despite being a national hub most services close early in the evening and there is very little food or drink available between 20–05. Officially you are not supposed to overnight there but it is seemingly allowed and the domestic airside has a quiet zone with few lounge chairs and nicer chairs that work fine. If you are stuck to international airside for night it is better than landside, which has very limited seating and is more noisy and uncomfortable. The airport hotels are nice and affordable (in Norwegian terms), but all the affordable hotels are a long walk or expensive bus journey away. There is a nice hotel at the airport terminals if you get a good deal.

• TGIF Gardemoen, avoid, absolutely nightmarish service and food quality has been replaced by another O’Leary’s with long queue times

LJU: Ljubljana

Ljubljana is a tiny airport for a capital city airport, probably not overnightable but there ain’t many flights either. The tax free shopping area doubles as only “cafeteria”, you can get beers and sandwichy things. I’d recommend to avoid using extra time if possible but since it’s far from city and taxis are overpriced you’ll probably be forced to take one or other unoptimal bus.

STN: Stansted

Stansted is a discount flight hub, and common layover spot for my cheap travels. It’s not particularly good airport to sleep at but I think it is doable if only barely. I found out recently that going to a neighbouring town (5 mins on train) is awesome.

• Jolly Brewers, bar and few rooms, in a town 1 train stop or local bus from the airport, highly recommend over airport hotels Stansted has few restaurants with overpriced and mid food options and meh service. The most trustworthy has been for me the Wetherspoons.

ZUR: Zürich

Zürich is expensive. Haven’t had long layovers that often, took airport hotel once and it was good. Can’t remember if there are decent restaurants (there’s a beer vending machine at ibis budget that is cheap for Zürich).

• ibis-budget-Zurich-Airport, cheap and near, few stops on tram or walking distance