Thursday 18 February 2010

The World's Best

Back in April last year Susan wrote about her Korean stopover. When we went back to Australia in December we had another stopover in Seoul, and once again (actually twice again) we stopped at Incheon Airport.

The gate lounges are all like this, with
enough seats for every passenger
Yesterday, Incheon was voted the best airport in the world for the 5th year running. Having been to the airport numerous times it is easy to understand why this should be so - it is spacious, clean comfortable - and has some really interesting places.

The view from the gate lounge
These include two galleries, an outpost of the Korean National Museum, and a number of "Experience Korea" shops, with traditional arts and music performances. On the upper deck there are chairs you can actually lie down in, and plenty of little corners where you can grab a quiet sit down.

Look at all that space - and this is a busy airport!
There are also two massage places, two free internet cafes, and dozens of eateries. Although Susan and I didn't eat at the airport this trip, I have done so in the past and been pleasantly surprised at the price and quality.

And something French. Our plane back to Paris
All in all - if you have to fly from Europe to Australia, flying via Korea not only makes sense time and budget wise, but the stopover (either a short one at the airport, or a longer one in a hotel) is made all the better by an airport that manages to almost put some glamour and comfort back into flying.

Simon

3 comments:

Leon Sims said...

Simon,
I wish we had known earlier. 2 trips by Emirates and 2 by Singapore, our preferred is Singapore. Tell you more about Dubai another time.
Having said that Emirates did upgrade us to business to Dubai last year. No complaints there!

chm said...

I might be mistaken, but I think the Incheon Airport was built for the Seoul Olympics Games of 1988.

It was brand new at the time and very impressive by its size and luxury. Leaving Seoul for Kennedy Airport in New York after the games, you would think you had finally landed in a third world country, so striking was the difference between the two airports.

Simon said...

chm
Amazingly, Incheon was built to replace the airport you used, as it was become too small and too old!! They built a new terminal at Gimpo for the Olympics, and whole new airport for the World Cup.

Amazing place - they try SO hard.

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