Most exceptional international airports

 

A Reddit discussion of US based airports led me to write about this subject, related more to international airports instead.  Any airport flying to another country is an international airport, so many in the US are, so this really mostly relates to airports outside the US, although it does compare the list to American examples, a little.

The context for this is me living and traveling quite a bit in Asia over the last 15 years.  I lived all over the US prior to that, in Pennsylvania, Texas, Maryland, Colorado, and Hawaii, so I visited a lot of US airports earlier on, but 15 years is a long time for conditions and experiences to change.  I've flown in and out of Honolulu twice in the past year; that's the only American airport I have recent experience with.  In the mainland I last flew through JFK, maybe a half dozen years ago now.

My family didn't travel abroad during covid so I'm most familiar, in recent experience, with wherever I've traveled through since, in Tokyo, Osaka, and Seoul, in Haneda, Kanseda, and Incheon.  Prior to that we visited Hong Kong and Shenzhen (China) in 2019, and that Hong Kong airport was fine, but I didn't mention it in this list.  It's about airports that were modern and efficient, pleasant to travel through, but also about interesting features or appearance in them, whatever might make them unique.  It's not as much a ranking of airport services efficiency or completeness as it might sound, more about what stood out to me as interesting.

Cited Reddit post:

I just saw a post about worst airports (in the US, in that version), and although this kind of question comes up all the time I'd like to weigh in on it. I'm living in both Bangkok and Honolulu over the past year (a long story), and I'll add a little about other prior US airport experience, but I've been traveling in Asia a lot more over the past 15 years. My own best list:

Changi in Singapore: in online expat discussions this is always ranked first, for good reason. Everything works so well there that it's crazy, and they include extras beyond efficient services, clean and modern design, good food options, places to sleep, etc., extended out to including a butterfly garden in one terminal building. It feels comfortable there, like a positive place to spend time, or almost utopian in spots, a bit of overkill. The subway system might be the best in the world; it's easy to use, inexpensive, and fast to get anywhere.

the butterfly garden at Changi.  I've seen this, but I think they may have added a new terminal since I've been to Changi, which would've been something like 7 years ago.

this turns up labeled online as from Changi, but it's a mall space.  I think I've been there, awhile back, but that vegetation and the water access parts weren't there then, as I remember.

Haneda and Narita in Tokyo: I love Japanese flight experiences and airports; they're efficient, comfortable, and complete in terms of services offered. I flew through Kansai in Osaka once this year and it's not on that level, but it was fine, clean and expansive in terms of seating, with some food options. Little things one might nitpick, about a security process seeming inconvenient, but general processing and services seem exceptional in these two places, and the look and feel. 

 a play area in Narita, April of 2015

It's been awhile since I've been through Narita, which did include limited reclining chairs for sleeping then, and kids' play areas (shown in photos here), but Haneda includes so much seating space that it's easy to lay down and get solid sleep there, which to me changes a lot. Food options are just good in these places, not amazing, but it's enough. For Westerners there are usually donut and bakery places, Starbucks, sandwiches, or fast food, so it's not as if eating local Asian foods is required.

benches and charging station at Haneda in Tokyo (with many rows / areas as priority seating, and so much seating picking emptier sections is an option)

it's hard to capture how much space and seating there really is (Haneda again).  this is a long, linear style airport layout.

Incheon in Seoul: on par with the main Tokyo airports, with good, efficient services, a nice internal space, very clean, good food options, extensive seating, far more than probably makes sense, and even a place to shower (for free, when I last used that). I suppose a different kind of traveler would be evaluating airport hotel space or sleep-pod options but for me if there's a long layover as long as I can get a nice nap I'm fine. I ate some Taco Bell the last time I passed through there; that's a terrible idea, related to consideration for fellow travelers, but it can be nice having comforting Western food / fast food options.

Incheon airport; crazy amounts of seating, lots of charging stations

cultural role-play demo at Incheon; kind of overkill

a kid's play area, a common theme in Japanese airports too, along with good gift shopping

a robot offering information (Incheon again); an information booth works better, but those touches can give places a different feel

Suvarnibhumi in Bangkok: it's ok; it is what it is. It's a modern, spacious building but it's not a great place for food options, efficient internal walking travel (you need to walk a kilometer to pass through), extensive seating (forget about taking a nap anywhere but the floor), easy wifi-access, or broad access to electronics charging stations (all of which I barely mentioned related to the others; to me it goes without saying it's there). 

Internal counter registration, security checks, and immigration are all not very streamlined compared to the others I've mentioned. But the basics are all covered; you can use free wifi, if you figure out how to register for it (which might require internet access; it's funny when a Catch-22 comes up), you can eat, there are options to buy a phone SIM (data access), money exchange and so on, and there's an efficient train into the city, and inexpensive and easy to use taxis. If you know about it there's a good food court where $3 can buy you a decent light meal; good luck finding that anywhere else.

registration area and Thai minor deity statue in Suvarnibhumi

Hanoi airport: it's ok, updated and modernized. I'm mostly mentioning it here because really poor planning had us spend overnight there on a crazy layover once, so we got a feel for the place better. It's not set up for that to be comfortable; we ended up camping out in a nursing room, which was kind of ok. It's modern, with decent food options, and places to buy gifts, so it's fine.

Hanoi airport at night; kind of an odd feel when they're quiet and empty

US airports: Honolulu just isn't supposed to be on the same level, related to being a transit hub like those other places. You fly in and out, and it works for that. Changi makes it incredibly easy to use public transport to get to the rest of Singapore, as the Korean and Japanese airports would, but in Honolulu you can either take a public bus (which is fine, without much luggage) or a more expensive shuttle, which is also fine, if you don't mind spending $50, or whatever that was.

Honolulu's airport is dated in theme and style, but I don't care about that either way

Honolulu's airport makes you miss what you are leaving, in a nice, open-air space

garden space in the Honolulu airport; nice and relaxing

I've traveled most through NYC (JFK), LAX, DFW (Dallas), the Denver airport, and through Pittsburgh and DC, and all the modern versions of US airports are ok, they work. You really don't need an inviting, comfortable feel, lots of food options, places to sleep, shower facilities, internal garden spaces, and so on. Good transportation is nice, clean bathrooms, and efficient processing, and if the latter are limited, as in Bangkok, then you just add some planning time and give up the extra hour of your life to a few queues. 

I definitely wouldn't want to spend 8 hours or more in any US airport, if I could help it (or any, really), but they're not exactly set up for that, as international travel hub versions might be. In the US you show up early and have a couple of beers and that's it, and only hang around when something went wrong.

Russian airport (Moscow, St. Petersburg, or Murmansk), decorated for Christmas

that Russian airport; nice for us to see snow, for living in the tropics

family on the way to the airport, 2014

Kalani and I traveling then, 9 years ago

Keo and Eye in Suvarnibhumi airport in 2009

family picture traveling in Singapore, 2009

recent family photo for comparison

Online tea exploration: preparing for a trip to Tokyo and Seoul

One might read of well organized tea-theme group trips (if you haven't then read about this one, organized by Tealet, or there is a more obscure one in Korea this May), but you typically don't see so much about how to turn up tea leads on your own going places (in Asia, presumably, but of course tea is in lots of places).

I'm about to go to Japan and Korea (Tokyo and Seoul, to be specific), and while my wife plans for outings like Disneyland and Unesco World Heritage sights, or maybe to see sakura blooming (cherry blossoms), I'm looking into tea.  But how would one go about that?

I guess this will be worth a look too (this week, from FB friend)

I'm no travel expert but here are some thoughts, also related to this subject coming up before and in Vietnam and Cambodia last year (in Singapore it seems easier; go to Chinatown).

Tea contacts:

Having friends where you travel would make for a great lead, and a guide.  Even an online contact could help, a forum friend, or someone from a Facebook group (etc.).  I indirectly "know" a number of people in different places and this is still not so simple since you need the right person in the right place to help answer relatively specific questions.

But it could work.  If you come to Bangkok feel free to ask me.

Google:

Almost should be first in this list, right.  Google knows a good bit about lots of things, and combined with Google Maps it's possible to be very specific about locations, and even search by location.

One catch:  Google works much better searching in English in English speaking countries.  Even here in Thailand, where English use is much more common than in Japan or Korea (my take, but kind of an informed one) lots of blind spots turn up.  But the highest profile places Google will know about aren't always the best options.

Tea farms:

This gets into a different kind of trip than I typically take, more related to the Amazing Tea Race subject.  I go on family vacations where I try to stop by tea shops, or even tea districts if a city is set up for that (like Beijing).  I guess the same type of search could apply, just supported by a lot more effort and networking, and without relying on direct internet search quite so much.

A more indirect approach could still work, but there would have to be a way to find people that know people that are hard to contact, willing to act as leads and share contacts that are hard to come by.  That last part would probably be the catch.  Just finding your way to a tea growing region wouldn't be so difficult--no secret where the main ones are--and the subject would come up a lot there, along with lots of related shops and tour options.

Trip advising sites:

For example, the one called Trip Advisor, which posted this entry about the O'Sulloc Tea Shop in Seoul.  The Lonely Planet is another familiar reference, where you might find something like this entry for the Yetchajip Tea House in Insadong, Seoul, or this one for the Beautiful Tea Museum, not far from both others.

Sounds great, right, three places to buy tea.  Maybe, maybe not.  A cafe or museum theme might not be the best place to buy tea, even if both sell loose tea, and the main places tourists go might not match the selection and pricing available somewhere else.  Would be great to talk to a local that loves tea that's spent years working on all that instead, rather than other tourists using the same types of references.  How to do that; good question.

Blogs:

This should be obvious enough to a blogger, right; why couldn't there be someone else sitting at a keyboard in those cities typing out what they experience related to a tea obsession.  I did try that type of lead.

Here is a site dedicated to referencing expat authored blogs in different countries, which could help get around the issue of blogs being written in Japanese of Korean.  I focused more on Korean teas and blogs out of Seoul just because I'd been reading more about Korean teas lately.  I also think we'll have more free time in Seoul, and I'm hoping to have better luck due to everyone drinking tea in Japan.  Also references on Korean oxidized teas sound so interesting, like this one by the World of Tea.

You'd think I would be about to explain how this approach cracked it, but not really so.  Other than references to the three places Google mentioned others cited only tea cafes, which didn't seem promising as loose tea shops (like this one, about a tea cafe, with the cool blog name "cute in Korea.")  If anyone is going to Seoul in June you are absolutely set because there is a tea festival / expo then,  related to information in this blog post / reference site, but that doesn't help me.

Or there are Western oriented blogs that talk about Korean teas, like this one on tea types (Tea at Morning Crane Tea blog), or this blog that covers lots about such teas (Mattcha's blog).  The problem is that typical tea blog entries don't lead back to physical tea shops very often (certainly not if written by an online vendor), so these could more often help you order tea but usually not to find it walking around Seoul or Tokyo.  Of course there could be exceptions, but looking up and reading dozens of tea blog entries is problematic.

Forums, discussion sites:

I don't think Steepster or Teachat is going to help--although maybe, but I didn't try them--but there are countless other forums covering countless other topics.  Again as an expat I thought expats might be one way to get around language problems, so I looked in places like an online penpals site.

Get the impression I have too much free time yet?  Or maybe also that wasting it is sort of a hobby.  Of course that didn't work, but it is one of many ways to talk to strangers, if that sounds like a good thing.

Conclusion:

I went through all this not so long ago, actually, in Hanoi (not all of it; I've escalated the online research part, sort of my thing, trying new research directions out).  There I had the best luck in talking about it on a forum afterwards (the expat blog one I already mentioned), and someone told me about a great reference online, a shop in Ho Chi Minh City, Hatvala, which is not even where I was in Vietnam, or probably all that close to where most of the tea is grown.

I ran across some really nice teas in Hanoi by luck (see a few other blog posts in the last few months), and Google Maps pointed out some other shops (many I didn't get to; gotta go back to Hanoi at some point), so a relatively standard approach and some luck can work.  Time is a part of it; if I had a couple of days to dedicate only to the search for tea it would be easy, but different family members have different agendas, and I'm the only one inclined to focus on tea.


China was a similar story, but I was much less obsessed when we visited back then (a year and a half ago).  My first work trip there started me on tea and a later vacation helped push me over the edge.


I guess there is more to life than tea (really!) and places like World Heritage Sites and Disneyland deserve attention too.  It's nice the travel planning can extend so far into the online world as it does but in my experience the last steps are in real life, and not just related to actually drinking the teas, but often also to finding the best places to get them.  Or there are online shops; of course that works too.

I didn't get far in this particular search beyond identifying the shops I mentioned, which might work out.  A real-life friend will help me find tea shops in Seoul (good luck having one in that city).  The posts that follow about different teas, or lack of such posts, will tell the rest of the story.