Worst Airports for Sleeping In

#5 Jakarta, Indonesia
Why? Uncomfortable seating, possible requests for your passport "for safekeeping", security will want bribes, squat toilets, crazy people, women will likely have problems travelling alone here, "poor people may attack you"
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www.sleepinginairports.net/bestof.htm

(knocks on wood) I have yet to have to spend the night in an airport. Came close a couple times (Portland was the closest).

That list is surprsingly spot on.

I actually dropped Jakarta from my list of airports to fly through and would book nearly ever flight west to east through Singapore in case there was a cancellation (it's also in a big mall with a very nice hotel attached to the airport), and refused to fly through de Gaulle for flights east to west because it's impossible to sleep in that airport.

I would add Frankfurt, Germany to that list of airports to sleep in - spent many a night there and always felt safe.

Spent a good night in Gatwick once too, until the shops were opening and the girl who was getting the HMV ready for the moring shoppers had that damn Celine Dion Titanic song blaring and on repeat. Must have been 45 minutes of the same bad song - pure torture.

This pretty much sums up my only O'Hare experience. I didn't have snow or crowds to deal with, but the rest is spot on.

Chicago O'Hare, Illinois
Why? "Crap", "O'Hell", Uncomfortable hard plastic seats with armrests, often crowded with travellers stranded due to a snow storm, lots of security announcements, air-conditioning too cold (Children's play area is the only place with heat), smells like "feet and broccoli", noise, "long walks" to find food, fluorescent lights buzz continuously


I had a much better experience sleeping in the SLC airport, but I was on my way to California to see The Grateful Dead, so I already had a sleeping bag, pillow, food, etc. with me. :)

only had to spend a night in an airport once. . that was in the old austin municipal airport. since it was a muni, they closed off the terminals, so no sleeping near the gates. i found a nice comfy spot on the linoleum floor in front of the american check-in desk.

I think we spent a number of night hours in the Vegas Airport waiting for a transfer. I suppose this would have been nice if we were into gambling, but we're not.

Originally posted by Bombay Chutney:
This pretty much sums up my only O'Hare experience. I didn't have snow or crowds to deal with, but the rest is spot on.

Chicago O'Hare, Illinois
Why? "Crap", "O'Hell", Uncomfortable hard plastic seats with armrests, often crowded with travellers stranded due to a snow storm, lots of security announcements, air-conditioning too cold (Children's play area is the only place with heat), smells like "feet and broccoli", noise, "long walks" to find food, fluorescent lights buzz continuously


I had a much better experience sleeping in the SLC airport, but I was on my way to California to see The Grateful Dead, so I already had a sleeping bag, pillow, food, etc. with me. :)

O'Hare is just big. I think its much better than Dulles. I hate Dulles.

I agree about the suckiness of O'Hare. The food options there absolutely suck. Midway is much better.

O'Hare blows goats for a quarter.

That description of Jakarta Airport is either many years out of date, or written by someone who's never actually been there. It doesn't have the most up-to-date facilities, but none of that harrassment stuff ever happened to me there, and I've spent a lot of time there for both domestic and international flights. Also I didn't really study the toilets closely, but although they probably do have squat toilets, they also have the western kind.

I think the stuff about women traveling alone is also bunk – unless they're foolish enough to follow one of the unauthorized taxi touts instead of going to the official taxi stand, in which case either men or women will have problems.

I think it's generally a bad idea to sleep in airports anyway, unless you can get a day room. Narita Tokyo has great day rooms that are about 15 bux and little bigger than a bed and shower; and Changi airport also has decent, inexpensive day rooms. In both cases you don't have to go through customs to get to them, which is a plus.

Originally posted by They call me Doctor Doom.:
That description of Jakarta Airport is either many years out of date, or written by someone who's never actually been there.

It's pretty close for my experience in 1999. I was definitely asked for bribes by security to "watch your bags while you sleep" and was constantly harrassed by locals in the airport for money.

I don't remember the restrooms, but I very rarely do more than pee in airports anyway.

Originally posted by vansmack:

Originally posted by They call me Doctor Doom.:
That description of Jakarta Airport is either many years out of date, or written by someone who's never actually been there.

It's pretty close for my experience in 1999. I was definitely asked for bribes by security to "watch your bags while you sleep" and was constantly harrassed by locals in the airport for money.

I don't remember the restrooms, but I very rarely do more than pee in airports anyway.

Well, I think 1999 would qualify as "many years out of date." At that point Indonesian dictator Suharto had only just left the scene and the country was still reeling from the Asian financial crisis. Jakarta is still no Singapore, but the country has made huge progress since then.

Originally posted by They call me Doctor Doom.:
Well, I think 1999 would qualify as "many years out of date." At that point Indonesian dictator Suharto had only just left the scene and the country was still reeling from the Asian financial crisis. Jakarta is still no Singapore, but the country has made huge progress since then. [/QB]

excellent retort. . .you get one of these. . .

<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/194/502870071_72475ca4ef_o.jpg" alt=" - " />

Palma Mallorca is pretty rough for spending the night, especially when shared with a plane load of kids and drunken Irish morons.

I wasn't trying to issue a retort, I was just sayin' that things may have changed somewhat…

i was wondering what smackie's take on this would be … i spent a night in bangkok's airport in november '04 (not sure if this was the "new" one or not), but an internet cafe was open 24 hours and i just sat there and played on party poker for a while … wasn't that bad …

Originally posted by They call me Doctor Doom.:
Well, I think 1999 would qualify as "many years out of date." At that point Indonesian dictator Suharto had only just left the scene and the country was still reeling from the Asian financial crisis. Jakarta is still no Singapore, but the country has made huge progress since then.

Fair enough, but I think in terms of political reform, 8 years is not a long time and the airports are pretty low on the reform list. I will defer to your more recent experience on this one. Every other trip I made to East Timor I flew through Darwin to avoid Jakarta.

You can't get to East Timor via Jakarta anyway anymore… if you go through Indonesia, you have to transit through Denpasar. Last time I did that, I made sure the transit lasted several days…

As far as reform, the country is corrupt as ever, but to the extent possible they try to shelter the bules from that, as they recognize the importance of keeping them coming in.

I never had any problems with LAX. I think people just whine too much about the conditions there.

Originally posted by Brandon Brendall, the thief:
I never had any problems with LAX. I think people just whine too much about the conditions there.

like simply being in l.a.?