Author: Kerry Wolfe / Source: Atlas Obscura
The day before Thanksgiving is a notoriously exasperating travel day. It’s the final hurdle Americans must face before indulging in their annual feasts among friends and family, and some airports become the stage for a hellish scene.
Security lines creep forward at a sluggish pace. Snarls of impatient travelers clog the boarding gates in their rush to be among the first on the plane.Instead of letting the madness make you spiral into an existential crisis about whether you really do need to spend the holiday with your new partner’s distant cousins, let your thoughts drift to these wondrous and weird airports.
For some lucky travelers, airports can still render a travel experience worth remembering. Whether it’s charming Art Deco features, innovative design, or truly amazing runways, these airports make the hassles that typically accompany a brief stint in the sky worth the trouble.
At the Barra Airport in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, the tide determines the landing time. It’s one of the only commercial airports in the world where the planes land on the beach. When high tide isn’t hiding the runway beneath a layer of water, passengers can depart the aircraft and stretch their legs on the golden-white ground, often to the applause of curious spectators who’ve stopped to watch takeoffs and landings.
Pilots landing at New Hampshire’s Alton Bay Seaplane Base have to lay off the brakes to avoid skidding across this frictionless runway. The landing strip, which is no more than a thick layer of ice, is the only one of its kind the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States recognizes within the lower 48 states. Naturally, it’s only open during the winter, but this doesn’t stop locals and tourists alike from stopping by to witness the icy spectacle.
A small airport on the Dutch Caribbean island of Saba…
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