Traveling is super fun. What isn't? The airport. Airports are awkward pauses that delay adventures. Yet, they're essential.
More than four-fifths of U.S. citizens have flown on a commercial airplane, and there are more than 50,000 airports in the world. Travel is more accessible than ever, and airports are starting to reflect that.
More international flights mean more long layovers, and more long layovers mean more time to explore, relax and enjoy—and spend, of course.
These 10 airports are redefining how we travel.
Scotland's Barra Airport has a vanishing runway.
The tiny regional Barra Airport, perched on the northern tip of a Scottish island, is the only public airport where planes land on the beach.
There are only four flights a day—two in, two out—because at high tide, the runway vanishes. Though it’s only accessible from U.K. cities Benbecula and Glasgow, every single flight in June is already sold out.
Singapore's airport has free wifi and foot massages.
If Barra is one of the world’s sparsest places, the Changi International Airport in Singapore has to be one of its most lavish.
The wifi is free, and so are foot massages, feature films, rooftop swims and indoor gardens.
There's also a tram that carries visitors into the city for two-hour tours. And if you somehow do everything, Changi also boasts a four-story slide (the nation's largest) that you can ride for $10.
In Amsterdam, grab a book from the airport library.
If you can’t stay to discover Amsterdam, you can get your fix of art and literature at Schiphol International Airport.
ProBiblio, a Dutch nonprofit, installed a 1,200-volume library there in 2010. You can read in more than 20 languages, but most of the books are almost guaranteed to teach you something about Dutch culture.
If reading isn't your style, the national Rijksmuseum keeps a small rotating exhibit of Dutch art in an annex at the airport too.
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