I'm 24, male, and generally have pretty strong opinions. I'm an IT Professional, running my own busi...
I'm 24, male, and generally have pretty strong opinions. I'm an IT Professional, running my own business, located in the South of England. I love life :)
Oh and I need a new picture!
Member since:17.09.2005
Reviews:13
Members who trust:2
I was lucky enough to spend 6 hours at Schipol airport when I was coming back from Amsterdam, although this was due to my own mistake in getting the return flight time mixed up, I certainly wasn't left unhappy.
The first thing you notice about the airport when you get there is the layout. It seems to be laid out so well, with you being able to walk straight off of the trains and into the airport. Unlike the journey over, where you have to get the monorail from Gatwick airport just to reach the North terminal. The airport is also deceptively big. You may think it is small when you arrive, but you just need to wait until you find that your departure gate is a 20 minute walk away from the main terminal area.
Going through the airport in stages...
I found the security to be fairly heavy-handed although they did have a sense of humour. I've never been asked to take my belt and shoes off before when being paraded through the X-Ray machine with my luggage. As mentioned though, they were good humoured enough and they seemed happy to share a joke or two. As with all airport security areas, don't get your camera out unless you want to have a cavity search!
The shops in the airport were far better than expected. There seemed to be something for everyone and there were a couple of fantastic gift shops where I managed to catch up with some of the forgotten souvenier shopping. Also you have your standard duty-free, electronics and a lovely deli shop with a fantastic selection of dutch cheeses.
The layout of the shops and restaurants is similar to Gatwick's North Terminal. All of the boutiques, gift shops, newsagents etc are downstairs, leaving the restaurants, cafes and bars upstairs. There is however, one exception...The Cone Bar. Which is located downstairs, directly ahead once you've been through the security checks.
The Cone Bar serves a wonderful selection of ready-made sandwiches, sausage rolls and also hot/cold drinks and the best thing of all....cold Heineken on tap :D There are a large number of seats and some great views out across the airport of some of the planes being prepared for take-off. This makes fascinating viewing when you have 6 hours to spare...believe me!
Upstairs I found that the bar at the far left hand end, was very good value for money. Heineken was around 1.5 euros cheaper than some of the bars in Amsterdam. It also seemed to be a congregating area for the many Brits that were flying back from Amsterdam. I found it a great place to have a few random chats with likeminded people :)
There is Internet access available on the top level of the airport as well, in the innovatively named "Communication Centre". It costs 6 euros for around 30mins, which seems a bit steep, but it's a good way of catching up on the news.
My main negative points are that the prices of english magazines/books was extortionate. An english magazine costing £2.40 was marked up at 8.49 euros. I'm confused as to what exchange rate they were using there. Also as I mentioned before, be very careful about your departure gate. Some of them are a long walk away, so make sure you do time it correctly. I found it a good idea to wander down about 30 minutes before the flight, and thankfully so did everyone else on my flight, as we arrived home 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
Overall though, I really liked the airport. It was clean, efficient, the staff were friendly and helpful, the facilities were excellent and the choice of things to do was also fairly good.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Advantages: High turnover of passengers, but doesnot feel as stress out as London or Paris airports Disadvantages: Lots of missing baggage lieing somewhere
very helpful by (70%):
helpful by (30%):
