Seven Things That Will Make You Love An Airport

As one of the four Singapore Airlines and Junkee Storytellers, Jacob Evans travelled to Istanbul to bring home the most interesting story he could find.

Along the way, Jacob had a transit through Singapore, and explored the award-winning Changi Airport.

–

When your airport is more of an amusement park than an airport, it pretty quickly becomes the place to be.

There’s a lot to like about Changi Airport. Here are six of my personal picks.

–

#1:  A Cinema

If you’re sitting idle for a few hours between flights, you might as well catch a movie. A survey of 10,000 travellers done by Skyscanner found the thing most wanted by passengers in an airport was a movie theatre (apparently even more than a man-made beach), and Changi has two cinemas available for its passengers, both free.

There’s also an entertainment area with consoles and private music booths, and a TV lounge with cute couple chairs to watch the screens — AKA king-sized couches for those who are forever alone.

–

#2: A Massive Slide

The spiral slide at Changi is the tallest in Singapore at four storeys high, and everyone who goes on it absolutely freaks out about it.

It doesn’t slide you directly onto your plane though, so: room for improvement.

–

#3: Italian Shoe-makers

If you time your trip right, you might just stumble upon some odd workshop or event in the middle of the airport. In October, Changi hosted a skilled Italian craftsman who makes Salvatore Ferragamo shoes – which are apparently pretty nice shoes, as far as shoes go.

–

#4: First-class Bathrooms

This is some of the most glamorous toileting you will ever do in your life. The bathrooms at Changi even have touch screens you can use to alert attendants when stalls are running low on toilet paper. The one I used was lined with ferns and had a full view of the planes taking off and landing on the tarmac.

–

#5: Forests

Okay, maybe not a literal forest — but it does have some pretty fantastic parks and gardens.

Whether that’s the sunflower gardens, the cactus gardens, the nature trail, the orchard gardens or the ‘Enchanted Garden’, it’s nice to enjoy an airport that isn’t just cold concrete and screaming children. Speaking of gardens…

–

#6: A Koi Pond

If you’d asked me the number one thing an airport should have, I would not have said a koi pond. But that was before I saw Changi’s koi pond.

Standing on a platform over the serene waters as the gold and silver fish swim beneath, right in the middle of the regular airport rush, is a pretty sweet experience. Seriously, every airport needs one. Even at 2am, you’ll find a bunch of young people hanging around the koi pond, chatting and taking selfies with the fish.

#fishpond #koi #plants #changi #singapore

A photo posted by edwinyoes (@edwinyoes) on Nov 11, 2014 at 3:09am PST

–

#7: A Butterfly Garden

Yep, Changi even has a butterfly garden.

Of course, it’s sometimes the simplest things that matter, and after the chaos of some other airports, it was pretty relieving to actually know where everything was in Changi – in particular, my departure lounge. So enjoy it if you can get the time, otherwise just enjoy knowing you will actually be able to find your flight.

–

To read about what he found in Istanbul click here.

–

All images via Changi Airport/Facebook unless otherwise attributed.