realtelaviv.com

I am as much as a frequent business traveler as any person I know and have flown from my homebase in NYC to Europe, the middle east and Asia over 30 times in the last two years. Whenever I need to make a connection through the middle east, I make sure to go through Ben Gurion Airport which is by far my favorite airport world-wide. These are 5 major reasons:

The Internet Connectivity
This may sound somewhat disproportionate to travelers who are not as dependant upon email as I am, but this is a major concern for me. Traveling around the US I often have to enroll in 2-3 ‘internet services’ a day in airports, which are not only expensive, but often provide low bandwidth which is insufficient for the VPN system in my home-office. Ben-Gurion provides a very wide-band of free internet, which is usually even accessible from the plane while docked at the gate. Providing free services to travelers seems to have become a standard at the airport - I believe the luggage carts ($3 at US airports) are also without a charge.

The Lounges
As a gold/platinum member on several airlines, I can write a book about airline clubs and lounges. El-Al has the nicest lounges by far, with a wide selection of food and beverages and peaceful corners. Ben Gurion even has a spa built in to the lounge. When not in a lounge, I find the coffee served by Israeli fast-food chains (such as Arcaffe in the airport) is by far superior than US and European counterparts. The selection of healthy snacks both in the lounge and in the common areas is also wider than US airports. While travelling in the terminal, the beautifully done Jerusalem-stone based exterior and interior architecture justify shopping around for the perfect sandwich…

Dropping into TLV
Have a 4-hour connection to the Far-East? Tel Aviv’s vibrant night-life and exquisite cuisine is 30 minutes away… Taxi drivers seem to me very knowledgeable about what’s hot and there is always www.RealTelAviv.com for the real story…

Duty Free
Surpirsingly enough, Israel’s duty free has been consecutively ranked as one of the 5 leading duty-free shopping centers in the world. Very wide selection with reasonable prices and, while often packed with people, reasonable service. Great place to stock up on Cuban cigars and rare single malts.

Israeli women and El-al stewardesses.
I haven’t been to all of the airports in the middle east, but have a feeling that Ben Gurion airport tops this one with a comfortable margin…