Work, Live & Play for the Creative Class

JET SET - POSTED BY TRAVEL BLOGGER -RANA

Finally, It's here...JET SET.  I'm starting the Creative Class Blog on Travel.  In the past year of our global travels, I feel I must give you the down low on the best of and worst of the travel experience.  Post 9/11, the increase of low cost carriers, and airline budget cruches have turned the travel experience into a nightmare.  Long security lines, TSA new rules and flight delays add to the frustration.  The remaining hope for sanity is the airport itself.  Concessionaires like HMShost, Creative Host, and others are trying hard to capture the revenues of travelers who are spending much more time and money at the airport.  So with my past airport experience and my weekly global travel, I'm going to give you the inside scoop of the best restaurants, bars and shops. And where to go when you land.

So here's my first.  We connected through the nightmare that is London Heathrow last week on route to Copenhagen.  Although it was too early to dine there, I love the Caviar House.  Beautiful design, high end food and lots of space for luggage.

Comments

[Michael R. Bernstein]

Good luck with the new venture! I suggest linking to Bruce Schneier whenever he has some new analysis of the TSA's idiotic security theater as it is relevant to the subject and audience.

Here is some of his recent posts on this subject:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/fiveyearold_boy.html

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/security_vs_pri.html

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/tsa_misses_the.html

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/us_customs_seiz.html

[rana]

Thanks Michael. I was on the board for Airports Council International for a stint before I became so frustrated with the system. I encourage readers to share and exchange best tips and secrets as I do not see the industry getting any better. The airport amenities are our only sanctuary for the time being.

Some other industry news:
www.airports.org
http://www.aci-na.org/
http://www.airportrevenuenews.com/

[Michael Wells]

My favorite US airport concourse is Portland, which has a policy of using local businesses as much as possible and a street-pricing policy -- i.e. you pay the same at the airport as at a downtown store/restaurant. None of those $8 hot dogs you see in airports like San Francisco. And Powell's books instead of the generic bestseller shops (not that there's anything wrong with bestsellers, especially in Canada.)

International I like Singapore. The whole airport is duty-free, since all flights from the city-state are by definition international. The terminal is like a large multi-cultural mall, with whole plucked chickens in the butcher shop and Chinese medicine shops alongside the (very) high end retailers.

[Gary Dare]

Actually, Michael, the dawgs at Good Dog, Bad Dog in PDX are $6 ... and worth every penny!!

O'Hare has started down the path of installing 'local' eateries or rather, licensed reasonable facsimiles. The best of them is probably the Berghoff Cafe at the high numbers end of Terminal 1, Concourse C where late flights to Portland, Oregon usually take off. (The original Berghoff closed but recently a basement lunch cafe was opened, the founder's grand-daughter runs a catering business out of that site now.) I now have a Brat and a brew as my pre-flight meal on the way west since the 7 PM and 9 PM flights have been combined into a 8 PM (not leaving enough time for an early dinner with my SO before heading off).

At the low numbers end of the C concourse is a Goose Island Brewery cafe that I have yet to try.