Singapore A380 9V-SKA seen from London Heathrow Holiday Inn Ariel hotel

I recently had the fortune to spend a night at London Heathrow’s Holiday Inn Ariel hotel, so I thought I’d check it out as a spotting location.

I did a bit of research first, and found out that rooms  270, 274, 276, 278, 280 and 284 are all good (thanks to Plane Spotting Hotels website). I even rang ahead to request one of these rooms and was told it was not a problem.

However, upon arriving at the hotel I was told these rooms were not possible with my reservation. BUT there was an upgrade option available to room 376 for £15, or £20 with unlimited internet access. So I snapped up this offer.

These rooms are one level higher, so I think they will actually be better than those in the 27x range. They are billed as Executive Rooms, with a double bed. However I’m not sure if they’re any different to the ones on the floor below.

The view from the window was fantastic. It’s not as close as the Renaissance is, and my room didn’t have a view of the western end of the airport or runways, but you could easily see most movements and a lot of aircraft parked on the ground.

In particular, it had a view of Terminal 3, Terminal 4 and the maintenance areas. Runway 09L/27R is right in front of you, and 09R/27L in the distance.

On my visit, 09L was in use for arrivals, which meant I missed a lot of them as they exited the runway early. But I’d catch them on departure later on from 09R.

It helped to have FlightRadar24 on my laptop the whole time. Having a SBS box would be just as handy. This way, when it got dark I was still able to log departures.

Photographs are good for larger airliners, especially if they taxi from 09L to Terminal 4, as the picture below testifies.

So, there’s a good example of an affordable (if booked in advance) hotel at London Heathrow!

Photo (c) www.plane-spotting-hotels

News has come through from a number of people over the past few days that spotting has once again been banned at one of the world’s best-known spotting hotels – the Sheraton Deira in Dubai.

The hotel has a roof-top pool area which is just underneath the approach/departure path of the runways at Dubai International Airport. Hundreds of spotters make use of the facilities every year, either for a purpose spotting trip to Dubai, or at the start or end of a journey further afield whilst transferring through Dubai.

Recent reports state that twitchy holidaymakers reported ‘suspicious’ activity by a spotter on the rooftop, who was then asked by security to stop. The police have now banned spotting there as a result.

Do you have any updates or recent experiences there to share? Please comment.

It’s that time again – some spotters have been arrested for acting ‘suspiciously’ and a newspaper has printed the story (click to read it).

Two spotters in India had booked into the Radisson New Delhi, requesting a room overlooking the airport. When the pair didn’t emerge from their room for 24 hours, hotel staff got suspicious and called the police, who promptly arrested them.

The spotters were found with binoculars, laptop containing Google maps of the airport, cameras, and an electronic ‘gadget’ which can track individual movements of aircraft.

Now, to all of the fellow spotters out there, we know these tools as part and parcel of the hobby. You take binoculars to note registrations, cameras to photograph aircraft, maps to find the best spotting locations, and an SBS (read, electronic ‘gadget’ for tracking aircraft movements) to monitor which aircraft are coming and going – particularly at night when you can’t see the registrations.

And as for not emerging for 24 hours – well, when you find a good, comfortable room with a great view of the aircraft, then why would you leave before you had to?

So, is this going to start a whole new wave of suspicion and unneccessary arrests of innocent people enjoying their hobby – just because of the jittery nature of air travel these days? Will this make you think again about booking your favourite plane-spotting hotel for a future trip?

If you’re planning on spending any time spotting at Tokyo Narita, you might want to consider the information below on the best spotting hotels and which rooms work.

Holiday Inn
This is fairly expensive, but has some views. Room 1250 is the best, giving you a view of everything on the western runway. If aircraft are landing to the west then you can poll everything that taxis to the end of the runway. If you have a SBS box you get everything landing and departing.

You can also see everything that takes off on the other runway and visa versa if they are landing in the other direction, but aircraft are very high by the time they are visible.

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/1/en/hotel/narja?rpb=hotel&crUrl=/h/d/pc/1/en/hotelsearchresults

Holiday Inn
Tobu Narita
320-1 Tokko
Chiba
Narita
Chiba
286-0106

The Rest House
A basic, cheap hotel with a few rooms that have very limited views. You can see about 60% of the cargo ramp and if they are taking off to the west then stuff taxying off to the runway on the North only.

You can walk to T1 from here as it’s only 5 minutes away. There are plenty of places to eat in both terminals. T1 is good for Ti and there is a free shuttle to T2 and T2 has two observation decks that allow you to see most of the stuff around T2

http://www.apo-resthouse.com/english/index.html

Rest House Hotel
Narita International Airport
Narita City
Chiba-Pref
Japan
282-0011
yoyaku@apo-resthouse.com

Nikko Winds Hotel
A great spotting hotel at Narita. Room 910 is noted as having the best views of the action on the ground. It also has a restaurant on the top floor with great views of the airport.

http://www.jalhotels.com/domestic/kanto/winds/

560 Tokko
Narita-shi
Chiba 286-0106
Apan

The Sheraton Deira hotel is well known amongst the spotting community for its roof terrace under the flight path to Dubai Airport. What better than spending time in the sun, by the pool, with exotic airliners flying overhead all day?

Well, it had to happen – eventually someone would find another hotel with decent spotting opportunities in Dubai. The Nojoum Hospitality luxury apartments may not be as cheap as the Sheraton, but if you’re in a group they could be superior. It is located on Abu Baker Al Siddique Road, only a couple of roads up from where the Sheraton Deira is situated.

Most of the apartments contain 2 twin ensuite bedrooms, however there are some with 3 rooms, however I don’t think these over look the airport. Each apartment has a massive living area with plenty of sitting space and a table to eat at and a TV, kitchen and utility area which is full stocked with plates, cutlery and glasses, a cooker and oven, microwave, washing machine, iron and board etc., along with a 3rd toilet in the living area. Most importantly, each apartment also has a balcony, and rooms over looking the airport can be requested. The hotel also has a roof top pool area with sun loungers, tables and chairs, but no bar!

When it comes to spotting, the Nojoum could be considered superior to the Sheraton as it is much better for photography when aircraft are landing over the hotel (despite the Sheraton being closer to the aircraft). However once aircraft change direction you lose the ability for photography, and for those without the help of an sbs box it can be very hard to read things off unless the reg is underneath the wings.

From the rooftop, there is an opportunity to look over the wall towards the airport. You have a clear view of the airport and by using a strong scope things parked on Terminal 2 to the left and Terminal 1 on the right can easily be read off, along with things taxiing along the edge of the airport.

A link to the Nojoum Hotel here: http://www.nojoumhospitality.com

Various enthusiasts sites exist for some of the airports in Scotland which can help in planning a trip to any of them, or in simply finding out what’s been happening up there. We have collated this information for some of the airports:

Glasgow Airport
EGPF.co.uk
Enthusiasts site for Glasgow Airport, with timetables, SBS list, spotting locations and charts, photos, live arrivals & departures, and logs of recent movements.

Prestwick Airport
Prestwick Airport Movements Site
Similar to the Glasgow enthusiasts site, with movements, photos, spotting information, airfield charts and live flight information.

Edinburgh Airport
EGPH.co.uk
A similar site for Edinburgh Airport enthusiasts. Lists frequencies, live flight arrivals & departures, airline information, photos and SBS information.

egphforum.co.uk
A forum for discussing Edinburgh Airport and its operations.

Plane Spotting Hotels website has a nice section on hotels at New York JFK for those wanting spotting views at the airport.

The Holiday Inn and Ramada Plaza hotels are the best options.

The Holiday Inn has distant, but good, views – particuarly for those with telescope poles. Having a SBS is also definitely useful here! Rooms that don’t face JFK have distant views of La Guardia airport, which is also useful if you have a SBS.

From the Ramada, rooms have views of aircraft when landing on runway 13L, but there’s also a grassy bank area a short walk from the hotel with much better views.

First of all, apologies for the lack of updates lately. I’ve been off touring South America – airport reports to follow soon!

Anyway, here’s a note about the Marriott Hotel at Philadelphia Airport. If you’re at the airport spotting, then this is probably the best choice for you.

The Marriott has great views over the airport and movements on all of the runways and a lot of the aprons. Since the hotel is tall, you’re better off going for rooms on floor 10 and above to get the best views.

A recent report (credit Bob Smith) states that the following rooms are the best: 1407-1419, 1429-1439. All of these rooms have views of the main runways, but the latter ones look mainly towards the UPS apron.

Andy Bowden of Plane Spotting Hotels website reports on what is regarded one of the best hotels for aircraft spotting at Singapore’s Changi Airport. He writes…

I would rate this hotel as probably one of the best all round hotels in the world for aircraft viewing and photography. As an added bonus, from the rooms mentioned below the occasional movement from Seleter Airport can seen in the distance. The hotel is situated in an excellent location, connected to terminal 3 at Singapore airport. The hotel is a short walk from the terminal 3 viewing area. The viewing areas on terminal 1 and 2 are a short 5 minute ride on the airport monorail, the station of which is a 2 minute walk from the hotel. The airport restaurants are expensive, however a wide range of food courts, as well as a supermarket can be found in the terminals. If you decide to order room service to allow you to eat and spot a typical American Style breakfast of ham, eggs and hash browns is around £8, a pizza for dinner is around £11.

For the ideal views you require a room on the 7th, 8th or 9th floorending in *02, *04, *06, *08, *09, *10, *11, *12. These rooms give a fantastic view over the right hand runway in front of terminal 3. The hotel corridor is open plan allowing you to walk out of the room into the corridor to see movements on the busy central runway (SBS and a scanner is helpful for you to monitor movements on the central runway as you do need to leave your room to see this runway). At busy times the right hand runway is used for arrivals only, however in moderate to quiet times a mixed mode operation is in force therefore you do require a means of monitoring the central runway to ensure that you do not miss the movements. Be warned, the above rooms all are reported to have the one large queen size bed, therefore if there are 2 of you be prepared to get cosy (or a roll away bed is available for a costly £30 a night). Photos can be taken from the room although the windows are tinted. A 10 second walk from the room will take you to an opening on the outside corridor where superb outdoor shots can be taken (80-200mm for aircraft on the taxiway, 200-400mm for runway shots). Morning to early afternoons are best with the sun behind you. Examples of the view from the rooms can be seen at http://www.plane-spotting-hotels.com/plane_spotting_singapore_airport.htm.

The aim of the rip was to see as many Singapore 777 as possible prior to them withdrawing the older ones. After two and a half days we came away with all but 8. All of the A380′s were seen within the first day and a half. The new A330′s were harder with the final 1 of the 5 seen at lunchtime of the finalday. All A340′s were also seen, these creep in early (0500ish) and depart mid morning, and are away from base for a couple of days due to the length of the flights to New York and LAX.

Things get a little quiet between 1100-1400 giving you the opportunityto wizz into Singapore on the local train (about £2 each way) and see the sights.

A recent report by Paul Moiser from a spotting trip to China gives the following details about the 4-star Ease Hotel in the terminal.

To get to the hotel from where the bus drops you off if coming from Shanghai Hongqiao, walk inside the terminal and take the elevator down to level 1, you will see signs for the Maglev station, walk through to
the maglev station, then take the elevator up to the first floor, you will see their are two hotels joined together via a walkway, being Motel 168 which is a 3 star, and the Ease Hotel which is a 4 star. His room in the Ease Hotel was 8801. It was large, and contained two wide screen TV’s in each corner of the room.

Here’s an official link to the hotel.

The rooms offer superb views of the action. Movements arriving can be read off once they vacate the runway, whilst those taxiing over to T1 taxi right infront of you on the cross taxiway, which seemed to be the main taxiiway.  Aircraft parked on T2 also used the cross taxiiway to taxi out for departure.

Once it goes dark some of the movements using the cross taxiiway can still be read off with a steady hand as its very well lit up. Having an SBS to hand will naturally prove invaluable in the dark.

Visit Paul’s site here http://worldwidephotos.pm.fotopic.net/