If you want to spend time spotting at Atlanta Airport, most spotters know that the Renaissance Concourse is the hotel of choice, with its ideal position alongside the northern perimeter and rooms with balconies facing the action.

However, a lesser-known hotel which is usually much cheaper and still offers good views of aircraft can be found nearby.

This photo of BEST WESTERN PLUS Atlanta Airport-East is courtesy of TripAdvisor

The Best Western Plus – Airport East is located a little further away from the airport, but has rooms offering views of the northern two runways.

Those with an SBS will be able to monitor aircraft on the other runways. If the weather’s clear enough you will be able to see the aircraft approaching and departing the distant runways.

A map of the Best Western Plus Airport East’s location, near runway 26R

Aircraft arriving from the east onto the northern runways can easily be read off from rooms in the *01, *02, *16, *17 range (the higher the better) will have views of the action.

If you’re visiting Houston Hobby Airport, the best hotel at the airport for spotting is the Holiday Inn which can be found at 8611 Airport Blvd.

The hotel has six floors, with floors five and six being good for watching movements if you request a room facing the airport.

Dean Mitchell recently visited the hotel on a spotting trip to Houston and can report that even-numbered rooms ending in 20-44 are at the correct angle for spotters, with the photograph used here showing his view from room 520. These rooms look down runway 04/22 and across to the passenger terminal area.

The hotel has a free car park, and offers free wifi access. There is also a restaurant and bar for guests to use.

Houston Hobby is the city’s smaller airport, located close to the downtown area. It is a busy base for Southwest Airlines, as well as bizjet aircraft. It makes an interesting alternative to the city’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, which is dominated by United Airlines.

To book a room at the Houston Hobby Holiday Inn, click this link. The map here shows the location of the hotel in relation to the airport.

Thanks to Dean Mitchell for this information and picture.

Las Vegas is a great destination for the spotter – McCarran International Airport is one of the busiest in the USA, with a good mix of international and domestic traffic. Plus, the city is a great holiday destination, and many of the big hotels at the southern end of “The Strip” have rooms overlooking part of the airport.

If you’re planning where to stay on your forthcoming trip, here’s a roundup of the best plane spotting hotels at Las Vegas:

Tropicana Hotel
One of the southernmost hotels on The Strip, The Tropicana is situated alongside the airport close to the business ramps and the EG&G (Area 51) terminal. High rooms overlook most of the action, but you’ll be particularly well suited for movements on runways 19L/R. The mesh covering the hotel windows makes photography and viewing a little limited. Even numbered rooms in the Island Tower are good, according to the Plane Spotting Hotels site.

Address: 3801 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Website: www.troplv.com

La Quinta Inn
Although not one of the big casino resort hotels on The Strip which are great for holidays, La Quinta is probably the best for the spotter. High up rooms facing the airport look out onto the runways 25L/R thresholds. These runways are mainly used for takeoffs, with 25L often a landing runway too. Regular binoculars and a 300mm zoom lens should suffice most spotters’ needs.

During the day, the popular spotting location on the southern perimeter is only a ten minute walk from La Quinta.

Address: 6560 Surrey St
Website: www.lq.com

Luxor
The iconic pyramid hotel at the southern end of The Strip has rooms facing the airport on one side of the building. Request a high room (above the Sphinx outside!) facing the airport. You will have a view of runways 19L/R and some of the biz jet ramps, with distant views of movements at the other terminals and on the southern runways. The hotel is not very good for photography, but if you’re a number cruncher with a SBS or Flightradar on you won’t miss many movements.

Address: 3900 S Las Vegas Blvd
Website: www.luxor.com 

Hampton Inn & Suites
Located very close to the La Quinta Inn & Suites (above), the Hampton Inn is part of the Hilton chain. It offers good views from rooms in the x38 to x44 range on the top two floors over the runways 25L/R thresholds, and is a short walk from the airport perimeter.

Address: 6575 South Eastern Avenue
Website: hamptoninn3.hilton.com

Hooters Hotel & Casino
A smaller hotel just behind the Tropicana (see above) is another option. Rooms facing the airport are close enough to see all action on runways 19L/R, and most movements at the airport. Photographs are possible, but not ideal. It is a short walk to the perimeter fence near the biz jet ramps.

Address: 115 E Tropicana Ave
Website: www.hooterscasinohotel.com

The map at the top of the post shows the locations of these hotels around Las Vegas McCarran Airport. Click to enlarge or print it.

The hotel scene in Las Vegas is always changing. If  you have a tip of a good hotel or room to spot aircraft at Las Vegas, please leave a comment below.

A new Holiday Inn hotel has recently opened at London Southend Airport.

Feautring 129 bedrooms, it is ideally situated alongside the new terminal building at the rapidly-expanding Essex airport.

Naturally it also features a range of conference and meeting facilities, and other amenities.

But, in a move that will get enthusiasts’ attention, the hotel features the magnificent, fully sound-proofed, 1935 Rooftop Restaurant & Bar. It can seat over one hundred customers, as they gaze out at the spectacular, panoramic views of the airport and surrounding area. See the headline picture in this post for an idea.

The hotel’s location is perfectly suited for in-room spotting, too. All rooms on the north side of the building (including Standard, Executive, and King Superior rooms) face towards the runway and terminal ramp. So you will not miss any movements.

You can find out more, and book rooms, at the Holiday Inn London Southend Airport from this link.

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

A nice article has appeared in Australia’s The Age newspaper on the subject of Runway Rooms, or hotels with good views of the action at airports.

The article is written by Katrina Lobley, but I had the honour of providing some insight to her on the subject, which is naturally close to my heart and the topic of this blog.

In the piece, some of the best hotels from around the world are described, from Atlanta’s Renaissance Concourse to DFW’s Grand Hyatt airport hotel; St. Maarten’s Sonesta Resort to Dubai’s Sheraton Deira. These are some of my favourite places to spend the night.

You can read the article here: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/runway-rooms-20120816-24b2o.html

Which airport hotels do you love?

Read my guide to Heathrow Spotting Hotels here.

Heathrow is pretty much the most interesting airport in the UK in terms of civil aircraft movements and variety, and I regularly hear people asking for information on the best hotels to stay at for spotting. Well, I’ve put together this handy guide, which you can download here, and also from the link at the top of the page.

Heathrow Spotting Hotels

You can print it out and treat it like a folded leaflet, or just view it on your computer/portable device.

If you’ve got any feedback, please leave a comment below. I’m aiming to produce similar guides for other worldwide airports.

Remember to follow us on Twitter at @airportspotting

A new airport hotel recently opened at East Midlands Airport in the form of a Radisson Blu.

Whilst passing recently, I decided to check out the prospects of this being a place that you can view aircraft movements from.

In case you’re not familiar, East Midlands Airport is one of the UK’s premier cargo airports, and as such becomes a hive of activity during the nighttime hours. Previously, if you wanted to watch the action, your best bet is to slum it with the local boy racers on Diseworth Road, Castle Donington, which leads up to the crash gate and the best views of the runway and cargo ramp.

Although I didn’t stay at the Radisson Blu, it seems from passing that there are indeed plenty of rooms from which you can watch the action. A request when booking or checking in should provide you with an airport-facing room, overlooking the runway and eastern cargo apron (home to UPS, Star Air (Maersk) etc.). You won’t be able to see the main DHL cargo ramp, but everything should pass the window at some point.

The Radisson Blu East Midlands Airport website is http://www.radissonblu.co.uk/hotel-eastmidlandsairport

Let me know if you’ve stayed there. What is the view like? Which rooms are good?

The Sonesta Hotel at Maho Beach has become known as one of the great plane spotting destinations in the world, due mainly to the dramatic low arrivals of huge airliners only inches above peoples’ heads.

The hotel itself has great views, with balconies overlooking these final few seconds of the approach, and also of aircraft lining up for takeoff.

However, the place can be quite expensive. Therefore, you may be surprised to know that there is an alternative for spotting at Sint Maarten.
It is a smallish hotel, with 40 rooms. It includes free internet in guests’ rooms, and on-site restaurants, as well as other nearby shops and restaurants.This is the Travel Inn Hotel at Simpson Bay. It is around 2 miles from the airport terminal

Views from even-numbered rooms on the 2nd floor are the best options as they face east, towards aircraft traffic. You will be able to see aircraft departing the runway and turning right, away from the mountains.

Whilst this is not as close or dramatic as Maho Beach, it is a more affordable option. Plus, it is only a 10 minute drive to the beach, or the Sunset Bar which pipes in ATC over its speakers, and is the spot that most great photographs are taken from.

Book the Travel Inn Hotel at http://www.travelinnhotel.com/

Have you stayed in any other good hotels at St Maarten with views of aircraft movements?

Leipzig has grown into one of Germany (and Europe’s) largest cargo airports. It is the main hub on the continent for DHL Airways and their various subsidiaries and partners, allowing them a central location to receive, process and send on packages from around the world.

Aside from cargo, Leipzig is a moderately busy airport for passenger services, with around 2.3 million passengers passing through each year on domestic, intra-European, and holiday flights.

But naturally the vast majority of movements are those affiliated with DHL, and cargo carriers such as Bluebird, Swiftair, Kalitta, Europe Air Post, Air Atlantique, ABX, RAF Avia, Aerologic, Aviastar etc. This sees a lot of A300, B737, B757, and B777 types, but most interestingly also a lot of AN-12, AN-26 and TU-204 aircraft operating from countries to the east.

Cargo movements are largely between 10pm and 2am, but some operate during the day and it’s often possible to see many aircraft parked up during the day.

Spotting
The best place to spot at Leipzig is the viewing terrace atop the Administration Building next to the terminal. The outdoor terrace is open 24 hours a day, making it ideal for catching those nighttime movements (if a little chilly in winter!). It costs €2.

You can also get good views from the top of the car park.

Hotel
If you want to watch the cargo movements from the comfort of your warm hotel room (with SBS or Flightradar24), try the Globana Airport Hotel. It has rooms facing the airport, but some have restricted views.

Elsewhere
Whilst in Leipzig, remember to look out for the former Interflug IL-18 and TU-134 aircraft at the airport, which are easily seen from the viewing deck. There’s also an IL-62 in the city used as a cafe, and an IL-18 at one of the city’s museums.

DHL Timetable
You can download a handy DHL flight timetable from this link.

Credit goes to Mark Allday for the information in this article.

Whilst visiting Sweden recently, I took the opportunity to spend a night at Stockholm Arlanda’s new novelty item – the Jumbo Hostel!

This Boeing 747-200B was dragged from storage at the airport into a new spot next to a taxiway and the main road to the airport and converted into an upmarket hostel to join the other hotel offerings at Arlanda.

The aircraft (c/n 21162/283) had previously flown with Singapore Airlines (9V-SQE), Pan Am (N727PA), Nationair (C-FNXP), Tower Air (N514DC / N620FF), Air Club International (C-GCIH), Transjet Airways (SE-RBN), and North East Airlines (3D-NEE), before retiring in 2004.

Oscar Diös, a hostel magnate, heard about the aircraft for sale and snapped it up. He set about transforming it by stripping out much of the interior and turning it into a unique hostel.

You can’t really miss the aircraft as it stands high above the road and is visible from the terminal area too. To enter, you climb the steps or use the lift to reach the L1 door. Remember to leave your shoes in the rack at the door as I was told off immediately!

The reception is directly in front of you, next to the original spiral staircase. To the left, in the nose of the aircraft, is the cafeteria area where you can have a drink, watch TV, or have breakfast in the morning (60SEK). To the right, the main cabin of the aircraft has been partitioned into rooms on either side of the central corridor.

I had chosen a single room, however dormitories are available too at less cost, and upstairs they have a suite in the cockpit. I entered my room and was confronted with original overhead lockers (still usable) with their original seat numbers in place (29ABC for my room). There were also a few of the original windows, giving a view out over the massive wing.

The room had a double bed on the bottom, and single bed above, so there is room for two or a family to share. It was very comfortable, and included a TV.

At the rear of the cabin, down the corridor, is an enclosed wash area which sits outside the rear door and has fantastic views over the surrounding. There are also three private toilet/sink/shower rooms for everyone to use which were very clean and had soap dispensers provided. My room had clean towels provided.

Free wireless internet was included (access key is printed on your door key), so once settled it was on with the laptop and Flightradar24 to keep an eye on the evening arrivals at Arlanda. My room on the port side of the aircraft looked out on the distant runway 19L/01R and taxiway which linked it to the cargo ramp/Terminal 2. I could also see some departures from runway 19R after they turned.

The other side of the aircraft has views over the cargo ramp at Arlanda, and part of Terminal 2 and runway 19R/01L.

Breakfast the next morning wasn’t anything special, but it was enough to get me going. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed staying the night in this aircraft.

You can visit their website at www.jumbostay.com

Here are some pictures of the stay:

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