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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Australia Travel / Qantas / Sydney Travel / → All Tags

Take a Dip at This Beach Down Under for the Best Plane Spotting

Headed down under? While it's the thick of winter in our hemisphere, they've got the sun of summer coming down on beaches like the ones at Botany Bay, which happen to be positioned within awesome viewing proximity to the jet action at Sydney's Kingsford-Smith Airport.

Pack your camera, swimsuit and towel and head to the following prime spots to catch A380s landing and taking off, and a whole slew of Qantas planes. After the jump!

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Washington DC Travel / DCA / Airports / → All Tags

The Best Plane Spotting Happens Just Outside Of DC's Restricted Airspace

Lately in our series of stories on the best places to plane spot, we've focused on warm weather destinations, but some of us won't be taking tropical trips this winter and maybe still want to check out a little aviation action on our home turf. So we turn to Washington DC's Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA), located in Arlington, Virginia, but still within sight of the Capitol and the Washington Monument.

DCA is a plane spotters dream; it has a park with scenic views to the city, over the water, and onto the airport right at the end of the runway. This is Gravelly Point Park, and those biking the paths or picnicking on the grass are usually all here for the same reason: a little outdoors activity on a nice day, with the additional benefit of watching the mostly domestic flights zoom a few hundred feet above them and then make a left turn to avoid restricted airspace over DC.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / St Lucia Field Trip / St Lucia Travel / Caribbean Travel / Islands / Island Travel / → All Tags

A Beach, A Banana, And A Flight From Britain: Plane Spotting In St. Lucia

Seeing as how it's been a little bit since last we focused on the lovely pastime of plane spotting, we decided to turn our recent Saint Lucia island experience into some useful (not to mention scenic) plane spotting advice for when you too are on the island.

Whether you're heading down on the new Jetblue flight from New York-JFK like we did, or coming all the way from London-Gatwick on the direct Virgin Atlantic flight, you'll want to get a load of the air traffic that sporadically makes its way into St. Lucia's Hewanorra airport at the very southernmost tip of the island, and here's how...

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Alitalia / Venice Travel / Italy Travel / → All Tags

'Marco?' 'Polo!' Hop A Boat To Plane-Spot In Venice

If you know anything about Venice, you know that it is a city built on water, so it's quite fitting that the perfect location for plane spotting is onboard a boat. But not just any boat, we're talking about the water taxis between Venice's Marco Polo Airport and Venice proper. The airport sits on marsh land right on the coast, while the tourist-filled portion is out in the middle of the lagoon.

Going between the airport and the city of Venice therefore means taking either a private boat or the Alilaguna Waterbus right underneath the paths of arriving and departing flights. While you rock on the waves of other speeding water taxis passing by, you can look up at airplanes from carriers like Alitalia and other major carriers. Smaller LCC airlines like Jaunted personal favorite Germanwings sadly won't be found here, but at Treviso Airport.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / San Diego Travel / San Diego / SAN / Southwest Airlines / → All Tags

Plane-Spotting In San Diego Could Become A Literal Kiss-And-Fly

Plane spotting everything from legacy carriers to LCCs isn't all that difficult outside of San Diego International Airport with the hilly terrain, but there's one specific spot that lines up so well with the end of one of the runways that we simply must tell you about it. It's a parking garage.

Specifically, it's Aladdin's Parking Garage, at Kettner Boulevard and West Laurel Street, and it's a multi-level airport parking structure situated so perfectly for watching the activity on the runways at the airport. That said, the parking garage doesn't particularly like their reputation as a prime plane spotting location, and there are signs warning of "no loitering." But until they put up signs that warn "no making out," we'll keep coming back for a little literal Kiss-and-Fly.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Dubai Travel / DXB / Emirates / → All Tags

Plane-Spot In Private From Dubai's JW Marriott Hotel

As much as we would have loved to have a video of a plane landing over the JW Marriott Hotel in Dubai in this story, it seems as though there is a serious dearth of photos and videos from plane spotters at DXB-Dubai International Airport. So let us then recommend a spot at which to make some: the aforementioned JW Marriott Hotel.

By requesting a room facing the runways, which usually run around $250 per night, you will get for yourself a truly awesome view of takeoffs and landings at the neighboring airport. The hotel sits at the end of a runway, so you won't feel as though you are sleeping at the airport, and it's luxurious enough to banish all thoughts of airport concessions. The key, however, is in asking for that runway-facing room without seeming suspicious.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Toronto / Toronto Travel / Air Canada / Restaurants / Porter Airlines / YYZ / → All Tags

Drive-Thru For A Fast Food Lunch And A 747 Landing

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

On the Pacific coast of Canada, in Vancouver, there is a jetty ideally situated for watching landing planes. On almost the other side of the North American continent in Toronto, it's a Wendy's fast food restaurant that makes for the perfect lookout.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Stockholm / Stockholm Travel / Airplane News / Hostels / Airplanes / → All Tags

Nothing's Sweder Than Plane Spotting Straight From A Cockpit

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

Where is better for plane spotting than actually being on the airport's tarmac...or better yet, in a honeymoon suite on the tarmac? This actually became possible less than a year ago, when the Jumbo Hostel opened at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport.

This decommissioned 747 has had its seats ripped out in favor of installing 25 bedroom suites, complete with free wireless internet access and flatscreen TVs, and, for most rooms, full en-suite bathrooms. Even Singapore Airlines' A380 first class suites can't compare with these, but then the Jumbo Hostel no longer flies, so there's that.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Alaska Travel / Alaska Air / Ski Travel / → All Tags

Cross-Country Ski Beneath Anchorage's Air Traffic

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

It's cold and it's snowy and you just want to stay inside with a nice steamy mug of hot chocolate. Gosh, how we long for days like that while the weather is muggy like now. But in Alaska, the hot chocolate days are long and you've got plenty of time to get our your cross-country skis for a little winter weather plane spotting at Anchorage International Airport.

In fact, two accessible parks bookend the airport, so you've got your pick of views. For the more active, we recommend the larger Kincaid Park, also known to be one of the USA's premier cross-country ski destinations with 16.5 miles of trails. And you can see in the video above how close your encounter with air traffic will be.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / British Airways / Gibraltar Travel / → All Tags

Yield To Landing Planes On The Road Between Gibraltar And Spain

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

We may have made it 'round to most of the world's itty-bitty countries and territories, but Gibraltar still eludes us. The Rock, which is not part of Spain but sits on the Iberian peninsula, is a self-governed British territory famous for peculiarities like their wild monkeys, mishmash of language and cuisine, and crazy insane airport runway positioning.

You see, Gibraltar's tiny airport straddles the border between Spain and Gibraltar, and juts out into the ocean because of the lack of land. The single road that runs between the two countries runs right across the main runway, by necessity, and as a result, the road must be closed during plane takeoffs and landings.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Virgin America / YVR / Vancouver Travel / → All Tags

Get Thee To The Jetty: Perfect Plane Spotting In Vancouver

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

With all the recent talk of Virgin America possibly setting up some routes to both Vancouver and Toronto, we thought it'd be nice to take a look at what people are seeing from ground now at Vancouver International Airport (YVR).

Sea, mountains, and a neverending stream of international jumbo jets and itty-bitty island-hoppers make Vancouver Airport truly interesting to both amateur and serious plane spotters. The best place to set up shop, or even just go for a leisurely stroll underneath landing planes, is on the Iona Jetty at Iona Beach Park. It is actually a sewage outflow pipe, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the experience.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / LHR / A380 / London Travel / → All Tags

Picnicking and A380 Plane Spotting At London-Heathrow

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

Alright, let's talk Airbus A380s for a moment. They are currently like the holy grail of airplanes to be spotted, and although it is totally possible to watch the behemoths during takeoffs and landings as well as on the tarmac, maneuvering their butts around, you've got to do some planning to catch them.

To spot them in action, we recommend popping a squat with your camera outside of London-Heathrow Airport's nearby Tube stop at Hatton Cross. As well as a parking lot and easy connection to the city by underground train, Hatton Cross has a grassy area where diehard plane spotters already spend their weekends propping their telephoto lens-cameras up on tripods and drinking milk tea from a thermos.

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