Jaunted

2006 Awards: Best Domestic Airport

12/29/2006 at 9:56 AM
Tags: 2006 Jaunted Travel Awards, Airports (all tags)

We can find giant, sleek airports a bit romantic so long as they work properly. It comes with the territory when you love to travel. But most of the time we prefer the embrace of a good midsize airport that offers us less hassle and decent facilities. And sometimes taxidermy, but that's actually a separate category for which we do not have time.

That's why Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, CA, won us over this year, with its glorious balance of form, function, and understated decadence. It's small enough to feel, well, small, but big enough that it qualifies as an actual airport (stores inside, room to stretch out, plugs for your laptop) and you can drive to BUR without ever setting tire on the traffic infested freeways of LA. Check-in and security move swiftly, you can easily walk from car rental return to gate check, and you've even got a good chance of celeb-spotting there. Besides, where else can you board an airplane while looking out over the hills of Southern California.