VOBL/BLR- Bangalore - Quality Inn Rockwell Grand - November 2023

It is constant all day long with the Indian airlines with quite a few Indigo ATRs noted Staying at the Quality Inn Rockwell Grand about three miles from the airport. A north facing room on the top three floors everything will pass right in front of you This is the preferred landing direction, not changed in two days so far. 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7L9p69iQwPZ2G7HU6

Credit Dave Hutt.

YSSY/SYD - Rydges Hotel Sydney - November 2023

Location

I stayed at the Rydges Hotel in October 2023, the hotel is located adjacent to the International terminal with views over part of that terminal and most of the domestic terminal. It is also close to the rail link into the city.

Panoramic view from the room towards the domestic terminal:

We arrived into the domestic terminal and from there the inter terminal transfer bus stops right outside the hotel

At the time, guests were able to get a free transfer on this bus. I'm not sure if this is permanent:

I selected the plane spotter package (guaranteeing an airport view) and as I was with the family I booked an Executive family suite. I was given room 809 which did the job, it is basically a one bedroom suite with a double and two single beds.

This was excellent for spotting regardless of what runway was in use. During my 24 hour stay, aircraft were arriving on 16L (far side) and 16R, right in front from left to right.

The hotel does have a roof top bar although I didn't use it, spotting from the room when I was there. Room service was available and well used.

Some more views from the room below and a room service menu:

 

YBBN/BNE - Brisbane - Pullman - October 2023

Location

The Pullman is one of the only two on-site hotels at Brisbane, a short walk from the Domestic Terminal and adjacent to the Ibis.

Rooms / View

There are ten floors, floor 10 is the executive floor with access to the executive lounge on this floor. I stayed in room 1001 which is a deluxe executive room with two double beds. The room faces south east towards the International Terminal and the approach to 01R / 19L climb out. 

Room plan showing lounge and room location

Inside the lounge

View from the room towards the International terminal

View from the lift lobby, over the car park, towards the north east, 19L and 19R approaches.

Lounge

The lounge is next door to room 1001 with a similar view. It is unattended and I assume open 24/7. I spent several hours there and never saw anyone else apart from the hotel staff topping up the soft drinks and snacks. The lights could be dimmed at night allowing a better view.

The newer runway 01L/19R is behind both the room and the lounge but any action behind can be seen easily as there are windows at all ends of the corridor. While you can see all movements, most of the domestic terminal is obscured.

Summary

The Pullman isn’t cheap, but the facilities and lounge is superb. In addition to the hotel restaurant and room service, there is a reasonably priced restaurant open to all at the Ibis next door. Even without the lounge access, the windows at the end of the corridor will ensure you won’t miss anything on the move.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/76vdyWitALp4ujXE9

KSAN/SAN - San Diego - Wyndham Bayside - October 2023

Stayed here on what was a family holiday. Seemed to be a good location to be near the tourist attractions and still have a good view of SAN.

Was pleasantly surprised as to just how perfect it was for spotting. Booked a 2 Double Bed Premium Room. Asked for a room as high as possible at check in and got the 12th floor (one floor from top?) room 1257.

Although you can’t really see planes on the gates. What you have is a good view as they land on runway 27 ( in over the city ) and the taxiway out to runway 27. If the opposite runway was in use I think viewing would still be good.

In addition you have a view of cargo and the biz jet ramps. In good light and if not too hazy a 300mm lens will give you photos where the bizjet regs are readable, as will a good scope. I couldn’t read them with 10x bins so used my camera as I had no scope with me.

The balcony has no screening from the other rooms so you are visible to anyone else out on theirs.

The room also gave some views out to North Island. ( see photo )

Can’t comment about food / supermarkets as was out and about at times during the day with the family.

Note: the hotel had a limit of up to 3 devices on the WiFi for one room.

The hotel advertises a free hotel shuttle. Which I did not use but it was seen in use.

The main train station is about 10 minutes’ walk away.

We had a hire car and there was a $40 a night charge to park onsite. The only negative thing about the stay IMO.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/wjFz55PNugo1e3gK9

RJTT/HND - Tokyo Haneda - Tokyo Metropolitan Hotel - October 2023

Our base for our stay was the Tokyo Metropolitan Hotel at Tokyo Haneda.  This new 4* hotel is located close to Terminal 3 and was 50% cheaper than  the Royal Park or Villa Fontaine Grand hotels which are next to T3 Rooms between 23 and 31 on floors 8, 9 or 10  give good views of movements but you need to be quick to get the departures from 04/22 so rooms 23/24/25 are probably the best due to the better angle. These rooms are known as the airport view rooms and have a small premium (<£6 per night).

In addition to the obvious spotting from the room option there is a roof top terrace which overlooks the airport which I'm sure you could stay on all day but as the viewing deck at T3 is so close in my view there isn't much point in doing so.

To get there you need to head for the Tenkubashi station, cost <£1 from the airport, on either the Monorail or Kekio line. Close by is the Keikyu Ex Inn which is on the other side of the river and evidently also gives airport views.

The hotel was booked via Bookings.com  and were understanding when we had to request a cancellation for our first nights pre paid booking  at the last moment due to being unable to get on the direct HND flight from LHR.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/8UM8piXtaHeDFx1Z7

HECA/CAI - Cairo - Hilton Heliopolis - September 2023

Located about a terrifying 10 minute Uber ride from the airport, Cairo traffic is sporty at best. The hotel had been selected for us by the customer, and I had no input, nonetheless I had reasonable expectations based on the location. The Hotel is located close to the airport adjacent to the flight path for 05C and R on one side and 05L on the other, it has three wings and is six floor high. Even numbered rooms X022 – X040 ”should” have rooms that face the ramp at Almaza airbase and beyond that, the approach to 05C and R at Cairo. As many will know if you check in using the Hilton app you can select your own room so that was the plan, I had been reserved a king sized room by the customer and the first issue was that there was a limited number of king sized rooms available on each floor and none in the XX22 to XX40 range. At that point wanting to be sure of a room with some sort of a view I selected room 5119 which was at the extreme end of the wing closes to the airport. I arrived at the hotel just after 01:00 Looking out of the window in daylight I realised a couple of things

1)   The Hotel may be six floor high but the buildings around it are 8-10 stories blocking any view I was extremely fortunate that one of the buildings had been demolished leaving a brief view of aircraft on approach, once the replacement building has been built the view will go again. 

2)   The wind was up and therefore there was a lot of sand in the atmosphere, and the approach was only just visible. Fortunately, I was able to make out aircraft landing on 05C but 05R was impossible.    

The Le Meridien hotel on the airport looks like it would be great for spotting, it’s got rooms facing every runway and is connected to the Egyptair terminal by walkway. The lift lobbies and other corridors look to have a lot of glass so I imagine that regardless of the view from your room other runways and airport areas can be seen. 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/9PLjErDJYXC9DDKH7

ENGM/OSL - Oslo - Comfort Hotel RunWay - June 2023

The Comfort Hotel RunWay is located to the west of Oslo Airport. Despite the rooms having extremely small windows, all movements can be seen from here. It is better for photos in the afternoon as the low sun can be a problem in the mornings. The hotel is within walking distance of the Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection and the SAS Museet.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/uHM89xCK2xd5AKiK6

Credit Adam Feasey

EHAM/AMS - Citizen M Amsterdam Schiphol - April 2023

As Citizen M is now owned by Marriott, this may now be of more interest to those who like their Marriott Bonvoy points.
The hotel is a short walk from the terminal and airport facing rooms have a view over the H gates which is where non Schengen low cost carriers park (e.g. EasyJet arrivals from the UK).
The hotel has five floors and you need to be on either floors four or five to get a view. 
The view looks out over the Polderbaan, Aalsmeerbaan and the Buitenveldertbaan runways, so if there landing on the Polderbaan, which is fairly normal, you'll see most arrivals from the room. Otherwise, its a 15 minute walk up to the terraces.
On arrival when checking in, I was given the choice as follows on the kiosk. Even though I selected high floor room it only gave me level three so I needed a bit of human intervention to be reallocated a fifth floor room

https://maps.app.goo.gl/3tFRBhcoCwDvW4yc7

 

The view from the room is below (the blinds do go up)

Food wise, there's a selection available in the hotel bar, but plenty of options as you'd expect in the airport with a supermarket fairly close to the nearest end of the terminal.

MMEX/MEX - Mexico City - Camino Real Hotel - March 2023

We booked a room on the executive floor of the Camino Real Hotel which is adjacent to Terminal 1 at the airport.  The executive room come with access to the lounge which has views over the threshold of runways 22 L/R and the aero Mexico terminal.  As it was only 10:45 when we arrived it was too early to get our room so we spotted from the lounge where aircraft could easily be read off with mini bins. The action was thick and fast and we reverted to old fashioned spotting reading everything off making a full log. 

We were making good numbers and at about 13:00 they let us know that our room 8142 was ready, when we went to it we discovered that it had exactly the same view as the lounge and after a small discussion with the lounge staff they showed us room 8154 which had views out over the runways and the storage areas.  We perceived this to be better and switched.  Happily we were able to count the airframes in this storage area outside the perimeter and it tallied with the numbers in planebase which saved the time and complexity of getting an uber to this area.  Any room in the X150-x155 range should work.  The executive lounge comes with “snacks” or a full meal in the evening so there was no need to venture off the 8^th floor for the duration of the stay.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7paD3RvDGEQeVqFv9

Above: view from the lounge.

Above: view from room 8154.