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

CYYZ/YYZ - Toronto - Holiday Inn Express & Suites Toronto Airport South - November 2023

Having just returned from a few days in Toronto, I thought it would be of use to share my observations in respect of a new hotel that has opened at Toronto Airport - It is the Holiday Inn Express - Toronto Airport South, 25 International Boulevard, Toronto. This hotel has only been open a few months.

The hotel is located in a fairly quite industrial area and as such there are not a great deal of places to get to without a vehicle or the need for a 15 mins walk. The hotel is located fairly close to the end of Runway 24L.

The room itself, I had a King Bed Suite Airport View, Room 610 - It had a fantastic view out over the airport from a nice big window and all landings and take offs from both directions on both runways in use could be seen except for the times when a bit of misty rain moved in for a few hours where movements on Runway 23/05 (the furthest runway from the hotel) were sometimes beaten by the weather. Out of these times, the aircraft were fairly well lit up. As is with most Toronto Airport hotels, it wasn't the cheapest but for me it was worth it and I missed very little with the assistance of electronic aids. The rooms can be booked on the IHG website as 'Airport View Rooms'

Hotel & nearby facilities - The hotel serves breakfast both warm and cold. There is no restaurant or bar though ! There is a small shop where crisps and snacks can be purchased. Disappointingly, there is no other facility like a fuel station to walk to to stock up. One plus, there is a rather conveniently located Molson Beer Store located about 10 mins walk South from the hotel. The store opens from 11am - 5pm Saturday and Sunday and 10am - 6pm Monday to Friday. The shops sells beers only and no wine or other soft drinks.The hotel room has a fridge in the room which is handy.

The nearest food places are about 15 mins walk to the North. There is the Arizona Grill Lounge as well as three fast food places, Popeyes, Pita Land and Philthy Phillies just before you get to the Arizona. There are also two aviation themed stores in this same complex, Threshold Aviation and AvWorld as well as a coffee shop.

I will sum up the hotel with the pro's and cons.

Pro's - An excellent hotel in a safe area, I didn't see any undesirables hanging about probably as its not in a residential area. The view from the room is excellent. The sun wasn't in my face all morning and started to appear from about 2pm onwards. If you are an IHG member, you get points for staying.

Cons - No restaurant or bar on site or in close walking distance. If anyone has mobility issues and relies on nearby facilities to walk to, this might not be the hotel for you.Car parking is charged at 15CAD a night but if you have a car, the above mentioned eateries/shops are a very short drive away. 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/vrnwUVnF3y4jLESP8

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 - December 2025

I went to the arrivals area and bought a Ticket from the machine, looking for the bus  that goes  to the Clarion Hotel. This is next-door to where I was staying, comfort airport. On arrival I asked for an airport view, which was no problem. I was allocated 4015.  Any room with an odd number works. The hotel is positioned against the airport fence, but is built in a dog leg shape. I would suggest the best rooms would be 4071 and higher, as these would look down the runways a bit for rather than being parallel . When biz arrived, they turned off short , which meant I then had to walk down to the biz area. This wasn't a real hardship as my needed movements were slow.  The hotel windows are long and thin, and I had a set of double glazed that could be open so I was able to put my ADSB aerial outside. 

The hotel does an included breakfast buffet, and limited food in the evening. No restaurant is available at lunchtime, but there is a small deli selection available for purchase. Drinks especially alcohol was really expensive, but I had stocked up in the duty-free before I left Landon. I did go over to the Clarion to see if that was any different but nothing appeared to happen at lunchtime there either. There is a local Indian/pizza place that was supposed to open from 2 PM till 10 PM but that was also closed. It's probably a reflection on the time of year.  The comfort hotel has views from the restaurant out over the airfield and also a grass area with seating for sunnier days.  

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

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, Zwanenburgbaan (18C/36C) 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.

KJFK/JFK New York JFK - TWA Hotel - March 2023

 If anyone has any additional information on this hotel please let us know for inclusion.
The Hotel is not cheap at approximately USD300 per night (March 2023), whilst most rooms are unlikely to have a view of aircraft It does have an infinity pool and bar on the roof with views over runways 22/04 and the 13/31 threshold. Entry is free for guests and USD25 for non-guests. There is a key drop by the lifts at ground level that was over flowing so I suppose we could have picked up a key card and blagged our way onto the room for free. On the Saturday it was closed for a function until 2pm we could not gain access, we didn’t want to pay the fee on Sunday so we didn’t bother. The visit did allow me to log my first frame of the trip, being the preserved Connie in the lobby.