Which European cities have the least stressful airports?
March 9, 2025 10:36 AM Subscribe
Travel advice for someone who panicks in airports
I love France but if I ever have to go in CDG airport again I may die.
Are there ways to reach Europe from Montreal and not land in a kafkaesque hellscape?
I would like to plan a 2-week trip to France this May, but as it's meant to be a vacation, I would like to avoid traumatic airport experiences. But I'm also open to other countries if their airports are nice!
I love France but if I ever have to go in CDG airport again I may die.
Are there ways to reach Europe from Montreal and not land in a kafkaesque hellscape?
I would like to plan a 2-week trip to France this May, but as it's meant to be a vacation, I would like to avoid traumatic airport experiences. But I'm also open to other countries if their airports are nice!
I cannot give a positive answer (sorry) but I CAN tell you to avoid Frankfort airport like the plague. absolute worst airport experience in my life.
posted by supermedusa at 10:43 AM on March 9 [4 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 10:43 AM on March 9 [4 favorites]
seconding Schiphol, where you can get the eurostar straight from inside the airport to Paris Gare du Nord, it takes 3.3 hrs. You do need to reserve in advance, though.
It is annoying to lengthen your international trip by that long though... Roissy airport near Paris is not as bad, though i'm not sure if they have airlines flying to Montreal.
posted by PardonMyFrench at 10:51 AM on March 9 [1 favorite]
It is annoying to lengthen your international trip by that long though... Roissy airport near Paris is not as bad, though i'm not sure if they have airlines flying to Montreal.
posted by PardonMyFrench at 10:51 AM on March 9 [1 favorite]
If you like art and/or think it might help against panic, the aforementioned Schiphol offers both a Rijksmuseum exhibit and some larger pieces of art.
posted by demi-octopus at 10:54 AM on March 9
posted by demi-octopus at 10:54 AM on March 9
Copenhagen also has directs from Montreal, and it is a straightforward airport (with a high rate of English fluency). Trains do leave from the airport but they’re likely better for getting to Sweden or Germany.
Second the no on Frankfurt, and I’d add Heathrow to that list (particularly because you’d have to get to the city center to take a train to Paris).
posted by nat at 11:13 AM on March 9
Second the no on Frankfurt, and I’d add Heathrow to that list (particularly because you’d have to get to the city center to take a train to Paris).
posted by nat at 11:13 AM on March 9
I've always liked Stockholm Arlanda. Small and very easy connection to Stockholm via train.
posted by BungaDunga at 11:13 AM on March 9 [1 favorite]
posted by BungaDunga at 11:13 AM on March 9 [1 favorite]
I flew into Dusseldorf once, and found it pretty chill as international airports go. I speak nary a word of German, had no difficulty.
Second the "not Heathrow." Heathrow is awful.
posted by humbug at 11:16 AM on March 9 [3 favorites]
Second the "not Heathrow." Heathrow is awful.
posted by humbug at 11:16 AM on March 9 [3 favorites]
Oh my God, it's Cork. By a mile. We have one security area with three conveyor belts. If you are running late, the people at the front will always let you skip. Plastic bags are provided. Everyone is nice. No gate is further than 4 minutes. It's the TF Green of Europe.
It doesn't do trans-Atlantic though. If you are flying in from overseas, the easiest airport in my experience is Reykjavik. It isn't small but it is leisurely and SO chill.
CDG and LHR are horrendous and I say that as a disabled traveler who is getting literal door to door service the entire way through and all I have to do is survive and hand over my passport now and then. No thank you, do not want.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:18 AM on March 9 [3 favorites]
It doesn't do trans-Atlantic though. If you are flying in from overseas, the easiest airport in my experience is Reykjavik. It isn't small but it is leisurely and SO chill.
CDG and LHR are horrendous and I say that as a disabled traveler who is getting literal door to door service the entire way through and all I have to do is survive and hand over my passport now and then. No thank you, do not want.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:18 AM on March 9 [3 favorites]
Zurich always seemed very relaxed to me. Train station inside the airport directly in the arrivals zone. Swiss efficiency ftw
posted by el_presidente at 11:26 AM on March 9 [5 favorites]
posted by el_presidente at 11:26 AM on March 9 [5 favorites]
Air Transat flies Montreal to Lyon and Montreal to Marseille. I don't know their airports, but they must be less fraught than Paris's.
posted by zadcat at 11:41 AM on March 9
posted by zadcat at 11:41 AM on March 9
Do you want to throw money at this problem? Google "airport concierge service" for details but you can basically pay for an escort through the airport. My basic research shows that Air France does this at CDG for 400€ per person.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:50 AM on March 9 [2 favorites]
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:50 AM on March 9 [2 favorites]
Nice is extremely chill.
posted by socky_puppy at 11:50 AM on March 9 [1 favorite]
posted by socky_puppy at 11:50 AM on March 9 [1 favorite]
2nd Zurich - reliably fast to get through, get luggage and get out - I’ve gone from taxiing to boarding a train in half an hr more than once, even arriving from outside Schengen. Train station is under the building.
I am a bit surprised by the number of times Schiphol has been recommended, if for no other reason than that you walk for miles and even after walking for ever I still had to wait a long time for my bag afterwards every time.
posted by koahiatamadl at 12:12 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]
I am a bit surprised by the number of times Schiphol has been recommended, if for no other reason than that you walk for miles and even after walking for ever I still had to wait a long time for my bag afterwards every time.
posted by koahiatamadl at 12:12 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]
I was at Reykjavik this morning (6:30am) and didn't find it chill at all - the security line was so busy that people were blocking the top of the escalator and causing quite a dangerous situation. It seems like many, many flights leave in the early morning there and this contributed to the chaos. A flight after 9am might be more chill.
It's true that sometimes you need to walk quite a way at Schiphol but overall I agree with other commenters that it's fairly relaxed and orderly. They have a feature where you can book a time to go to through security which also helps when departing (free of charge)
posted by unlaced at 12:56 PM on March 9
It's true that sometimes you need to walk quite a way at Schiphol but overall I agree with other commenters that it's fairly relaxed and orderly. They have a feature where you can book a time to go to through security which also helps when departing (free of charge)
posted by unlaced at 12:56 PM on March 9
Try Schiphol? ... Pretty sure you could take the train into Amsterdam Centraal and get a TGV to Paris pretty easily, and then you’re in Paris less than 3 hrs later.
Better than that, you can go directly from Schiphol to Paris, which saves the 20m trip into Amsterdam and back out past the airport. Its about 3h10m from airport to Paris Nord. However, I would say, my last trip into Schiphol found it pretty busy, with queues to get through customs etc.
posted by biffa at 1:14 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]
Better than that, you can go directly from Schiphol to Paris, which saves the 20m trip into Amsterdam and back out past the airport. Its about 3h10m from airport to Paris Nord. However, I would say, my last trip into Schiphol found it pretty busy, with queues to get through customs etc.
posted by biffa at 1:14 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]
Helsinki airport, with its heavy use of wood and its sauna, gets my vote.
posted by rongorongo at 1:23 PM on March 9 [3 favorites]
posted by rongorongo at 1:23 PM on March 9 [3 favorites]
So, good news and bad news:
The good news is that the Wikipedia page for Montreal airport here indicates that there are a lot of cities you can fly to nonstop from Montreal which are simpler than Paris CDG, have mainline or suburban railway access inside the terminal that allows a one-change journey to Paris (or indeed other French cities!), and are interesting on their own, including the aforementioned Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Lyon, Milan Malpensa, and, further afield, Rome and Zurich.
Toulouse’s airport also has direct flights from Montreal but is only linked to its rail station by tram. Depending on whether seasonal flights have started by the time in May you’re flying, you could also fly nonstop to bus-to-the-train-station Marseille, Nantes, and Basel, tram-to-the-train station Bordeaux, or ten-minute-walk-to-a-secondary-train-station or bus-to-the-main-station Nice. Be aware that because these airports don’t have an in-terminal mainline railway station, you are relying on a third provider, the local transit authority, as well as your airline and the mainline rail operator, if you’re aiming to reach another city like Paris the same day.
The bad news is that SNCF, the French national rail operator, makes just about every long-distance train reservation-only, meaning you would need to travel on an exact train in an exact seat from all the cities I mentioned above to Paris. This is a problem because if Paris is your destination and your flight to the other city is late, you risk an expensive or even impossible intercity journey, since you can’t stand on a TGV and compensation for delayed trains varies from country to country as explained on this page from the EU. More about the requirement to reserve seats on long-distance French trains can be found on the excellent Seat 61 site here.
If I was wedded to starting and ending in Paris, I would take French Bee from Montreal nonstop to Paris Orly airport. This is a flight that begins on April 30 so should work for your dates, and then just take line 14 of the Paris Metro into town instead.
Another alternative is to fly to CDG with a through-booked plane-to-TGV ticket, using the in-airport TGV station to reach some places outside Paris without needing to go into the city itself, like Avignon or Strasbourg. Airline websites and search engines like Google Flights will display this as if it is a multi-stop flight, showing something like Montreal-CDG-Dijon-Lyon-Avignon, but the CDG-Avignon segments are all on the same train, and will display with something like “SNCF for AccesRail 9106” as if it were a flight number with only a few minutes between segments (you do not, of course, have to disembark and re-board each time). There’s no TGV station at Paris Orly, though, and Accesrail tickets are not necessarily the cheapest you can get on the TGV.
Good luck!
posted by mdonley at 1:26 PM on March 9 [4 favorites]
The good news is that the Wikipedia page for Montreal airport here indicates that there are a lot of cities you can fly to nonstop from Montreal which are simpler than Paris CDG, have mainline or suburban railway access inside the terminal that allows a one-change journey to Paris (or indeed other French cities!), and are interesting on their own, including the aforementioned Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Lyon, Milan Malpensa, and, further afield, Rome and Zurich.
Toulouse’s airport also has direct flights from Montreal but is only linked to its rail station by tram. Depending on whether seasonal flights have started by the time in May you’re flying, you could also fly nonstop to bus-to-the-train-station Marseille, Nantes, and Basel, tram-to-the-train station Bordeaux, or ten-minute-walk-to-a-secondary-train-station or bus-to-the-main-station Nice. Be aware that because these airports don’t have an in-terminal mainline railway station, you are relying on a third provider, the local transit authority, as well as your airline and the mainline rail operator, if you’re aiming to reach another city like Paris the same day.
The bad news is that SNCF, the French national rail operator, makes just about every long-distance train reservation-only, meaning you would need to travel on an exact train in an exact seat from all the cities I mentioned above to Paris. This is a problem because if Paris is your destination and your flight to the other city is late, you risk an expensive or even impossible intercity journey, since you can’t stand on a TGV and compensation for delayed trains varies from country to country as explained on this page from the EU. More about the requirement to reserve seats on long-distance French trains can be found on the excellent Seat 61 site here.
If I was wedded to starting and ending in Paris, I would take French Bee from Montreal nonstop to Paris Orly airport. This is a flight that begins on April 30 so should work for your dates, and then just take line 14 of the Paris Metro into town instead.
Another alternative is to fly to CDG with a through-booked plane-to-TGV ticket, using the in-airport TGV station to reach some places outside Paris without needing to go into the city itself, like Avignon or Strasbourg. Airline websites and search engines like Google Flights will display this as if it is a multi-stop flight, showing something like Montreal-CDG-Dijon-Lyon-Avignon, but the CDG-Avignon segments are all on the same train, and will display with something like “SNCF for AccesRail 9106” as if it were a flight number with only a few minutes between segments (you do not, of course, have to disembark and re-board each time). There’s no TGV station at Paris Orly, though, and Accesrail tickets are not necessarily the cheapest you can get on the TGV.
Good luck!
posted by mdonley at 1:26 PM on March 9 [4 favorites]
You can fly directly into Lyon and the Lyon airport is super chill and pretty small. There is a train (Rhône Express) that takes you from the airport to the center of the city.
posted by newsomz at 1:30 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]
posted by newsomz at 1:30 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]
I was just in Vienna last fall and found the airport there pretty manageable.
posted by ActionPopulated at 1:42 PM on March 9
posted by ActionPopulated at 1:42 PM on March 9
I don't know if it's an option for your end destination but Ireland's Shannon Airport is pretty easy in my experience and takes transatlantic flights.
posted by zippy at 2:39 PM on March 9 [1 favorite]
posted by zippy at 2:39 PM on March 9 [1 favorite]
Came to suggest Schiphol as others have. I don’t know why suggestions like Cork and Helsinki are being made for someone heading to France and trying to avoid airports? Ask me feels like it has bots these days with the bizarre answers.
posted by Iteki at 2:41 PM on March 9 [3 favorites]
posted by Iteki at 2:41 PM on March 9 [3 favorites]
Bordeaux airport is small and manageable, appears to have seasonal direct flights on Air Transat at least. It's not awesome, but it's okay and definitely not CDG.
I travelled with my sister last year, she has mobility issues and needs assistance. Her verdict: she came back with a strong dislike of CDG, big praise for Schiphol. Schiphol staff were super nice and efficient at moving us from place to place (it is definitely one giant airport), even the Schengen exit official was a nice guy.
posted by gimonca at 3:45 PM on March 9 [1 favorite]
I travelled with my sister last year, she has mobility issues and needs assistance. Her verdict: she came back with a strong dislike of CDG, big praise for Schiphol. Schiphol staff were super nice and efficient at moving us from place to place (it is definitely one giant airport), even the Schengen exit official was a nice guy.
posted by gimonca at 3:45 PM on March 9 [1 favorite]
Lisbon! They do shuttle you to and from your plane in a bus but otherwise it’s super chill. Basically the same distance from the US east coast as California.
posted by capricorn at 5:30 PM on March 9
posted by capricorn at 5:30 PM on March 9
And yeah Reykjavik has no chill whatsoever. Iceland as a country yes, top 10 in chill, KEF no. They stack flight departures so that you have to sprint across the airport after you get through customs, and since they’re non EU you always have to go through customs.
posted by capricorn at 5:32 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]
posted by capricorn at 5:32 PM on March 9 [2 favorites]
What about the direct flight from YUL to NTE? 6.5hrs, no layovers at all. Via Porter/Transat.
posted by aramaic at 6:06 PM on March 9
posted by aramaic at 6:06 PM on March 9
I came in here mostly in support of your assessment of CDG. It is the worst airport in the galaxy. The signage was clearly designed by a committee consisting of clowns, fools and sadists.
I recall having pleasant experiences (while on stressful work trips) at the airports in Copenhagen and Lisbon, the latter of which was extremely chill and easy. Disclaimer: my data is from > 10 years ago.
posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only at 7:20 PM on March 9
I recall having pleasant experiences (while on stressful work trips) at the airports in Copenhagen and Lisbon, the latter of which was extremely chill and easy. Disclaimer: my data is from > 10 years ago.
posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only at 7:20 PM on March 9
I've seen Orly called "the BUR to CDG's LAX" which, if you know your southern California airports, you know what high praise that is.
posted by potrzebie at 7:56 PM on March 9
posted by potrzebie at 7:56 PM on March 9
Generally, any airport in any smaller city in France will be much, much better than CDG, which seems made for a Jaques Tati movie. Geneva is also nice, and almost France, as is Barcelona (though I'd make a stop-over in Barcelona rather than go directly to France from the airport). Zürich is a bit far away from France, but very nice and well-managed.
The thing about Shiphol is that it is Europe's biggest airport, and though it is very well designed and managed, and going from plane to train is super-easy, there are still tens of thousands of humans at every given moment and transfers aren't as easy as getting out of the airport.
You don't say where you plan to go in France, but Lyon is very practical for both Paris, the south and the mountains.
posted by mumimor at 12:56 AM on March 10
The thing about Shiphol is that it is Europe's biggest airport, and though it is very well designed and managed, and going from plane to train is super-easy, there are still tens of thousands of humans at every given moment and transfers aren't as easy as getting out of the airport.
You don't say where you plan to go in France, but Lyon is very practical for both Paris, the south and the mountains.
posted by mumimor at 12:56 AM on March 10
Brussels is a bit smaller than Schiphol, and also has a train station, but you'll have to change in Brussels-Midi to get to Paris.
posted by Karmeliet at 3:02 AM on March 10
posted by Karmeliet at 3:02 AM on March 10
I was coming back to mention Brussels! An hour closer to Paris, but you need to change trains as Karmeliet says, but its only a ~20 minute ride from the airport to the city. Brussels Midi station is a pretty easy place to change. Do bear in mind that they often use the French and Flemish names of cities interchangeably, which can be quite confusing.
posted by biffa at 3:40 AM on March 10
posted by biffa at 3:40 AM on March 10
Lyon airport is pretty chill, and as a bonus, Lyon is a beautiful city with amazing food and well worth spending time in. If you're not wedded to going to Actual Paris (and even if you are - it's only a couple of hours from Lyon to Paris via TGV) it'd be a great place to start a France trip.
posted by altolinguistic at 7:41 AM on March 10
posted by altolinguistic at 7:41 AM on March 10
Geneva. Small (just one main terminal) and pleasant. Pretty to fly into. Easy to get to a lot of destinations in France, and has been cheaper than Lyons in my recent experience.
posted by CheeseLouise at 7:49 AM on March 10
posted by CheeseLouise at 7:49 AM on March 10
Marseille airport is outside the city, very small and manageable and the train station is literally within sight but you can’t walk there. There’s a free shuttle bus that is supposed to be more frequent but I waited an hour.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:15 AM on March 10
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:15 AM on March 10
I don’t know why suggestions like Cork and Helsinki are being made for someone heading to France and trying to avoid airports? Ask me feels like it has bots these days with the bizarre answers.
Because the OP said they were open to traveling to countries other than France, assuming the airports are chill.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:32 AM on March 10 [1 favorite]
Because the OP said they were open to traveling to countries other than France, assuming the airports are chill.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:32 AM on March 10 [1 favorite]
Tallinn airport in Estonia is small and positively lovely - I see it’s even marketing itself as “the world’s cosiest airport.”
Unfortunately it doesn’t look to have any direct US flights but I’ll mention it in case you find yourself wanting to bounce around Europe to charming airports.
(If you do, I can also recommend Beziers in France, not because it’s charming, just because it’s tiny and thus extremely simple).
posted by penguin pie at 10:14 AM on March 10 [1 favorite]
Unfortunately it doesn’t look to have any direct US flights but I’ll mention it in case you find yourself wanting to bounce around Europe to charming airports.
(If you do, I can also recommend Beziers in France, not because it’s charming, just because it’s tiny and thus extremely simple).
posted by penguin pie at 10:14 AM on March 10 [1 favorite]
Question: can you clarify the aspects that you find most stressful? Check-in and security process for departure, immigration and baggage collection for arrival, figuring out ground transit connections, something else?
CDG - I used to actively avoid it, same as you, but last time I transferred through there (maybe 18 months ago?) I was pleasantly surprised. They have done some remodeling work that made it easier to navigate and a nicer experience overall.
Schiphol - clear layout and easy to navigate, but budget plenty of time especially if making a transfer. It's a large physical space and I have had trouble with long immigration lines when making connecting flights.
London Gatwick - so much easier to deal with than Heathrow. Has a direct train link to St. Pancras Station where you can connect with Eurostar routes to mainland Europe.
Lisbon - I fly here regularly and strongly disagree that this airport is chill. The arrivals process is generally fine but departures are prone to long lines, delays, and a general atmosphere of chaos.
Dublin - Easy to navigate, manageable size, and good flight connections to mainland Europe. Downside is that getting to mainland Europe requires a connecting flight (not counting the ferry route to France).
posted by 4rtemis at 10:22 AM on March 10
CDG - I used to actively avoid it, same as you, but last time I transferred through there (maybe 18 months ago?) I was pleasantly surprised. They have done some remodeling work that made it easier to navigate and a nicer experience overall.
Schiphol - clear layout and easy to navigate, but budget plenty of time especially if making a transfer. It's a large physical space and I have had trouble with long immigration lines when making connecting flights.
London Gatwick - so much easier to deal with than Heathrow. Has a direct train link to St. Pancras Station where you can connect with Eurostar routes to mainland Europe.
Lisbon - I fly here regularly and strongly disagree that this airport is chill. The arrivals process is generally fine but departures are prone to long lines, delays, and a general atmosphere of chaos.
Dublin - Easy to navigate, manageable size, and good flight connections to mainland Europe. Downside is that getting to mainland Europe requires a connecting flight (not counting the ferry route to France).
posted by 4rtemis at 10:22 AM on March 10
Nthing Geneva airport. It's small, within Schengen, has direct flights from Montreal, and has a train station in the basement. I think you probably have to change in Geneva Cournavin (in Geneva city centre) to go to most places in France, but that should also be fairly painless.
posted by scorbet at 10:03 AM on March 11
posted by scorbet at 10:03 AM on March 11
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posted by Lawn Beaver at 10:38 AM on March 9 [18 favorites]