East Midlands Airport

This is our closest airport but sadly the destinations that you can go to from here are a little limited so we very rarely fly from here. Ryan Air have started flying from here and they cater for a few more destinations, including flights to Krakow and so luckily we could make use of our handy little local airport for this last trip of ours.

We booked our car into the long stay car park which is actually on site not that far from the short stay one actually. This cost us about £22 for the four days so it was hardly worth asking one of the children to drop us and collect us especially as we were arriving back quite late on Wednesday night and they all work.

So we arrived at the airport and turned left at the roundabout instead of going straight one. We found long stay car park 1 and drove in. You have to take a ticket from the machine and then a machine takes your number plate and it is printed onto the parking ticket. You can just drive in and pay as you leave but that is more expensive than paying in advance.

You park your car, lock it up and then take your keys as you would in any normal day car park. It is then a very short walk across to the Departure terminal. On your return you just walk back to your car and drive to the exit putting in the ticket you collected from the machine on the way in. Then off you head for home.

Ryan Air check in is in the first part that you come to but if you have checked in on line and got a boarding pass and have not luggage to check in then you can skip that bit and go straight through to security.

Security here is so much more friendly than any other airport we have been through recently ( except Aitutaki where there was none). WE were reminded in a friendly way to check our pockets and then as I had boots with heels I had to take them off. The lady asked so nicely and commented on how comfortable my shoes looked, smiling and generally pleasant.

The chap on the scanner chatted to my husband and asked where he was going which I thought was extra nice until my husband told me that he was one of the men he plays golf with! But even so the staff were efficient without being unpleasant. I remember last time we went through security here was with my step daughter and family going to Crete and they had a box of juice. They allowed the boys to drink it there rather than grabbing it from them and being nasty about it as I have seen some officials being elsewhere.
Once through security then you can sit in one of the cafes or bars and there are a few to choose from. This comes at a price as two cups of tea and two bottles of water cost just under £8. The bottles of water I think is naughty as the same bottles I can buy from Tesco at 6 bottles for £2 or under. Here I got 2 bottles for that price on a deal as they were £1.60 each!! So annoying as you HAVE to buy it on the other side of security so they have a captive audience.

Most of the departure gates from 8 to the rest are through the main Duty Free shop and all along here you can sit and loo our of the planes landing and taking off or visit the books shops or other expensive gifty type shops around. The gates below number 8 are before the Duty free shop and then through back corridors and all that is around there are cafes really.

It is quite a pleasant airport as it is light and you can see outside so you do know what is happening outside as to the weather and how light or dark it is. There isn't a huge number of shops but there are enough to fill in a few minutes wandering up and down between reading and having a drink.

One thing that other British airports could take a lesson from is that they give you 30 minutes free wifi. You have to log on with your name and email and flight number. If you want longer than it is at a cost but I am not sure what price as 30 minutes was enough for me to read a few reviews.

There are a number of 'entertainment 'areas with electronic games and ride on things for children. There is also a table with lego I remember spending some time enjoying on my last visit. There are places with other things for children so it is quite child friendly as far as airports can be.

The other thing I like is because it is quite small you don't have to walk for miles to get to any gate at all. The Easy Jet planes leave from the furthest gates as far as I remember but even they are only a ten minute walk away and that is going pretty slowly.

If you are picking someone up you do get about ten minutes free parking in the short stay car park and certainly enough time to drop someone off with their cases pretty close to the Departure terminal. If you stay too long in this car park it quickly adds up though so be careful.

Buses leave from here and will take you to East Midlands parkway station to ge the train connections or they also go Derby, Leicester and Nottingham should you not have anyone to collect you. You can also get connecting coaches from here to Heathrow, Luton and Gatwick that I know of and presumably Birmingham and Manchester Airports too but I am not sure of them. I do know the Heathrow Luton and Gatwick connections as we used these to put our children on when we were not able to drive them there ourselves.

This is a handy little airport that caters mainly for European and popular holiday destinations. They offer more routes in the summer season than they do in the winter time though. The airlines that go from here tend to be the Ryan Air, Easy Jet BMI baby, Thomson and that ilk rather than the big international airlines like Qantas, BA, KLM and so on.

If you live in the East midlands area this is certainly an airport to think about when planning your trip as it is remarkable easy to get to and has easy on site long term parking very close to the terminal.

Thanks for reading. This review may be posted on other sites under my same user name.
©Catsholiday