So last October I went on Holiday to Turkey. The flight there was at 9am. And I flew with Thomas Cook. Firstly, I had to book the carpark as I heard it was cheaper if you book in advance. So I went on the website, put in my dates and times and the cheapest price I got was about £66 for 9 days. When I first got there at about 6am it was really easy to find the Long Stay car park, when you get close there are lots of signs around and you cant miss it. I had it in my TomTom but it didnt know all the roads and round-a-bouts near there.

When I got there, it was about an hour and a half from where I live. It was easy ti find where to park as it shows you where is open to park in and where is closed. I parked in D I think, there are a lot of different car parks so its important you remember where you parked. I read on the internet that the shuttles come every twenty minutes but there was always a shuttle there while I was there. I didnt have to wait in the freezing cold. The bus/shuttle was really long and there was plenty of space for your luggage. It took about 10-15 minutes to get to the airport from the car park. The shuttle drops you right outside the airport.

When we got there and got into the airport it was really easy to find the check in, because there are loads of signs. Then once we had followed the signs, there were screens with a number on to tell you where abouts your check in desk was. Ours was something like 41, it was really easy to find. I got there and handed over out bags, the staff was friendly and gave us our boarding passes.

Something I noticed while I was there, was there were lots of people sleeping all over the airport. It freaked me out to be honest, I found it really strange. People were just layed all over the floor and I did not like it. I suggest maybe a proper big waiting room. Its asking a lot, but the people sleeping made me feel really uneasy.

One we had checked in, we had loads of time before our flight so we went around the airport. There were quite a lot of book shops and shops like WHSmith. Me and my boyfirned had not eaten so we was looking for somehwere to eat. There was a Starbucks and a Costa coffee. There was also lots of food places. I was looking for somewhere that did a full English breakfast. There was a few places but I saw somewhere that looked really nice, unfortunately I cant remember the name of it. But I can tell you it was the poshest place there, and looked slightly like a pub. The food was a good price, we both had full English breakfasts which cost about £6 each and we had a coke each which was about £1.50 each. The food was really nice and I was really impressed as I expected much worse.

As I have a very weak bladder, the three hours we was there I went to the toilet about four times. I must admit I thought they were really horrible. Not clean and just plain dirty. I didnt want to keep using them. I thought because we were at an airport they would be a lot nicer. My boyfriend says his were fine. But I think women must have higher standards when it comes to public toilets. And I didnt just keep going to the same set of toilets, I went to three different ones in the whole airport. They were an epic fail!

When you go through the secureity bit, it was quite quick and didnt take too long. I was impressed as I thought we would be waiting for ages. You go through a beaper thingy which goes off if you have anything bad on you. And you bag and coat goes through a scanner were they can see everything!! I mean EVERYTHING!!

Duty free was quite a nice place/shop. There were cig's, booze and perfume. You dont have to pay the duty on these products so there much cheaper. Personally I thought the purfume was more expensive then the prices in the shops. There were a lot of sunglasses shops which was helpful as we had a lot of time to kill. They also had make up which was nice to look at, as Im into make up at discounted prices. Ofcourse I didnt buy anything, we was just looking.

When we went to the bit just before you get on a plane, they was plenty of signs to tell you were to go. To get to the bit where we had to go, we had to get a train/monerail type thing. This took about ten minutes. I thought it was a great idea to get to places.

When we got there, there was a large room with a lot of people waiting to get on our flight. When we finally got on the plain they went in seat order. We was last, because we were farely close to the front.


THEN THERE WAS THE FLIGHT, THE HOLIDAY, THE FILIGHT BACK, then getting back into the airport ---


When we got back into the airport, it was really late. About 4am. I was really tired as I hadnt been to bed all night and the plane was a nightmare to get to sleep on. We had to get on the train thingy again to get back to the main part of the airport. Im not sure if it was because it was late, but there was not many people around. There was not much secureity. We had to get ours bags which was the worst bit because everyone was waiting and it isnt a quick process. We walked straight through after that which was nice simple and easy, plus it was completely stress free. Which was just what I needed after the long plane journey.

We had a Costa coffee on our way out, as we hadnt had a nice tea or coffee all week. When we got to the shuttle stop, it was really easy to get on the right shuttle. They were colour coded, and sections depending on which car park you were in. Ours was blue and we didnt have to wait long. Once again the journey was about 10-15 minutes and it dropped us off right near our car. I was very pleased and all I wanted to do ws get home.

All in all - it was an ok experience. Obviously airports arent the best place, but atleast this had some shops which was a lot more interesting than the airport we flew to (Antalya, Turkey). Thanks for reading!