A lot has been said about the (in)famous new Bangalore airport. There have been reports trashing the facilities and their management. I guess a lot of water has flown under the bridge since then and I have made this trip rather late in life and things may have changed for the better. I have to give a thumbs up to the Bangalore International Airport. Frankly I was impressed. During my life as a qualitative market researcher, I used to travel at least 10 days a month and most of it was spent running in and out of airports. I don’t travel much now, but I have to say that the Bangalore Airport is by far the best I have seen in the country, in terms of facilities, in terms of the sheer beauty of it.
I haven’t seen the Hyderabad Airport which people tell me is far better than the one in Bangalore. But since I haven’t seen it, I cant compare and the one I have seen, I know is very good.
There are very clean restrooms everywhere which have been well stocked with soap and tissues. (A big thing for me, since that was severely lacking in the old HAL airport). I am pretty anal about toilets being clean and often didn’t visit them for hours if they were even a bit dirty.
There are many places to eat and you do have a good choice. There are signboards everywhere and its a little difficult to get lost. There is enough seating space and I don’t think anyone would need to stand even during peak time.
The only thing I was pretty disappointed about were the shopping options available. Shoppers Stop has a very small retail space where they sell only expensive brands. There is a food/ sweets shop but I didn’t like the looks of it. There is a bookstore where they keep very very few books of interest. Mostly management stuff, which I am definitely not interested in. Considering it is an international airport, I think shopping options need to be improved a great deal. Oh and one more thing that I am pretty bugged about it is the fact that it is so so so far away from the city. I needed to wake up at 2am and leave at 3am to catch a 6am flight. I was feeling very sleep deprived that day.
The road to the airport from Hebbal is also very nice, with trees lining both sides and has a very international feel. All, in all, I really liked the airport.
Oh and about the rest of my trip, I went to Saharanpur and Haridwar- to attend a wedding and my father’s 60th birthday which we celebrated by doing an “Annadanam” (paying for a special meal for all devotees who come to the temple) at the Aiyappa Temple in Haaridwar.
It was a great trip. We also went to Mussourie, which I wasn’t very impressed by. The Mall road is now dotted by branded showrooms. Whats the point? Why would I want to go and buy a Levis in Mussourie. I would rather buy the local stuff, hand knitted sweaters and other things.
The weather was excellent though, especially after we sweated it out in Delhi, and Saharanpur.
Here are some pictures from the trip
The Gangaji ki aarti at Haridwar
View of Haridwar from the Chandi Devi Cable Car. Awesome!
Mall Road, Mussourie
View from Mussourie- Because of thick fog/ mist I couldnt capture anything else
We also did some Ganga Snan to wash away all our sins:-) Unfortunately I don’t have photographs of that 
edited to add: A review of the Airport after it has completed 100 days of operation. http://bangalorebuzz.blogspot.com/2008/09/100-days-but-not-there-yet.html. I cant dispute a lot of things said around the connectivity to the airport but I am not sure about them talking about it being just a “functional airport”.
Nice pictures. No pictures of airport ??? Happy Birthday to your dad !
me: Thanks. I actually forgot to take pictures of the airport. Dang! I should have done that.
apparently its supposed to be lot betta now. Just today MILs left for Pune and she was quite happy!!
me, i am still to fly outta it! have done just pick up and drop services till date! :p
looks like a perfect holiday!!
cheers!
abha
Knock knock!
me: am here… just been a little busy. Have dropped by your space many times… but havent been able to leave a comment
i flew out of the b’lore airport 2 days after it opened… and it was a mess! i LOVED it for how it was… big and plush & all that. but there were no signs and getting to it was a major pain. but i’m sure it must be quite swanky now!
)
me: its actually still a little messy… but I havent checked with the husband yet, he just flew out of Bangalore 2 days ago… but it was a big big improvement over the previous one… and I suppose it was a question of “beggars cannot be choosers?”
Hello CD,
I came to your blog from poppin. Interesting posts. Ya the bangalore airport seems to have come up well. Just that it is far, waiting to fly out of it once to experience. Your pics are just awesome. Can i blogroll you?
me: welcome here. sure please go ahead with the blogrolling. I have heard more negatives than positives about the Bangalore Airport by now. Havent made that trip again and I dont know if i will change my opinion.