Travel can be stressful. Do you ever feel stress even after you've landed at your destination?
We certainly have and we have read with interest the results of a survey published as the Transfer Anxiety Report by Mozio, a travel technology company that operates a (full disclosure) global ground transportation search and booking platform. Despite the company's obvious vested interests, the results strike us as accurate.
One of the first takeaways for us is recognizing how fortunate we are to have access to free airport hotel shuttles at most U.S. airports. That is rare to non-existent in many if not most countries.
The survey's key findings include a list of the purported ten most stressful arrival airports in the world. As it happens, we've landed at all ten of them, and can confirm every airport deserves a place on the list, some more than others.
The major options available at most major airports include public transportation (bus, subway, train), taxi or rideshare, private transfer, and rental car.
We two geezers no longer rent cars when traveling abroad, but it can be a good option if you're planning a road trip.
We've used public transportation with success, although in a quarter of a century of fairly extensive travel, we've suffered from pickpockets and thieves several times. See here for a fairly recent example.
We've used rideshares with few problems. While Uber is available in many places, after research we've downloaded and registered ourselves on a variety of apps in countries where Uber isn't available. We've also booked private transfers, which work virtually flawlessly with the odd exception. Count us among those who will pay more for a pre-booked ride.
One useful source of information that we use is the easily overlooked TripAdvisor Travel Forums. Use the search function to find "airport transfer," "rideshare," etc.
At this point in our lives, our last resort would be to show up in an airport taxi queue with our fingers crossed.
Even if you're a far more intrepid traveler than we two, you're probably well advised to check your options and have a plan in place before you arrive.
Happy Landings!