Forget the backrub. There’s now a fish pedicure spa at London’s busy Stansted Airport.

In a new airport offering, travelers can put their bare feet into aquariums filled with Garra Rufa or ‘doctor fish’ and let the fish nibble away at the dead skin.

This is in the news because it’s the first fish spa at a London airport, but it’s not the first airport fish spa.

A branch of Refresh Bodyworks at Singapore’s Changi Airport also offers passengers the opportunity to have their feet “polished” by fish.

The nibbling fish aren’t the only animals being put to work at airports.

In Germany, bees will help monitor the air quality around the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI), which is being built on the grounds of Schoenefeld Airport.

According to a statement from the airport, honey, honeycombs and bees belonging to beekeepers in the region will be monitored for signs of pollution caused by air traffic.

This isn’t the first airport to enlist bees. According to a June, 2010 article in the NYT, there are also bees on duty at Dusseldorf International and seven other German airports.

And while we’re buzzing about bees:

More than a dozen Fairmont Hotels in Canada, the US and other countries also have bees on duty.

Most have rooftop hives, but the Fairmont Vancouver Airport has 24 colonies at McDonald Beach Park, five minutes from the airport. The hotels use the harvested honey in everything from cocktails and special restaurant dishes to soap and honey sticks.

In my neck of the woods, the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle is just now getting five rooftop hives and the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C. is getting 10.

Sweet!

Categories: Air Travel, Airports, Fun Stuff, Spas
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From my recent Bing Travel slide show, here are a few more posh airport amenities:

Offering travelers the world’s largest airport slide, a transit hotel with a roof-top pool and free foot massages, live entertainment, movie theaters and computer games, Singapore’s award-winning Changi Airport consistently tops the posh chart. Posher yet: five fanatically-tended-to themed gardens displaying, respectively, ferns, orchids, cactus, sunflowers and more than 1,000 live butterflies.

Posh perusing is available at Taiwan Tayoun International Airport, which now has a library with 2000 paper books and 400 e-titles for passengers on layovers. The much larger Airport Library at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport opened last year. The “sitting area with added value” offers a multi-media collection of books, films and music about Dutch history, culture, art and literature.

Maintaining a posh state of mind in transit is easier if you look and feel great. Thankfully, spas offering manicures, haircuts, facials and back, neck and foot massages are becoming commonplace in many terminals. At Finland’s Helsinki Airport, relaxation goes a step further: a Finnair-branded spa offers a choice of spruce, stone, steam or a traditional Finnish sauna.

They say music hath charms to soothe the savage beast. So can music relax stressed-out travelers? We think so. Especially if you catch one of the regular concerts offered at airports in Austin, Nashville, San Diego or San Francisco. The poshest airport musical act may take place at Portland International Airport, where John English (“The Voice”) delivers Frank Sinatra tributes twice-weekly.

For more, see the full posh airport amenities slide show on Bing Travel – or check back here tomorrow.

Categories: Music, Recreation, Spas, Uncategorized
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When it opened back in 2000, the d_parture spa, at what is now Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), was probably the first day spa at an airport.

A decade has gone by, airport businesses have come and gone, but d_parture spa is still here.  And CEO Gina Stern has re-launched the Newark branch as a total eco-friendly space with eco-friendly products, be-good-to-the-earth practices, and a menu of services that includes massages, manicures, pedicures, facials, waxing, and haircuts.

Even if you don’t have time to stop for a spa or salon service, stop by to see the products for sale. d_parture spa is featuring items from a retail program called “The Women’s Pagoda,” which will feature 200 products from more than 20 women-owned small businesses.

You’ll find the renewed d_parture spa at Newark Liberty International Airport Terminal C, by gate 92. There’s also a branch at Orlando International Airport (across from the Suncross Bank).

Categories: Airport shops, Spas
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XpresSpa has opened a new location at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) – in the International Terminal, Terminal A West – offering massages, aromatherapy products, and other personal care items.  There’s another branch of XpresSpa on Concourse C that offers massages as well as manicures, pedicures, facials, waxing and reflexology.

This week United Airlines announced that starting March 23rd, passengers will be asked to pay for on-board purchases (cocktails, sandwiches, snacks, etc.) with credit or debit cards instead of cash.  There are some exceptions. According to a United press release:

“United will continue to accept cash in addition to credit and debit cards on flights to and from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America.  On United Express flights cash will continue to be the accepted form of payment.”

And, starting this week, Alaska Airlines is testing its new in-flight Wi-Fi service on one Boeing 737-700 airplane.

The in-flight Wi-Fi is provided by Row 44 and will be  offered free for the next 60 days or so while the airline tests the service.  Then the plan is to install Wi-Fi on the airline’s entire fleet of aircraft – and start charging.

Categories: Spas, Wi-Fi
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One sure-bet souvenir of air travel these days is stress. That’s probably why airport concourses are dotted with bars, and why those bars always are always full of cranky road warriors.

But those seeking relief from the tensions of travel have an expanding choice of more soothing options: In addition to sports bars and wine bars, more and more airports are now home to massage bars, oxygen bars and lots of places to get pampered.

Just in time for the busy holiday season, my most recent column in USAToday.com offers a fresh guide to airports where you can get a massage, a manicure, a pedicure, and a wide variety of other stress-reducing services.

(Massage Bar – operates at Sea-Tac International Airport and many others)

Categories: Massages, Spas
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