airport souvenirs

5 Things We Love About HEL – Helsinki Airport

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Beyond, or perhaps we should say despite, its great airport code – HEL- Helsinki Airport, operated by Finavia, offers travelers some charming and thoughtful amenities in its new main terminal.

Here are some snaps from a tour on our way home from a week exploring Finland after joining Finnair on the first flight from Seattle to Helsinki.

Here are 5 of the amenities we loved.

Welcome to Helsinki

Passengers entering the arrivals hall – and those waiting for their friends or loved ones to arrive – are greeted with a calming indoor garden with live plants.

Thoughtful, automatic sanitizing

Is that handrail clean? In most airports, we don’t know. But at Helsinki Airport you can grab on with confidence because the handrail is automatically sanitized all the time.

Art with a sense of place

‘Aukio’ (by Gate 40) is an oasis where passengers can wind down and experience Finnish nature.

The curved 360° LED screen is a projection, soundscape, and interactive wall offering a journey through Finland’s nature and its four seasons. The landscapes change every 10 minutes, the speakers play nature sounds, and an interactive screen lets visitors create art with snowflakes, the Northern Lights, or autumn leaves.

Souvenirs

Airport shops offer everything from Finnish clothing and accessories by Marimekko to licorice-flavored liquors, reindeer pate, and bear meat. (If that’s your thing…)

Christmas Cabin

Santa’s year-round home is in Finland, Finns and others will tell you. So it makes sense that Helsinki Airport has a Christmas Cabin right there in the terminal.

Inside is a faux sauna, a storybook, Scandinavian-style furniture and decorations, and a Book of Names so that Santa knows who has been good or bad.

BDL: 5 Things We Love About Bradley International Airport

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Our “5 Things We Love About…” series celebrates features and amenities at airports around the country and the world.

Today we land at Bradley International Airport (BDL), in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, about 15 miles from Hartford. BDL is New England’s second largest airport and has a great tagline: Love the Journey

5 Things We Love About Bradley International Airport (BDL)

1. Rocking chairs at Bradley Int’l Airport

Rocking chairs scattered throughout the terminal are decorated by area high school students to showcase a school, town or region.

2. Art & exhibits highlighting area attractions

Two art pieces from the Dr. Seuss Museum in Springfield, MA (20 miles away) are displayed at Bradley International Airport. Travelers will also find two scale Lego models showcasing Connecticut’s iconic Mark Twain House and Museum as well as the Goodspeed Opera House.

3. Souvenir shopping at Bradley International Airport

You will find plenty of fun souvenirs in the BLD shops, including lobster lollipops and other items reflecting of the region to university themed apparel, such as clothing and memorabilia from Yale University and UConn, the University of Connecticut.

4. Therapy dogs at BDL

To help passengers “Love the Journey,” BDL airport partners with Bright Spot Therapy Dogs, Inc. for its therapy dog program.

5. The New England Air Museum at BDL

The 90,000-square-foot New England Air Museum is the largest aviation museum in the region and it is located right next to Bradley International Airport.

The collection includes more than 100 aircraft ranging from early flying machines to supersonic jets. More than half of the aircraft are on display in three large exhibit hangars and in an outdoor display area.

The museum has a large assortment of engines, artifacts and historical exhibits, including this wicker balloon basket from the 1870s built and flown by Plymouth, Connecticut native and aeronaut Silas Brooks that is believed to be the oldest surviving American-built aircraft.

Bonus: Sheraton Hotel at BDL Airport

The Sheraton Hartford Hotel is located in the terminal at Bradley International Airport. AvGeek alert: in addition to an indoor pool, the hotel has many rooms offering great views of the runway.

Did we miss one of your favorites amenities at Bradley International Airport (BDL)? Is there an airport you’d like to see featured in the “5 Things We Love About...” series on Stuck at The Airport? If so, please leave a note in the comments section below.

Shop for the moon at an airport near you

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It’s Souvenir Sunday here on Stuck at The Airport and it’s big week for space buffs as celebrations get underway to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

Airport and airport shops are celebrating as well.

OpenBook at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) and Book People at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) sent along some snaps of the space-themed books and gifts that have been flying off their shelves.

Souvenir Sunday needs your help. If you see fun, unusual, locally-themed gift in an airport during your travels, please take a snap and send it along to us. If we feature your souvenir on Stuck at The Airport, we’ll send you a fun travel-themed souvenir.

Bigfoot has moved into a small Oregon airport

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StuckatTheAirport.com is a big fan of airport mascots. And Redmond Municipal Airport now has a really big one.

Central Oregon is prime Bigfoot (or Sasquatch)-hunting country. And the newest resident at Redmond Municipal Airport (RDM) gives everyone a good look at the ever-elusive creature that tourists hope someday to see.

More than 6-feet tall, this Sasquatch creature toting a pink suitcase arrived at RDM just last week and he/she/it will remain in the terminal for the foreseeable future.

Because, really, who is going to tell a creature that looks like that to move along?

RDM hopes visitors will take selfies with the newly-arrived Sasquatch. And they also hope travelers will post those selfies to the airport’s Facebook page and/or share their photos via Twitter and Instagram with the hashtags #RDMYeti, #centraloregonsasquatch or #FLYRDM.

And for those who would like to take home a Bigfoot souvenir beyond a photo, the two airport gift shops have plenty of great options.

Here are snaps of some of our favorite Bigfoot gifts. Beyond t-shirts and a great Sasquatch bottle opener, the options include a great addition to our growing collection of airport chocolate ‘poop’ souvenirs.

Please be on the alert for a great statue, mascot or souvenir at any airport you pass through. If you see something that’s fun and very local, please snap a photo and send it along. If your photo is featured on our Souvenir Sunday feature, we’ll send you a cool travel-themed souvenir.

New airport trading cards. Collect them all.

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37 new cards are now out in circulation as part of the North American Airport Collectors Series.

St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) issued its third trading card in the series, which now includes trading cards from more than 80 airports.

The airport trading card series launched in 2014 and this fall 37 new cards were added.

Most airports hand these out for free (while supplies last…) at their information booths and at in-terminal events, so don’t be shy about asking the volunteers on duty if the new cards available.

As airport souvenirs go, these cant be beat.