Cycling UK Forum

Does anyone know of a list of good/bad airports for cyclists who wish to pedal away from the terminal without risking those all too familar 6 lane airport super-highways?
I happen to know that Cardiff Airport is excellent to arrive at, you can wheel your bike out of the main terminal door, mount up & ride 5 mins along a small, quiet feeder road, cross a busy-ish roundabout, then you're straight into the quiet country lanes of the Vale of Glamorgan.
Can anyone name any similar airports, at home or abroad ( or conversely, name ones to avoid)?

Stansted must stand out as an airport in the middle of the country(side) with plenty of quiet roads in the vicinity. You can get very near the terminal on country lanes.

Southend as well, because there is no feeder road, but hardly any flights so doesn't really count.

Bristol airport is also a good one. Quiet roads very near to the entrance of the boundary.

You can get right up to LEEDS AND BRADFORD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (AKA Yeadon) on very narrow country roads. Unfortunately, those minor roads approaching from the Leeds side are used as direct routes to the airport by taxi drivers etc., some driving at silly speeds. On a recent visit driving 'Dad's Taxi' I noticed that they seem to have abolished the taxi rank and given a private hire firm a monopoly of pick-ups there. My bried observation is that those drivers seem to be driving at speed, presumably to provide quick pick-ups.

(The roads immediately surrounding the airport have some traffic calming, including rumble strips severe enough to affect cycling, and without a gap for cyclists to pass without being shaken up.)

Liverpool. Manchester, Mallorca.

Jim

The Mount Vernon Trail goes right past the terminal door at National (=Reagan) Airport in Washington DC, and takes you all the way to the centre of the city (or out to Virginia, if you're heading the other way). BWI airport (Baltimore/Washington) has its own 'orbital' cyclepath, as (as already mentioned) does Manchester International. It's very easy to bike to/from Helsinki airport, too.

Gatwick has very quiet approaches to it, either through a stile at the wooden gate by Schlumberger house on Balcombe Road just south of the motorway spur, or by way of the NCN Brighton-Greenwich route which has lift access to the South terminal.
Mind you, I did have a conversation with two nice Canucks on their way to Barcelona a few days ago, pointing out that it would be a good idea to get off the M23......

hongkong internation airport is the bad one i think...
just look at the map, there is in a island, hongkong gov had not make any bike path to there. you can just pack your bike and take bus or train to there, you cannot take you bike into the train or bus, you must pack it into a case or box, even it is hard to carry!

Luton should be OK also.

A cycle path runs right in front of the terminal at Geneva which takes you onto suburban roads.
At Toulouse a quiet road follows the airport perimeter to the Airbus factory and then onto reasonably quiet roads.
If using Malaga, head north as you leave the terminal which takes you onto lanes, the main route out puts you on the 3 lane coast road, best avoided.
Other airports in Europe that were pleasant to cycle away from are Bergen, Trondheim, Tromso, Keflavik, Reykavik, Vienna, Dublin and Cork.
Milan Malpensa has aquiet lane to cycle away from after negotiating a couple of busy roundabouts, but had difficulty getting back without using busy roads.

Madrid is poor.
It's not too difficult to get out onto local residential roads, but getting much further without either going on a motorway or halfway to the centre of the city seemed next to impossible.

Murcia is good

Seville is poor

Nice isn't too bad from the east, provided you do the last half km as a pedestrian (underpasses etc). Going west across the Var is major roads only though.

I'd agree Mallorca is an easy airport to navigate out of. Further afield San Jose, or more accurately Alajuela airport Costa Rica easy to navigate from to and likewise Belize City

Thanks to all for this info. I loathe the idea of being forced to get a taxi from an airport. I'll store this thread for future trip-planning

Just remember not to try cycling out of Minneapolis St Paul!
http://greencycles.blogspot.com/

Birmingham can be done- it's not great, but you can get to small roads fairly soon. Relatively quiet dual carriageway right at the airport.