Episode Details

Flying isn't always the most enjoyable part of a vacation and some of the biggest airports in America can challenge even the most patient traveler. 

But not every airport has to cause frustration. There are a lot of smaller airports, even ones near big cities like Los Angeles or major vacation destinations such as Yellowstone National Park, that offer a charming experience.

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona talks with Sally French of NerdWallet about her article: 9 of America’s Most Charming Airports

French's list highlights airports that offer unbeatable views, unique amenities and a great atmosphere. To qualify for this list, airports also had to have fewer than 1.5 million arriving passengers in 2022. By comparison, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International had more than 37 million arriving passengers in 2022.

Before you book your next trip, give these airports your consideration.

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise, a Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host Nat Cardona. Believe it or not, not every airport will leave you stressed out as you travel. NerdWallet has rounded up a collection of nine U.S. airports that are enjoyable to spend time in. We have travel expert Sally French joining us today with more. We will start at the beginning of the list with number nine.

Hit me with it. One of the airports that NerdWallet loves is Long Beach Airport. It's in southern California and it is not too far from LAX, which is one of the largest airports in America. And that airport is wild to navigate. You have to take shuttles everywhere, even just to get to your Uber or Lyft. But another alternative airport that might be really compelling is Long Beach.

So it is on the larger end of all the airports that NerdWallet analyzed, about 1.3 million passengers arriving each year in 2022 at least. But this airport is absolutely charming. It really has that sort of art deco style. It was built in 1941. The architecture just makes you feel like you're traveling back in that golden age of air travel.

And what's really great about the airport now is that they've taken advantage of southern California's beautiful weather and a huge portion of the airport is entirely outdoors. So as you're waiting for your flight, you can sit and enjoy. And it's not just any old outdoors. It's beautifully landscaped, a really nice. And that you can take advantage of getting that last dose of Southern California sun before you jump on your flight.

I never would have known that. Thanks for sharing. Very cool. Very definitely. If you can get out of the flying into LAX and instead fly in to Long Beach for your Southern California vacations, Absolutely. Do it. Noted. Next up, we have number eight. Bozeman at Yellowstone International Airport is number eight. And these airports are all ranked by the number of passengers arriving or departing from them.

So so this isn't necessarily a ranking of how much we like them, but just their size. But Bozeman, Yellowstone has become especially compelling in pandemic era travel, when everyone wanted to go to national parks. What better National Park to go to than Bozeman, Yellowstone, and chose Yellowstone to be the national park and in most people would fly into Bozeman, which puts you pretty close to the west entrance o