Long airport layovers are boring and since airlines fly bigger planes and have reduced the number of flights, layovers have gotten significantly longer.
However, some of the world's best airports are taking their services and amenities up a serious notch and provide for exciting, luxurious and comfortable layovers.
London's Heathrow airport has been created with business travelers in mind and its Terminal 5 Boutique offers complimentary personal shoppers to help plan one's travel wardrobe or select a gift and also houses art galleries, luxurious restaurants and shops.
According to Huffington Post, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is the only airport which houses a museum apart from a well-stocked library filled with print and e-tomes available in 29 languages and also houses lounges and hotels and travelers can get some peace and quiet at the airport's totally device-free Silence Centre.
Zurich Airport has on offer bikes and in-line skates for rent apart from the Skymetro rail between Terminals A and E, which pipes in the bucolic sounds of the Alps while Singapore's Changi International Airport has movie theaters, a butterfly garden, a 40-foot slide, a rooftop pool among other fun distractions.
Hong Kong International Airport has the world's first airport IMAX theatre and the iSports simulator for car racing and basketball apart from a nine-hole regulation golf course.
Vancouver International Airport houses its own aquarium exhibiting more than 5,000 sea creatures such as sea stars and giant kelp.
Dubai International Airport, well known for its duty free shops now houses shopping stands where travelers can purchase gold bars.
